The Ascent

[escape]

Have been going through my photos. Took this cell phone shot in a casino last winter. It's one of those shots I'm just not sure of. Feedback welcomed.


A lighter version.

[Geoff F]

For me, the first one works best but I find those illuminated signs on the left side to be distracting. I would crop them out with a similar amount from the top

[Cantab]

Like Geoff, my preference is the first one. The contrast between dark and light is more dramatic in the first one.

[Manfred M]

I find that this image is very busy. The bright areas are very distracting. I'm not quite sure what the person adds to the overall scene.

[escape]

Thank you, Geoff and Bruce. I decided to clone out the signage on the left instead of cropping it out. I did crop a bit of the top.

[Geoff F]

Definitely better now.

[escape]

I find that this image is very busy. The bright areas are very distracting. I'm not quite sure what the person adds to the overall scene.

Thank you for commenting, Manfred. I liked the staircase, so I sat at a slot machine, waiting for someone interesting to come down the stairs. I didn't see any. The interesting people must have taken the elevator. Instead, I captured someone leaving who probably lost more money than they could afford. A common sight.

[Geoff F]

If you are going to include a person with this sort of scene I always think it looks better if they are towards the foreground but in back view, so they lead the viewer further into the scene.

People facing forwards tend to become the main subject and stop viewers from getting more involved by looking around the entire image.

[DanK]

If you are going to clone out those areas, you should clone them out completely.

I think this is a very difficult image. The brights are blown out, which makes it impossible to tone them down other than by simply turning them gray. The large bright area at the bottom is particularly problematic, in my opinion. It draws my eye away from everything else, and short of just turning it black, it's hard to fix this.

I think the solution for a situation like this would be to expose for the highlights. Since you want the person to be a silhouette, there would be no harm in further underexposing him.