Behind the Mansion

DramaDork626 · Jun 21, 2005

My friend Tom modelled for this. This is my first post so I just wanna say before you critique, be honest, but don't be a jerk. This is what not to say "Dude, you suck, what the hell is this? Do yourself a favor and just give up" that kinda of critique is not neccesary. But I do wanna know where to improve cuz I want to make a career of this someday. Oh, and so you alll know, I dont have photoshop. I have a Mac and I havnt been able to get my hands on a mac version.

luckydog · Jun 21, 2005

Hi and welcome to the forum

You are truly lucky to have a friend who is willing to model for you.

In the first shot I keep looking at the boxes in the bottom right corner. Possibly only distracting to me as i'm not normal

He also appears very long, maybe only include the torso in your shot and not his cut off legs.

The one thing that stood out to me when looking at the second one was the pose. I don't think it totally suits the background for the shot. Maybe i'm accustomed to seeing the unbuttoned shirt look with the model against a tree or an industrial background but in this scene it doesn't look natural. Also the way he is looking up and away makes me think he was distracted by a crow or something and looked away when you took the shot. If I was you i'd possibly try the same pose with him possibly looking down, not straight down though but at a point a metre or two in front of his feet as it would be good to see his face and any emotion he is showing as it may tell a story to the person looking at the picture.

On a plus side I do like the tones and am a big fan of B&W for portait shots. Hats off to you for going down the portrait road of photography as I believe it's probably the toughest and a big thumbs up to your friend. Take advantage of his willingness and by him a drink at the pub later. Sorry for the early comments, but remember everyone will look at a picture differently. As long as you and your friend are happy with the results and enjoyed yourselves doing the shoot that is the most important thing.
Look forward to seeing more from you...

GrAsS · Jun 21, 2005

I dont like the way he sticks his thumbs in his pockets in the first picture, stick the hands in the pockets or stick nothing in em, not just thumbs, looks kind of "Im not sure about this"

I havent got an opinion on the second picture as of yet so I'll be getting back on that.

Plus im going to go with Luckydog on the boxes in the background, they catch the eye, at least my eye, after looking at something else in the pic for a bout one second.

Keep it up though!

Edit: Oh also i dont like the reflection in his glasses, it would be nice to see eyes, now its just a face that doesnt really say anything and thus misses expression.

I know its hard with him wearing glasses cause it breaks the light making the eyes appear somewhere else buta polarizer filter should have done the trick i think

mentos_007 · Jun 21, 2005

Hi and welcome here! First on all I really like the second shot, but I wouldn't crop his feet. I think it may be better to include both foot into the composition of the picture. Just one step back and should be ok. Then you'd also apply a top of the arch and the composition would be nicely closed.

DramaDork626 · Jun 21, 2005

hmm, i guess i didn't notice those boxes there, or I just didn't think to move them. That and I never usually bother altering the environment. But I'll keep that in mind from now on. Thank you very much for your kind critique.

tr0gd0o0r · Jun 21, 2005

Oh, and so you alll know, I dont have photoshop. I have a Mac and I havnt been able to get my hands on a mac version.

in the interim you might want to check out the gimp. Its an open source image manipulation program and it free (the legal way). It will be at least better than having nothing at all.

heres a link to the mac download http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/[\url]

DramaDork626 · Jun 21, 2005

actually my boyfriend just sent me gimp but I havnt gotten around to downloading it yet cuz the page he sent me has several download links and im not sure which one I'm supposed to click, and i keep forgetting to ask, hehe. Anyway, thanks for the advice.