My family and other animals

[Spam]

C&C, particularly on the composition, would be highly appreciated.

[Geoff F]

Composition looks good to me.

[Shadowman]

Nicely processed, too bad the painting is cropped would've added completeness to the shapes.

[ionian]

I agree with John - adding the whole painting would help with composition, and you could take a little off the bottom to compensate. The arrangement of everything else seems fine to me. If you do reshoot, think about your lighting.

I find the image a bit murky; looking at your histogram it lacks highlights and whites. This may be by design but I wonder if it would feel stronger with a full range of tones. Your cat, in particular, gets lost in the shadows, which might need an extra local curves adjustment.

There's lots to like in the processing, I really like the warm toned mono and the grain gives it a winter's evening feel.

[Spam]

I agree with John - adding the whole painting would help with composition, and you could take a little off the bottom to compensate. The arrangement of everything else seems fine to me. If you do reshoot, think about your lighting.

I find the image a bit murky; looking at your histogram it lacks highlights and whites. This may be by design ...

Er, not really, Simon. This room is lit by a single, energy-efficient bulb equivalent to about 60 watts, overhead in a yellow paper lantern, so the pic is shot at f4.0, 1/25 and ISO 6400. 18-55mm kit lens, so I couldn't really go larger with the aperture and with that hyperactive border collie I couldn't really go any slower (think I was lucky to have her still for even 1/25!). I've been researching makeshift lighting solutions but haven't come up with anything practical or affordable yet.

Incidentally, that cat's name is Twilight. He's difficult to photograph at the best of times, and even more so in low-light, though not as hard as his foster-sister, Midnight.

[mugge]

Simon, I like the composition. Shame about the picture. What about cropping out the picture on the wall altogether. Just a thought.
Cheers Ole

[Spam]

Simon, I like the composition. Shame about the picture. What about cropping out the picture on the wall altogether. Just a thought.
Cheers Ole

Ah, no, Ole, I'll bite the bullet and try again. I've just checked the metadata and this was shot at 27mm. If I pull it back to 18mm I should be able to get the whole painting in. Be interesting to see how the composition works in a square pic.

[mugge]

Ah, no, Ole, I'll bite the bullet and try again. I've just checked the metadata and this was shot at 27mm. If I pull it back to 18mm I should be able to get the whole painting in. Be interesting to see how the composition works in a square pic.

Simon, that is definitely the better option.

[ionian]

If you are going to reshoot remember you will have a wider aperture available at a shorter focal length. I'd also suggest bringing in any table lamps you have and placing them strategically to fill in some of the shadows. They should be as close to the subjects as you can get them without being in frame.

Lastly, don't forget you can manipulate the histogram in post-processing to ensure you use as broad a range of lights and darks as possible - this is is especially important when presenting a mono conversion.

Good luck getting the dog to sit still! I look forward to seeing the next one.

[rpcrowe]

The woman, the cat and especially the dog peeping out from behind the cover is what makes this shot a winner. Sure, it would have been nice to have the entire picture in the image but, I certainly don't think that the lack of the picture in its entirety seriously spoils the image.

I also like the PP which gives this image a retro look.

I think that the way your dog is peeping over the cover and looking directly at the camera is serendipitous and probably couldn't be duplicated...

[mknittle]

I agree with John - adding the whole painting would help with composition, and you could take a little off the bottom to compensate. The arrangement of everything else seems fine to me. If you do reshoot, think about your lighting.

I find the image a bit murky; looking at your histogram it lacks highlights and whites. This may be by design but I wonder if it would feel stronger with a full range of tones. Your cat, in particular, gets lost in the shadows, which might need an extra local curves adjustment.

There's lots to like in the processing, I really like the warm toned mono and the grain gives it a winter's evening feel.

that is exactly what I was thinking. I could see it hanging on a wall in a gallery.

[Hevii Guy]

Unlike the others, I think that picture being cropped is brilliant! The story, to me, is primarily about the woman on the sofa with her animals, not about the room itself. Showing the entire "frame" will seriously detract from this.

You've got a winner.

[rpcrowe]

Unlike the others, I think that picture being cropped is brilliant! The story, to me, is primarily about the woman on the sofa with her animals, not about the room itself. Showing the entire "frame" will seriously detract from this.

You've got a winner.

I tend to agree with this comment!

[Spam]

The woman, the cat and especially the dog peeping out from behind the cover is what makes this shot a winner. Sure, it would have been nice to have the entire picture in the image but, I certainly don't think that the lack of the picture in its entirety seriously spoils the image.

I also like the PP which gives this image a retro look.

I think that the way your dog is peeping over the cover and looking directly at the camera is serendipitous and probably couldn't be duplicated...

Unlike the others, I think that picture being cropped is brilliant! The story, to me, is primarily about the woman on the sofa with her animals, not about the room itself. Showing the entire "frame" will seriously detract from this.

Thanks, Richard and Jörg. I realised/remembered last night that one reason I had framed the pic that way was because there was a lot of reflected glare coming off the (enamel) painting.

However, I was keen to see how it would look with the full painting in so I took another shot at eye-level to avoid the reflection, and then merged it — not very well, I'm afraid — with the existing image. Even if I'd merged it perfectly, though, I'm not at all sure I'd prefer it.

[george013]

Thanks, Richard and Jörg. I realised/remembered last night that one reason I had framed the pic that way was because there was a lot of reflected glare coming off the (enamel) painting.

However, I was keen to see how it would look with the full painting in so I took another shot at eye-level to avoid the reflection, and then merged it — not very well, I'm afraid — with the existing image. Even if I'd merged it perfectly, though, I'm not at all sure I'd prefer it.

There's a moon on the painting. Now it's becoming one, painting, family and animals.

George

[mugge]

Simon, I think you got this right. Was not sure that the painting would suit. I was wrong.
Cheers Ole

[mknittle]

Simon, I think you got this right. Was not sure that the painting would suit. I was wrong.
Cheers Ole

+1 the first one is much better.

[rpcrowe]

I also like the first one. The painting, especially the moon in the painting competes with the main subjects...

[bnnrcn]

Hi Simon I prefer the first image too. If you shoot again you might try including the whole sofa in the frame to see how it works.