Another one of those "Can't decide" threads

[Derrel]

Ruby is a clear second-place finisher in this four-picture race. What do I not like about it? Well, for starters, her chin is cut off at the bottom of the frame, and that makes it feel to me like it was a hastily-shot (a grab-shot type of candid) horizontal composition originally, and not a proper vertical. Second, the light coming in from low and behind her, is giving a slight bit of horror lighting, where the shadows project upwardly and the lower corner of her far lip has a highlight on it--that is just unnatural and weird. Her nose also looks odd to me; the tip of her nose appears very dark, and the bridge of her nose appears quite light, AND the bridge appears blurry....is it out of focus? Why does the bridge of her nose appear blurry but the very tip of the nose appears sharp? Something seems to suggest "fakery" in my mind, for right or wrong, and the image with its strong side-lighting sort of falls into the realm of honest,gritty reporting, of documenting the realities of being a small child. It might be a very small thing, but the depth of field just looks "faked" to me. The gritty reportage look is also at odds with the mythical beauty and innocence of childhood. So the treatment does not appear ideally suited to the subject matter in Ruby, but the treatment appears FANTASTICALLY well-suited to the duck!

Schwettylen's suggestion of adding some dead space on the right....meh....does not really improve the shot much. The cinema-style ultra-closeup framing used, that is defined as composing with the chin amputated and the top of the head amputated, shows to me a failure to adhere to basic compositional guidelines for fine, formal-style portraiture, which is the genre I would place the "Ruby" photo in. The composition of Ruby is nowhere near as good, nowhere near as strong, as the duck is. The duck is symmetrical, and shown in a square aspect ratio. B&W lends itself well to abstraction, and the processing of the duck image aids in giving it a very abstract, artistic feeling. The original Ruby was framed too tightly to include her chin, and that alone kills the shot as a profile shot...just immediately disqualifies it as a contest entry where there is judging by design- and art-educated judges...people who might have an Master of Fine Arts degree, for example.

Has the bridge of her nose been artificially smoothed in post? Something about that area, the light nose bridge, apparently OOF, and the in-focus nose tip, bugs me about Ruby. Anyway, there's where I am coming from.

 

[Bend The Light]

Thanks Derrel, for the in-depth review.
The lighting on Ruby is from her front - from the windows, not in any way from behind. her head is turned slightly to me and that is why, i think, her nose has focus on the end, but less in the bridge. None of the DoF is faked.
In the original, the chin was present...I made a decision to crop the image like that, however it was shot as portrait, not landscape. My raison d'etre was to fill the frame with her face, hence my initial choice of crop.

Here is the original, processed in ACR and then simply resized and exported as JPG:


Ruby SOOC for Boards by http://bendthelight.me.uk, on Flickr

I am fortunate in the competition to come that the images will be judged by all the members of the club, not an external judge. only one of the members has a fine-art background.

Thanks again, Derrel.

 

[Derrel]

The shadow on the side of the nose closest to the camera and the highlight on the far lip make me think of this as low-angle, backlight...with some fill...the shadowed crease on her eye area also makes me class this as low-angle lighting, somewhat in the back-lighted area...it's really interesting to see the COLOR shot, and to see how the nose bridge "reads" in full color, and how weird it looks when converted to B&W...this is a good example that reinforces my opinion that the best lighting for color photography and the best lighting for B&W is not the same,exact lighting, in all situations. Thanks for taking the time to post the original, and for putting your photos up to such intense scrutiny and analysis.

 

[BuS_RiDeR]

Ruby 50mm by http://bendthelight.me.uk, on Flickr

This one ^^^ gets my vote... The added sharpness almost gives it the look of a charcoal drawing.

 

[Bend The Light]

Ruby 50mm by http://bendthelight.me.uk, on Flickr

This one ^^^ gets my vote... The added sharpness almost gives it the look of a charcoal drawing.

Thank you.

 

[jgooz]

Schwetty suggested "Ruby" could do with a little more space on the right, so I made some (it wasn't there in the original shot).
Not 2:3 as such, but the focussed eye is bang on the intersection of thirds.

Any good?


Ruby 50mm right space crop by http://bendthelight.me.uk, on Flickr

I'm a fan of this edit. I love the expression. i might soften up the mark on her forehead above the right eye. not remove it because its part of her character, but perhaps soften it a little via mask with say half transparency. my reason is that it draws me away from her eyes. and i think the eyes are the true window here. the duck is an amazing shot, but its far too busy for my meeble mind to take in at once. great shooting tho and let us know how you do with the entries.

 

[Bend The Light]

Schwetty suggested "Ruby" could do with a little more space on the right, so I made some (it wasn't there in the original shot).
Not 2:3 as such, but the focussed eye is bang on the intersection of thirds.

Any good?


Ruby 50mm right space crop by http://bendthelight.me.uk, on Flickr

I'm a fan of this edit. I love the expression. i might soften up the mark on her forehead above the right eye. not remove it because its part of her character, but perhaps soften it a little via mask with say half transparency. my reason is that it draws me away from her eyes. and i think the eyes are the true window here. the duck is an amazing shot, but its far too busy for my meeble mind to take in at once. great shooting tho and let us know how you do with the entries.

Thanks for the input. I will consider the edit you suggested, but as you say...the mark is part of her (and I have the same above my eye... ).
The duck is quite intense, but that may well be it's selling point...it is one that I will enter to create a stir, however, as it will do in my club!

Cheers