My niece by the water C&C please

[joylyn]

 

[swashburn421]

She seems out of place by the water. Her face and body are well lit, but the surroundings are all very dark. It makes it seem like she was photoshoped into the picture

 

[The_Traveler]

Attractive but I would have posed her this way.

 

[Pallycow]

Excellent Lew

 

[The_Traveler]

It is the highlight of my week to have picked up a beautiful young woman, manipulated her and entirely twisted her around.

(it is really roughly done but the darkness of the image helps to cover a lot of flaws)

 

[Qveon]

It is the highlight of my week to have picked up a beautiful young woman, manipulated her and entirely twisted her around.

(it is really roughly done but the darkness of the image helps to cover a lot of flaws)

What else do you do in your free time, eh?

 

[ronlane]

Lew, I can't even imagine how you did that in PS, but I like it better.

 

[Trever1t]

I was going to say and then it was done before I could utter a sound. The shot is otherwise very nice!

 

[cgipson1]

Joylyn,

As Lew demonstrated in his edit, it is always better to leave space on the leading side of the subject... not the backside...

Very nice, Lew!

 

[joylyn]

Thanks all but Im abit confused what makes the difference on what side she is facing ? I do like the edit tho but I also like the original. It was getting pretty dark when I took this we seen all the fog on the water and all the beautiful colors and just had to try and get those dark colors and fog. Flash was used .

 

[ronlane]

Thanks all but Im abit confused what makes the difference on what side she is facing ? I do like the edit tho but I also like the original. It was getting pretty dark when I took this we seen all the fog on the water and all the beautiful colors and just had to try and get those dark colors and fog. Flash was used .

It doesn't necessarily matter which way she is facing. It's what is in the photo in front of her that you use as leading space that Charlie mentioned. The pond is interesting and helps with the overall picture but all of the space is behind her. Putting the space in front of her makes the composition stronger. It's as if she is looking of the frame and makes you wonder if she is going to fall off.

 

[The_Traveler]

Lew, I can't even imagine how you did that in PS, but I like it better.

Couldn't be simpler.
After selecting, copy the selection to a new layer, then reselect (Shift--Control D) then Image>Image Rotation>Flip Canvas Horizontal

In regards the composition, I think that when the subject is facing the open area there is a feeling of intentionally sharing that space and the viewer can naturally look at the space and then back to the subject easily.
OTOH when they have their back to the open space, facing the margin, the impression received is that the subject is turning their back on the lovely background and the viewer looks at the background scene and then at the subject and there is something of a struggle to integrate the two centers of interest.

 

[cgipson1]

Joylyn, if she was walking.. which way would she be moving? Usually you would want to leave "Space" for her to walk into... (even if she is not walking.. but her body is facing that way! Leave open space where her toes are pointing...)

 

[joylyn]

ty ty ty makes perfect sense

 

[The_Traveler]

my opinion follows

A small point.
What are commonly thought of as 'rules' or 'guidelines' for composition are only attempts to understand how viewers respond to certain things in pictures and then to describe how photographers should compose so as to take advantage of how people see and respond.

So, the photographers' 'guideline' of having the person face the way he/she would be walking or not face into the margin is a prescriptive 'guideline' because viewers will react to the position in a certain way.

A photographer advances by getting past the 'guidelines' and composing in a way to take advantage of how people will react.