The Girl Next Door

[RobinChen]

This is my first critique so I would like an honest opinion. Wondering how the composition is, and the focus between the subject and the background. Is it too distracting? I really like this shot, but as a new photographer with minimal experience, I would like to know how you guys think about the picture as a whole, and where are the room for improvments.
Shot as:
JPEG
Manual
1/30ss
F/5.6
109mm
ISO-250
Adjustments:
Brightness
Cropped
Framed

Thanks in advance,
-Robin

 

[New England Moments]

Hi There!!

ok, first , the strong vertical door frame , right of girl is distracting, and really pulls your eyes , like right now.... Thinking crop of some kind on inside of that Vertical line...

the other frame, ( door ) is directly above her head, really don't care for that...

Guess this was shot thru a window , at possibly a store of some type...hence all the light reflections... polarizer could have helped with that...

I do like the look on the girls face, she's definitely listening, and in deep thought.... exposure on this type shot difficult, but think you pulled that off pretty good...

overall not bad, but with some of what I mentioned above, ( door frame ) i guess in answering your question, well yeah, somewhat distracting background...

 

[mysteryscribe]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say yes the lines coming up from her head are distracting. Yes you should have avoided shooting her there but if it was shoot her as she was or not shoot her at all, you did the right thing. Now how to save the shot.

If I had been shooting this just as a street shot I would have repositioned myself but mostly I would have gotten the exposure closer. You are what in the old days we would call a bit thin. Or under exposed.

To try to save it I seperated the girl from the background ran her exposure up and then integrated her back in and ran the whole shot's exposure up. Then I recropped it. I'm sure others will do a better job but this makes the shot usable if not perfect.

All of this could have been done in the camera. It takes a lot less time and thought to think about your shot before you shoot it. That said sometimes you have to take the shot the best you can and try to save it later.

 

[The_Traveler]

Altho I did it differently, I did approximately the same thing as MysteryScribe. The picture was underexposed by at least 1.5 stops so there is a lot of noise in the dark areas after pumping up the shadows.

I actually like the composition (maybe crop to 4h x 5w) because it gives some context to her pose.

 

[mysteryscribe]

you do get a sense of her surrounds one of the few times I can see a horizontal crop on a vertical image. Either one I think. Course given the choice I will always go classical.

 

[RobinChen]

Hi There!!

ok, first , the strong vertical door frame , right of girl is distracting, and really pulls your eyes , like right now.... Thinking crop of some kind on inside of that Vertical line...

the other frame, ( door ) is directly above her head, really don't care for that...

Guess this was shot thru a window , at possibly a store of some type...hence all the light reflections... polarizer could have helped with that...

I do like the look on the girls face, she's definitely listening, and in deep thought.... exposure on this type shot difficult, but think you pulled that off pretty good...

overall not bad, but with some of what I mentioned above, ( door frame ) i guess in answering your question, well yeah, somewhat distracting background...

Thanks for your input New England. I definetely understand the fact that the verticle door frame can be distracting, but I was hoping that the shot taken with such a decent DOF wouldnt have distracted it so much. =/
Second this was not shot through a window at all. It was shot at about 15 feet away. The thing she is leaning on is a kiosk, which had a lot of glass windows and doors.

 

[RobinChen]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say yes the lines coming up from her head are distracting. Yes you should have avoided shooting her there but if it was shoot her as she was or not shoot her at all, you did the right thing. Now how to save the shot.

If I had been shooting this just as a street shot I would have repositioned myself but mostly I would have gotten the exposure closer. You are what in the old days we would call a bit thin. Or under exposed.

To try to save it I seperated the girl from the background ran her exposure up and then integrated her back in and ran the whole shot's exposure up. Then I recropped it. I'm sure others will do a better job but this makes the shot usable if not perfect.

All of this could have been done in the camera. It takes a lot less time and thought to think about your shot before you shoot it. That said sometimes you have to take the shot the best you can and try to save it later.

Ya it does look a bit thin now that I think of it. However I think that turning up the brightness up makes it somewhat grainer? Or that could just be her skin tone Honestly had about 3 seconds total to take the shot before she had to go in. O well next time

 

[RobinChen]

you do get a sense of her surrounds one of the few times I can see a horizontal crop on a vertical image. Either one I think. Course given the choice I will always go classical.

Not really sure what you meant by a horizontal crop on a vertical image?. If im not mistaken, took this as a horizontal positioning. So i just cropped some of the side off to make it less distracting.

 

[RobinChen]

Altho I did it differently, I did approximately the same thing as MysteryScribe. The picture was underexposed by at least 1.5 stops so there is a lot of noise in the dark areas after pumping up the shadows.

I actually like the composition (maybe crop to 4h x 5w) because it gives some context to her pose.

So you think 1/30ss was too fast, perhaps maybe 1/15 wouldve done it?
I tried to avoid motion blur so I kept it on 1/30 usually. At F/5.6 I believe that was the biggest aperature I could use because it shot it at 109mm. My lens I used was 28-135 3.5-5.6

 

[mysteryscribe]

I Just couldnt do the smart assed bit. When you look at a shot it is either vertical or horizontal based on the object or objects you are shooting and their positions.

I single person standing is usually veritcal as is a head and shoulders portrait. Most groups are horizontal. You pick it up as you go. It's very disconcerting ot see either forced into the wrong format.

By the way if you use more of your format for your picture ie turn the camera you will be able to make bigger images with less grain. Not have to crop so much. that isnt just an opinion that is a fact.

As for changing the exposure its always the photographer's choice weak image or grain sometimes its the lesser of two evils. Sometimes not.

 

[abraxas]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say yes the lines coming up from her head are distracting. Yes you should have avoided shooting her there but if it was shoot her as she was or not shoot her at all, you did the right thing. Now how to save the shot.

If I had been shooting this just as a street shot I would have repositioned myself but mostly I would have gotten the exposure closer. You are what in the old days we would call a bit thin. Or under exposed.

To try to save it I seperated the girl from the background ran her exposure up and then integrated her back in and ran the whole shot's exposure up. Then I recropped it. I'm sure others will do a better job but this makes the shot usable if not perfect.

All of this could have been done in the camera. It takes a lot less time and thought to think about your shot before you shoot it. That said sometimes you have to take the shot the best you can and try to save it later.

Excellent edit and advice (IMO). :thumbup:

 

[mysteryscribe]

Thank you

it isnt very techie so sometimes simple basic photography advice gets over looked....

 

[skieur]

It would have been better with the eyes in the shot.

skieur

 

[mysteryscribe]

Oh i dont know about the open eyes. I think the expression matches her actions which is what I want to see in a candid portrait... If there is such a thing.

 

[Bear]

how about this?