Lady and a Lamp

[Ollokot]

Thoughts and comments most welcome,
Pat.

[Shadowman]

Very haunting capture. Nicely done.

[IzzieK]

Lots of drama here...nice shoot.

[Wandjina]

A lovely photo. Well done. Nicely composed and exposed

[TrishBJ]

Wonderful!

[Rob Ekins]

Great image Pat.

What is the back story on this one? It feels like a piece made for a theatre production.

C&C wise, if this is a crop and you have more of her to show it might work to crop some of the hand at top and show a touch more bodice/dress. This would also move the eyes higher into the frame which may make for an even stronger image. You might also look at cropping the right side of the frame and adding more negative space to the left, as if she were looking out to some thing.

[Ollokot]

Thank you all for your comments. Robbie the background is that I remember seeing an image made using the same concept and thought I would create an image using that concept but put my own modifications to it, thank you for your C&C.

Pat.

[Manfred M]

Pat - I keep looking at the image and it is well thought out and well crafted, but something just bothers me a bit. I think I finally figured out what that is; the heavy yellow colour cast.

I have never been a fan of the look that shows up when a daylight white balance is used for an image that is actually a low colour temperature (tungsten or lower) and this is what this image looks like to me. I can see why you want a warm overall tone to the image, but I find it needs some toning down (i.e. remove yellow / add blue).

The other part I wonder about is the amount of negative space above the woman's head. Again, I understand the need to have the lamp at face level. When I play around with the image and trim part of the hand holding the lamp, this space is reduced, and I find that the image is stronger.

I'm not totally happy with the crop and colours, but am thinking more or less along these lines. Unfortunately, doing a screen capture of an image does not help with the colours...

[bnnrcn]

Hi Pat, I like the image I find Manfred's crop better. I also agree with him about the color balance in the image. I wouldn't add so much blue though but it is personal preference really.

[IzzieK]

I think there is merit in Manfred's edit but I like the effect of your original image, Pat...it is warmer and more mysterious. I must be the odd red ball here in a sea of all whites...

[Ollokot]

Again thank you all for your comments, just to clarify the warm glow of the image is not caused by white balance but by the use of gels.

[Ziggy]

Only thing I can add is maybe just a little more light on the hand.

Very nice.