Portrait I Need your opinion

[Tyson]

I took this shot of a friend at a training fire we had last weekend. I didn't mean to portray "action", this is just simply a portrait shot.

So here is the question, over all composition, good for a portrait?

Color, focus and contrast. Is it too saturated?

Background, interesting or boring?

 

[DSLR noob]

well the guy doesn't look to excited to be there. If that's what you wanted to convey then it's ok I guess. The background is exciting, but too much, even blurred it takes away from the guy. You almost want to say "Oh cool, fire! Hey dude move out of the frame and let the photographer focus" Focus on the man is too sharp, you can see every blemish and imperfection in the skin. It is normally better looking (and more polite) to give the face a soft focus. I suggest a crop, possibly some vignetting and a slight slight blur to the person. Gaussian blur is a great portraiture tool.

 

[Alpha]

Everything is fine except for the fact that it's out of focus.

 

[DSLR noob]

Everything is fine except for the fact that it's out of focus.

well that contradicts what I said.

Tyson the choice is yours. Increase focus, or decrease.
Succumb to the dark side!

 

[Alpha]

Indeed it does. Covering up skin blemishes is one thing, out of focus is another. I believe it's incorrect to say that "soft focus," which really equates to "out of focus" on the face should be a general rule. Portrait photographers are no different than any other photographer...they shoot with sharp glass. Soft and selective focus lenses really only sell to a select group of portrait photographers who are die-hard about the softness thing.

 

[Tyson]

Wow I didn't want to start a fight!

Thank you for your opinions.

 

[Alpha]

No fight here...

 

[midnitejam]

The way you captured the skin's weather-beaten texture and imperfections has made this into a pretty good character portrait even though it is a mite soft.

It appears to be a mite underexposed on my monitor and I have a problem with the crop. I would have cropped his right side much closer.

The focus is a little soft but not objectionable to me. I'd even say this focus is a little better than several other submissions.

 

[Tyson]

Can you show me how you would have cropped it.

 

[Puscas]

yep the guy is out of focus. But is it shake? Or digital zoom? What camera did you use? It's especially a pitty because his eyes disappear... they are dark (there's hardly any light falling into them) and they are small.
Anyway, this guy has an interesting face, no need to cover up. And why is he looking away? I don't like that (you could use that for the pondering-effect, but I'm guessing that's not what you were going for).
As for the composition: okay, but I would be happy with less body.
Finally the background: yes, too distracting.

Are you going to reshoot? Or edit? I'd love to see it.




pascal

 

[Tyson]

I don't think I can burn the house down again LOL. I shoot with an Olympus E500. No flash was used, I bet it was camera shake (me). I had just came out of the fire, I was tired!

 

[Puscas]

I don't think I can burn the house down again LOL.

well, you said this was a training fire. I sure hope you guys train more than once...






pascal

 

[DSLR noob]

Yeah no fight earlier, I used the "succumb to the darkside" to show the jokingly "let's a gree to disagree" philosophy.
Looking at it, the softness seems to be more form camera shake. I still would shoot at perfect sharpness, then add gaussian blur. Let me see what I can do with this photo.

 

[DSLR noob]

I edited it.

Toned down the background a bit. Added Gaussian blur to ever so slightly soften the face (hard to tell with naked eye even when turning the filter on and off, but did reduce some "imperfection".
Cropped ot my liking and added a border.

 

[NJMAN]

I just dont think this works as a portrait, even though there was an attempt to edit and frame it. The biggest thing with me is the distracting background. You cant hide the fact that it looks like the fire is coming out of the side of his head. Just my 2 cents...

NJ