Give it to me straight

kayhowell · Aug 17, 2009

Please critique the collage I completed the other night. What do you think? Should I have done anything different?

bigtwinky · Aug 17, 2009

I find its a bit white / over exposed, specially the middle kid.
The left girl has some dark area on her lower lip
You could also take out that bit of water / sweat on the middle kid's forhead, my eyes went straight there.

Nice sharpness though and its a nice set. Not sure on the moody expressions, but if this is what you were going for, nice job

benlonghair · Aug 17, 2009

I like the concept. Did something similar for my dad for fathers day, but with birds in his front yard. They're all a little over-exposed, to my eye, especially the middle one.

There's also some little spots I'd clean up. Like the dot on the middle ones forehead, the scar or whatever beside the eye of the one on the left, and that one dark eyelash on the bottom of the left one's eye.

The right one seems soft in the lower left corner. Everything else seems sharp, so I wonder if it's an optical illusion.

kayhowell · Aug 17, 2009

The middle child was lightened up a bit... I wasn't sure if I should try to match the exposures of all three kids or not. Will go back and lower the exposure amount. The spots in most cases are water from the swimming pool. They had just gotten out. I will take them out, no problem. I wanted to do the collage this way (matching expressions) because I thought it would look better this way, now I'm not so sure.... Thanks you guys, sometime it is hard to look at your own work and figure out what is right or not....I am going to make some changes and post another copy. Any other suggestions?

JenLavazza · Aug 17, 2009

I like the somewhat somber expressions. I think with those changes mentioned it will look VERY nice!

Sunnygirl · Aug 17, 2009

I agree with the last post...I love their expressions. BEAUTIFUL children! I think with the changes it's going to look great!

xiangji · Aug 17, 2009

To me they're supposed to be "over exposed" I think with the dark backgrounds and details on the hair and the eyes it's a nice piece :thumbup:

I think some people see (slight) over exposure and start ranting about it negitively... if you think all your shots must be perfectly exposed every time... it's a bit sad I recon.

Nice job anywho :thumbup: =D

bigtwinky · Aug 17, 2009

xiangji said:
To me they're supposed to be "over exposed" I think with the dark backgrounds and details on the hair and the eyes it's a nice piece :thumbup:

I think some people see (slight) over exposure and start ranting about it negitively... if you think all your shots must be perfectly exposed every time... it's a bit sad I recon.

Nice job anywho :thumbup: =D

I agree with you on principle. Just as a rule of thirds is meant to be broken when you have the right subject, I sometimes see under and over exposed images that are great and would not work as well if they were properly exposed.

But I don't find that this set is a set that fits that category. You can maybe get by with the side girls with some over exposure, but I find it is distracting for the middle girl.

Could be the lack of dark hair, the fact that there is a bright spot above each of her shoulders / under the ears where the other two dont have, and when over exposed, these make the face look even more over exposed.

Contrast is good, but to a certain degree and photo dependant

So yeah, time and place for everything. And its all a matter of opinion

ANDS! · Aug 17, 2009

I think what some may be referring to as "needing to be overexposed" is in reference to wanting a High Key look to their piece; but high key does not necessarily mean over-exposed (in fact it doesn't). I would bring the exposure down a bit, even it out a tad, and maybe tweak the contrast settings if you want a more stark black and white look.

xiangji · Aug 17, 2009

I agree on the center shot... also thinking it's the lack of hair which maybe makes it look out of place.

kayhowell · Aug 18, 2009

was going for a high key look but maybe it was a little too high key? Lily's (the one in the middle) hair looked so blown out. I do have to say that this child has the whitest hair I have ever seen. It is just beautiful. These children are family members (my cousin's children). The photos were shot very informally and last minute just kinda "Hey sit there and let me take your picture... I am planning to print this out for their mother (who is dying to see it).

Sorry about the other post. Didn't know the photo didn't post... Here it is! Please let me know if this is better....

jca12206 · Aug 18, 2009

I think the last edit looks great! Great sharpness, and I am a fan of high key black and white personally, so I think it works well.

djacobox372 · Aug 18, 2009

I would rotate the third photo a bit to the left so that it doesn't have such a distracting spacial relationship with the middle photo.

JerryPH · Aug 18, 2009

It's nice but room for a lot of improvement. The high-key look is nice, but you are lacking in consistency from shot to shot. One item to reference is the sharpness of the eyes and faces is way different from shot to shot. A second would be the framing or cropping of the 3 girls.

A third difference is the lighting. In a collage, you are trying to bring out symmetry, and that is not easy if your style is not the same from picture to picture within the collage itself... becuase of this, small differences tend to stand out a LOT, and I find that more detrimental than positive.

SrBiscuit · Aug 18, 2009

i agree...the last edit looks the best, but i think the image on the right needs to be made a bit higher-key...it seems that it is slightly flatter in tone than the others. maybe a contrast or level bump as well?