Men In White

[Ido]

Men In White by ido.scharf, on Flickr

I shared this image in another forum I participate in, and have gotten polarized thoughts about the concept of minimalism, and especially its execution in this image. That has led me to wondering what may be the thoughts of a more global group, as the group I asked consisted only of a few photographers in my country.

One of those photographesr turned my attention to a few spots of technical imperfection, where there's a difference in brightness between sort of a square and its periphery, so if you notice that, you need not mention it as I will get to the bottom of it soon and fix it. I simply want to know your opinions on this image overall.

By the way, it's been a long time since I last visited this forum. If I misplaced this post, I request that it be moved to the most suitable location on the forum. Thank you.

[Shadowman]

One comment I have is to never mention a perceived imperfection, either fix it before posting or present it and see if others notice. You always have to review any image with a large area of a single color, the slightest off color will stand out and distract the viewer's attention.

Regarding this capture, the title setup my expectations and I was totally amused by the actual scene. I wonder if the image would get the same response if I saw the image first and the title second.

I'm always concerned that there might be a colorcast or reflected light whenever my subject are so close to a dominating color, you don't really have that issue unless your viewers are pixel peeping. I like this composition but also could see it with some of the vast whiteness cropped out and having a diagonal approaching the viewer.

Nicely done.

[Manfred M]

Ido - the first thing about this image that strikes me is that something looks wrong about it (more about that in a moment). When something looks incorrect about an image, we tend to find that this bothers us and subconsciously, that puts the whole image at a bit of a disadvantage to begin with, and that drives us to trying to figure out what is bothering us. If we can't figure that out, we start nit-picking, trying to identify the fault.

As for what is fundamentally "wrong" with the image is a lack of shadows; and in the bright lighting I would expect to see very harsh shadows that anchor your snow boarders to the ground, rather than having them floating on the white. I would also expect to see some texture; snow on a ski hill is not textureless, even on an overcast day. The texture is there; you have just chosen to hide it from us by manipulating the colour range of the image. You have set your white point correctly, but your black point is almost on top of your white point. I do enough shooting in snowy conditions where I live...

The third flaw I see with the image is that it is unbalanced. While I love using negative space in my own compositions, I use it as a compositional tool and try to balance it with the content of the rest of the image. The entire right side of the image (40% - 45%?) is pure white. I am trying to figure out what compositional role it plays. Had there been another snowboarder towards the bottom right, you might have something there, but as it is, I find it detracts, rather than adds to your image.

Please don't get me wrong; I like simplification. It is a very powerful compositional tool, but to paraphrase Albert Einstein (out of context); "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." I feel you have broken Einstein's suggestion quite thoroughly. The image simply does not do it for me. I think you had a great idea, but the issue is in the execution.




Even with the extreme processing on the image, you can see that there is a lot of texture in the snow.

[jcuknz]

But getting detail in the snow negates the title.
Cropping about a third off the right is my preference ... but I am not a fan of large negative spaces.

[D L]

I like where you are going with this photo, but I agree the negative space / background overwhelms the subject. When I look at it a bit larger size on flickr, it is better but my opinion remains the same.
I like the idea of having the negative space out to the right, giving the snowboarder "somewhere to go". So another way of looking at it might be that the subject is not strong enough for the composition.
Perhaps to improve on the idea you needed to use a longer focal length to compress the distance between the snowboarders a little. I'm not sure but it'd be interesting to see... or get closer with the focal length you used.
For working with what you have, I agree with John (from NZ)

[jcuknz]

Perhaps DL you would like something like this where the near three have been increased in size by 200%,150% and 125% and right side cropped to have the near boarder just entering the right third ?

[HijoD]

I will comment on the composition of the photo also. I do feel it is a bit unbalanced. I think a 1x1 crop or even 4x3 would help. I wonder if this printed large, where I could see more detail on the snowboarders would also help keep my eyes on the image. either way nice clean image. good job.

[D L]

Yes John, that's what I had mind. Nice job.