Tattoo Convention

[The_Traveler]

Between the econo-overheads and the floods, I had no idea what the 'real' color was.

 

[FITBMX]

The color looks good to me, and so does the photo.

 

[The_Traveler]

Now that I look, maybe the red is too high.
Look at the underside of her arm but just moving sliders won't fix that.

Maybe later............
Thanks for looking acon saying something.

 

[Rick50]

Leave the red alone.... The color is striking!

 

[spiralout462]

Did you get some ink? Nice shot! I dig it.

 

[The_Traveler]

No ink for Lew.
I don't want to own anything I can't get rid of easily.

 

[Watchful]

We may never know what the white point should be, I'd guess the center of the table in the back.

 

[Studio7Four]

I like it! I know you didn't ask for C&C, but have you considered cropping a bit tighter on the left? That little bit of forehead and hair makes the tattooee an element of the shot, but an afterthought. If you crop (or clone) out that bit, the arm becomes just a canvas and the shot is all about the tattooer.

 

[The_Traveler]

Rob, C&C is always welcomed gratefully (I may not agree however.)

If I were to crop this from the left, a couple of things would happen that I don't like so much.
The center of the photo, the tension between the artist's eyes and the skin would be too far over on the left side, I think.
Also I would be losing a lot of the sense of what was on the table behind them.

I could try cropping the other sides to get it more centered but then I think I've lost too much of the feel for the ambiance and the nice echo of her hair in the shirt.

Thanks for looking, for thinking about it and taking the time to comment.

Lew

 

[Studio7Four]

Lew - thank you for taking the time to walk through (and illustrate) your thought process. I find posts which share the decision making behind an image at least as interesting and useful as discussing technical details.

I was thinking of cropping about half of what you did from the left, just barely enough to remove the head and hair. I think that may leave enough space for the line of focus as you've illustrated to remain centralized enough. Or it may not, and it may be close enough that opinions will vary. I do agree that even my suggested crop would remove the clearly-identifiable ink bottle from the back of the table, and that would weaken the image.

(And I definitely agree with not cropping from the right.)

 

[The_Traveler]

Rob,
Thanks again for thinking about this.
My goal is that viewers see the picture as a window into another reality and I want people to be unaware of the shape of the picture so, as much as possible, I try to crop into a very-close-to- standard aspect ratio.
Within that I try to keep the important things away from the edge (unless I have a real artistic reason to put them there) because things near the edge seem not as important to viewers. (this is the real reason behind the 'Rule of Thirds')

Lew

 

[Designer]

I like your original crop, and I agree with watchful that there is what appears to be a spot of white towel on the table. Try adjusting the WB off that to see if it improves overall.