Back to Photography After Years

[marcookie]

Hi,

I started with photography some ten years ago. Mostly film b/w, developing and printing my own work. I had to move from Italy to the US for work, and the darkroom could not come with me. So after three years in which I was shooting less and less, tending towards zero, I sold some of my film camera and bought a Fuji X100T. I'm slowly coming back to (photographic) life, but it feels clumsy. Yes, it's like everything else, it needs practice.

I want to share some shots. Every comment is welcome.

Here's why I think it works. The expression and gestures are quite interesting, also visually. There are some repetitive patterns (red) that guide the attention up and down. Vertical (green) and perspective lines that lead to the center. The squinting eyes and the little haze support the bright background of a bright day.

 

[dxqcanada]

Welcome to the world of digital ...

I kinda see where you are getting at with this image ... I think the background is too "strong"

 

[Gary A.]

Welcome back to photography. The Fuji should be a great start to reignite your passion.

 

[marcookie]

Welcome to the world of digital ...

I kinda see where you are getting at with this image ... I think the background is too "strong"

I agree... far from a perfect shot!!!

 

[The_Traveler]

IMO, assuming you want the viewer to see the face as the real center, the hands are too large and too bright to ignore.
The arc of the hands is not smooth but irregualr and thus draws attention to itself.
It doesn't look 'hazy' as much as undersaturated.

Sorry,

 

[Tim Tucker]

Hi. I'd dispense with the lines, unless you were after the Groucho Marx look.

I think what you're doing here is inventing your own logic rather than seeing what's actually there. You're expressing things in terms of lines where there are no lines but tones textures and colours. trying to fit everything into a plan where no plan originally existed. It's more a case of "this is the logic that needs to exist to make this a perfect photo."

But don't worry, I'm not saying it's not a good photo, just that it works on much simpler terms than you've invented.

There is no vertical line here, this part is your invention. If we dispense with it and see what's actually there, (I'm not actually editing your image here and wouldn't usually do this but it's an interesting and common point of composition, and I'll remove it if you wish).

If I isolate just the hands you see the main composition, they create an upward diagonal thrust. This is the main implied line of the composition:

Now this is very nearly passes through the centre. I would shift it slightly so it does pass through the exact centre because then the image does balance, (the implied line intersect the frame at the exact same distance top and bottom, implied asymmetric symmetry).

Now if we remove the Groucho mask and just have this one implied line on the image the composition makes a lot more sense:

The background distracts because the subject has much the same contrast and blends into a set of more random and confusing lines. It's what I mean when I say that you're inventing your own logic. You're creating a framework to make it work, and the real danger is that when we do this we effectively become blind to why it really does work and the way everybody else sees it. This is simply because we now only view the image in terms of the logic we've invented, the way we want it to work because every time you look at it you trace the lines you've applied to it.

 

[marcookie]

Thanks for the analysis. Maybe I'll try to experiment with this implied line from the hands.

As humans, are we always drown at the vertical nose-mouth symmetry line? I see that stronger then the implied line from the hands.

 

[Tim Tucker]

Thanks for the analysis. Maybe I'll try to experiment with this implied line from the hands.

As humans, are we always drown at the vertical nose-mouth symmetry line? I see that stronger then the implied line from the hands.

The eyes, because they are moist they have a greater acutance and contrast. Faces are not generally symmetrical, mouths are not generally vertical.