Did I catch emotion?

Mole · Dec 13, 2006

I know the composition is off but I am mainly looking for the emotion in ones face. I haven't tried many portraits and this pic is from a test shoot I was doing the other night to get some settings for Christmas. Also hows the contrast?

Peanuts · Dec 13, 2006

Personally, I am seeing more hesitance then real emotion. Next time I would crack some horrible joke in which there is that 'burst' of laughter or even a little tid bit of a memory that will make her smile big - or at least wide.
I love the depth of field (hmm.. Christmas Tree(?) light bokeh.. lovely) and the idea is great - as it really makes the person 'pop' from the background. One thing to watch for is to make sure the chin is included - as well, if you can avoid one camera flash, do (I am not certain on this one)

oldnavy170 · Dec 13, 2006

Well, I just see a half smile. Not feeling alot of emotion in this one. You also cut off her chin which takes away from this photo. Keep trying though. The only way to get what your looking for is to keep shooting!

Mole · Dec 14, 2006

This is my fault I should be more clear in my title but I suck at coming up with titles, also I see I put emotion in the face but meant to put in her eyes. I was real tired last night when I posted this so now my orignal post looks like jiberish. I know the composition is crap (ie the chin) my main focus on this pic is the eyes and the dof. If you scroll the pic so you only see the eyes on your monitor, what do you think.

Peanuts said:
I love the depth of field (hmm.. Christmas Tree(?) light bokeh.. lovely) and the idea is great - as it really makes the person 'pop' from the background.

Thanks Peanuts that helps me, trying to get the dof right was one of the things I was working on that night. This shot I took with only the Christmas tree lights and the camera mounted flash. I didn't like the ones with the lights on in the room, it washed out all the tree lights too much.

Thanks for the comments so far

All of this is helping me.

LifesMirror · Jan 1, 2007

May just be me, but when emotion is truly captured, the subject isnt looking at/in the camera. Pretty lady though.

TheCatch22 · Jan 1, 2007

ok im going to give you the tip of the century! in order to " grab" emotion you have to get a really big potato sac and when its not looking GRAB IT and run really really fast! :lmao:

darich · Jan 2, 2007

I think the eyes are a tad soft. The one on the left (model right) is sharper but not sure if it's pin sharp. It may be down to compression though.
For a portrait this close the eyes must be sharp as a tack because they're so easily visible and large in the image.

In my opinion the sparkles from the tree are too bright and distract from the model's face. I'd imagine they could be dulled down a bit using photoshop or some other post processing package.
Composition is good though and has been mentioned, remember to include the whole head including the chin.

Definitely a keeper though.

Sw1tchFX · Jan 7, 2007

Did I catch emotion?

You shouldn't need other people to tell you wether or not you did.

And next time don't cut off the chin.

darich · Jan 7, 2007

Sw1tchFX said:
[/B]You shouldn't need other people to tell you wether or not you did.

And next time don't cut off the chin.

isn't that like someone asking if an image is exposed properly and being told thery should know better than to have to ask?
This IS a critique gallery and as such critiques were asked for.

Telling someone they shouldn't have to ask isn't very constructive.

Some photos you take will mean more to you than to others - a story to you but not others. You wil get the feeling from the photo you were hoping to catch because you know the subject or were there at that moment. Someone who wasn't there, may or may not see that feeling. That's what was being asked.
:mrgreen:

Mole · Jan 9, 2007

darich said:
Some photos you take will mean more to you than to others - a story to you but not others. You wil get the feeling from the photo you were hoping to catch because you know the subject or were there at that moment. Someone who wasn't there, may or may not see that feeling. That's what was being asked.
:mrgreen:

Thats exactly why I asked that question, I couldn't have said that any better.

Also thanks for the comment on the eyes I didn't even notice that one eye was slightly out of focus until you pointed that out. My DOF was too shallow, I see that now. Thanks

PNA · Jan 9, 2007

There's a lot of emotion in this shot, the eyes are talking and the smile is enough to show a sly thought in her mind.......a pretty girl too!

For my thoughts, loss of the chin is immaterial, seems all you wanted to capture was her momentary expression and I believe you did.

And ask questions "it's an ignorant man who asks no questions".