Morning shadows

[pgriz]

This morning, the sun was streaming through the dining room windows, and casting shadows on the wall. My wife was talking to me over a cup of coffee, and I was struck by her image, or rather the appearance of her shadow, and thought it might be an interesting image to take. But I have a hard time dissociating myself from my imagery, so I ask the forum to help me out. Is this an interesting image, Meh, or "I want my 30 seconds back"? I am posting two crops to see if "context" is more useful (or not). You may have to click on the image for it to open up to its full size, my attachments tend to stay small...




40mm, f/5.6, 1/60, ISO 100. White balance doesn't really matter, as the sun was golden and the walls are light beige.

 

[rlemert]

I think the tighter crop (the second image) works better. It keeps the attention on the subject. This also resembles the old silhouettes people used to cut out, so I don't think people will need a lot of context to understand what's going on.

Upon further reflection, I think that what doesn't work for me in the first picture is how the two windows admitting light makes it look like you either have two pictures or two subjects in one picture.

 

[Mully]

I like your first image the best the reflected window and chair make the shot for me.

 

[pgriz]

Thank you, rlemert and Mully for the comments. I appreciate your revealing part of your thinking process, as that is what I am trying to evaluate as well. Unfortunately, I got 1 vote for #2 and 1 vote for #1... We'll need a tiebreaker of sorts. So waiting for some more comments.

 

[invisible]

I like your first image the best the reflected window and chair make the shot for me.

I agree with Mully. The two photos (or crops of the same photo) really tell two different stories. I find myself drawn to the mood of the first story much more – the second one looks too somber and dark.

 

[weepete]

I get why you took this shot and it instantly reminded me of Sylvia Plachy's shot titled "Lulu in Budapest 1972" (which I really like). I think I need to wonder a bit more about the person in the shot, and have a few more questions about the image to hold my interest a bit longer.

I prefer image 1, but I'd crop it to remove allmost all of the black on the left hand side. For my taste that'd give a tight enough crop but keep the lovley shadows of the chair and the curtains

 

[TimothyPeacock]

The different crops each have their own story really; just shows what some cropping to do to a photo.

I think I prefer the first, having the shadow of the chair really works for me.

 

[pgriz]

Thank you Invisible, weepete, and TimothyPeacock for your comments. Federico, after your comment I had another look at #2, and you're right, it IS a darker take. That's part of the difficulty of dissociating yourself from the experience, and see the image purely in its own boundary that I find difficult. The moment I shared with my wife was a nice, comfortable, quiet moment of talk before the busyness of the day took over, the sun was warm and the glow was very pleasant. However, if you don't have that as part of the shared experience, then you see other aspects. So this review is really valuable to me.

weepete, I am not familiar with the image you reference, will look it up. I considered cropping #1 at the left to minimize the dark, but then the resulting image felt a bit unbalanced to me, and the location of the face was too close to the left side. But I will take your suggestion and play with it some more.

TimothyPeacock, yes, in retrospect, I'm surprised at the difference in feeling the two crops show, especially if I remove my familiarity with the circumstances of the two photos. The lesson for me to to pay careful attention to the actual visual elements.

I thank everyone who commented, you have helped me see the image(s) in a slightly different light, and that is what I was hoping for.

 

[TimothyJinx]

I like both shots, but I like the 2nd one better. But then, like you said, I am disassociated with the actual event and mood so it looked a little creepy to me. Reminded me of an episode of the series, "Night Gallery."

Night Gallery - Season 1, Episode 10: Certain Shadows on the Wall - TV.com