Dark Contemplation

[shreds]

[chauncey]

I'm conflicted with this image, starting with the title, doesn't fit the mode (clasped hands).
Light spots causes the eyes to wander about, table edge horizon is tilted, chair is crooked,
and many other posing, subject problems.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Ian,

I do find the elliptical yellow lamp a huge distraction from the subject.

That said, I can appreciate a compositional balance of the three bright things; subject and two lamps.

It does seem 'less' without them, but the shape, colour and brightness of the ellipse is too much, I wondered about cloning a copy of the picture strip light over to the left, but I think that might be too obvious.

For the framing, the subject distance caused by shooting at 34mm, on FF, is causing the hands to appear 'too big' to my brain.

I was also intrigued by the title; since the subject was almost certainly shot at a wedding, judging by the 'button-hole', it doesn't seem a time for 'dark contemplation' - unless something unthinkable happened.

Well, those are my somewhat disorganised thoughts, for what they're worth.

[shreds]

Dave,

Not 'disorganised thoughts' at all and very helpful.

I have another one which lost the background, which I may post later, but it needed a hair light even more.

The title was aimed at your thought about 'the unthinkable' or 'have I made the right choice'....hence 'dark contemplation'?



In the event this was a set up shot with a professional model, who helped out at the last moment when the booked model failed to show. (Thanks for making time to cover, Lee).

We were exploring mixing ambient with strobe lighting, with the model being sat in a dark corner, under the stairs with very limited space, at an 1869 vintage piano in an historic, privately owned country house. I had thought about the hands as I normally exclude them. The age of the piano meant that we weren't even supposed to be touch the piano, so some of the other shots I would have liked to have tried here, were out of the question. The 'groom' isn't even sitting, he is crouching over the piano as the chair was too low!

[Shadowman]

At first glance I took the lamps for the Bat symbol, then thought the gent looked villainous. It's a nice use of shadowy dark tones though.

[shreds]

Thanks John. The dark scheme was very much the aim.

[jcuknz]

I wondered about the Martian hovering over his left shoulder ....

[shreds]

Ok Martian and elliptical light eradicated.

[truonda]

Ian,

This is a great shot and it has a lot of potential. I like the idea you were trying to go for with the table and the reflection so I don't think you should crop it as you have. Instead, have you tried removing the two lights (and the reflection of one of the lights on table)? Also, I think this is a perfect candidate for a B&W conversion.

Cheers,
Dan

[Manfred M]

Ian - I didn't have a good close look at this image before, but two issues jump right out at me:

1. Shadows around the eyes (below the eye sockets). Some form of fill light would be nice to lift those shadows (as well as fixing the neck); and

2. The way that your subject's hair (and to a lesser extent, his jacket) blends into the background. I think the shot would have been more effective with a rim light.

Shooting wide with a wide angle lens certainly gives him "larger than life" hands and a bit of facial distortion; this is an unusual choice for this type of shot and I was wondering about that particular choice?

[bnnrcn]

Hi Ian I like your original image . I would clone only the bright part on the top right corner .It would also be nice to have some more space at the bottom as the reflection looks a bit squeezed.

[shreds]

This feedback is so very helpful. My thanks to you all.

To answer a few questions:-

Choice of lens:- using the go-to 24-70mm. If it had been possible to have the 70-200mm with me I would have done, but the set up was a short one and the location was not one I was expecting, so had to make do.

Set it to get the max focal length possible to get the reflection in the shot hence 34mm. There was no space to go any further back.

Definitely needed a hair/rim light, but we were trying the shoot with just one soft boxed Elinchrom on an adjustable pole to camera left. I would also set up a speed light on the floor, if I was to try this shot again.

In fact on the RAW it was so tight, size wise, I had to crop the bottom corner of this box out.

A reflector on the piano top might have shown up some reflected light, but the model was leaning forward over the piano so no room on his lap. A reflector off to the side of the piano might not have worked.

However, some others who were there on the day seem to like his dark eyed look even if it is not conventional. I love the villainous comment...yes he does look a bit that way.

Anyway for someone who doesn't shoot portraits/people normally, this was an interesting diversion and the reason why I was looking for c&c.

Learnt a lot from the day and your critiques.

An excellent exercise.

[Dave Humphries]

Well I am glad it was posed and not real.

To me the unthinkable was; if the bride hadn't turned up, or if someone spoke up when the vicar/registrar said "if anyone here knows of any reason ...", or if one or other had said "I won't" at the critical moment - oh dear, not on have I thunk the unthinkable, I have written it down as well

Good job the model isn't wearing a chunky, sharp cornered wrist watch and I hope any cuff links were smooth too - I'd hate to scratch that surface!

Well done for trying something different Ian.

On a technical note; I see there's a fair bit of posterisation going on in the shadows, was it a jpg capture and process, or perhaps just saved as a low quality jpg web image to limit its theft/unauthorised re-use?
(I noticed this when looking for noise, to see if you could lighten the eye sockets in PP, although I note your comment above)

Cheers, Dave