2nd critique needed

ceemac · Jul 24, 2018

This is also SOOC with slight exposure increase (1 stop) and crop. Honesty is appreciated. Thanks

Canon 6D f4, 1/160, 105mm, ISO200

DanOstergren · Jul 24, 2018

this photo has the same issues as the last; the focus landed on her shoulders, and with what looks like a long focal length and wide aperture, this causes the face to go out of focus. As for the crop, notice the necklace is cut off at the bottom, yet there is some unnecessary negative space above her head. Try framing the shot so the eyes are closer to the upper 2/3rds area of the frame, rather than right in the center of the frame, and position the head so it's a little more centered rather than leaving more space on one side. This will give to a much more harmonious composition. If you want to leave empty space on the side of the frame in which your subject's eyes are looking, do it with a horizontal frame rather than a vertical one.

ceemac · Jul 24, 2018

Thanks, Dan. That's all really helpful. You're right about the focus. Totally me fault as it happened on the recompose. I'm using back button focus, but I need to remember to set the correct focus mode.

bdroberts · Jul 24, 2018

Light theory.
1. Down light emphasise horizontal planes.
2. Horizontal light emphasise
Vertical planes.
With those in mind, this is down light emphasising width of nose. Under eyes, chin.
Suggest blocking down light to allow some of the horizontal light to give more dimension to the face. Look for locations that cause blocking down light or at least causing to diffuse.

SquarePeg · Jul 24, 2018

Focus and recompose? Move the focus point to where you want it and avoid that issue entirely. So much more accurate and very easy to do quickly once it becomes second nature. The tight composition and her gaze looking up and to the side make this look like a crop of a photo that has more than this one person in it.

Jeff15 · Jul 24, 2018

Looks fine to me...........

ceemac · Jul 24, 2018

bdroberts said:
With those in mind, this is down light emphasising width of nose. Under eyes, chin.

Thanks. The light appeared flat at the time. This is something I'll definitely keep in mind.

SquarePeg said:
Focus and recompose? Move the focus point to where you want it and avoid that issue entirely. So much more accurate and very easy to do quickly once it becomes second nature. The tight composition and her gaze looking up and to the side make this look like a crop of a photo that has more than this one person in it.

Thanks, I'll practice that. But I screwed up and had left the camera in continuous focus. I shouldn't have cropped it, reading Dan's comments. The original was her from the waist up, but I wanted a head shot.

All these comments have been really helpful.

ceemac · Jul 24, 2018

Jeff15 said:
Looks fine to me...........

Thanks anyway, but I'll recover. LOL

Derrel · Jul 24, 2018

I think there's too much space above the top of her head. I do not mind the space on the let side, since her line of gaze goes to the left, I was taught that that is the side that should be allotted more of the compositional space. Giving the person some "room to look into" is a pretty well-understood concept. The back-focus does hurt this, and cropping a longer-distance shot and magnifying the frame emphasizes the back-focus, which might have slipped by more or less un-noticed in a longer-distance shot. Cropping off the bottom of the necklace and leaving so much top space, both could likely be corrected, since the original framing is from farther away.

ceemac · Jul 25, 2018

Derrel said:
The back-focus does hurt this, and cropping a longer-distance shot and magnifying the frame emphasizes the back-focus, which might have slipped by more or less un-noticed in a longer-distance shot.

Sorry, Derrel I don't quite understand what you mean by back focus as it would have been accidental. It wasn't much of a crop at all and I probably should have left it as it was. We were a little wet and dirty, but it stopped raining and I brought out my camera.

Derrel · Jul 25, 2018

Back-focus is a term that means the focus point was in back of the more-desired part of the subject. The frontal plane of her face would have been the best place for the sharpest focus, but unfortunately the back parts of her hat appear to be the most sharp area in the shot.