You beat me to it...on her, a 10, on the picture...a 6.5-7.
This is your photo...everything else in your framing is quite superfulous and, to my eye, takes away from the focal point, a very pretty lady. One of my droning on themes on this forum is ..."If whatever is in the frame other than the focal point isn't moving the the photo in a forward direction, it has to go - and, if it is taking away anything from the main focal point, it has to go..."
In your case, the windows, the bright spot and the rest of the stairs did nothing to direct my eye to your wife. So, I disappeared it all. A Note...you are saving your files at way too large a format. 700 pixels on the longest side.
I should also have noted your verticals were out of alignment.
It needs some layering to bring out the colors in her dress, the walls, etc. My main point is about composition..I'll let Jiro or someone else have a crack at the other stuff.
I agree with Chris -- focus on your lovely wife.
I agree with Chris. In the original the door is very distracting, but in the edit the main focus is clearly on your wife, and the lines of the railing extending out of the shot to the right add some intrigue as to what might be above her. She is a very attractive lady, if I may say so.
One possible edit on your image, John. I added some warming filter effect to add some character to the shot. The image of your wife was extracted from the frame then applied the warming filter effect on the background only. Brought back her image then applied global contrast adjustment, sharpening, and some selective dodging and burning.
I agree with MiniChris's comments. My first impressions were:
- great lighting
- where are her feet?
- don't need the door at the upper right.
another possible composition would be a landscape orientation with her hand on the railing at the lower left of the frame and the stairs leading off to the upper right.
Nice shot, it captures the moment well.
Chris
Hi John,
I think the near door frame is a distraction (especially the recessed nail head), as are a couple of other things in the background, but there also several things I like about it - not least a very pretty subject.
The lines of brick work and that you have taken it with the one horizontal line leading right back to her eyes is great - I'd probably not have thought of that - although I hope I will now
There might be a little perspective distortion that could be done to get the verticals parallel.
It looks a tad over saturated, but I think you took a lead from Jiro's excellent treatment of the first shot, but I could be wrong, I don't know how good her tan is
How does this look John?
Hope that helps,
Last edited by Dave Humphries; 19th April 2011 at 07:08 PM.
I like the color but, didnt notice the GIANT nail hole. This definitly more to the point. I like it, thanks for helping.
Fantastic! I also like the drop shadow on the pic itself.