Portrait with new lens

darin3200

TPF Noob!
Joined
May 3, 2005
Messages
2,078
Reaction score
28
Location
Des Moines, Iowa
Website
friedrichsphotography.com
I just got a Canon EF 35mm f/2. Great lens, here's a quick portrait.

Critiques encouraged. Is the bokeh near the eye too distracting?

121906_by_darin3200.jpg
 
I think you should have taken the picture vertically, not horizontally.
 
I think if you shot her face vertically, you would have included more important aspects and left less important aspects out of the picture.
 
I like the lighting, very nice.

I do think that the bokeh is a bit distracting...mostly because it's so close to her eye. Also, is there something in her close eye? Or is that just stray hair?...looks weird.
 
I know doing portraits horizontally is somewhat common these days, but for me, it often feels like wasted space. There is such a thing as well-used negative space, but most of the time it just feels dead to me. All that black hair on the right feels a bit dead and doesn't add much to the image. A lot of that has to do with the light. The far side of her face is getting the interesting light, and the broad expanse of the side facing us is flatly lit. The part of the image my eye finds interesting goes from just left of those two blooms to just right of her nose. That's a narrow swath considering the long width of the image. A different composition could increase that percentage a great deal without a change in her position.

The bokeh on the far eye wouldn't normally bother me because her close eye is in focus, but the close side of her face is in more shadow, so my attention goes to the far eye. I'd like to see the in-focus and well-lit to be the same eye, as that's where my own eye tends to go. Her close eye is also right in the middle of the image, which doesn't feel balanced to me.

I'm not saying it's a bad shot. I think it's overall pleasing. This is just what I have in mind that would improve it for me.
 
oCyrus55 said:
Because her face is vertical, and it's just my opinion.

I think your opinion is more than respected but in this case it wasn't exactly worded right.

If you'd have said "I like it, I think I might have taken a vertical shot though", it would be a little different that what you did say.

The reason being, was that you were imposing what YOU deem to be 'right' on someone else ("I think you should have.."), as opposed to suggesting another way to do it.

In this case though people had a reaction because while she has a vertical face, and a vertical shot is the "normal" way to shoot a face, this particular picture seems to have broken the "normal" mold by fitting into so many other photography composition rules.

The picture itself is composed very well and is very pleasing to look at for other reasons, other than the fact that it's not a typical portrait shot.

Please don't take this the wrong way. Your opinion is of value. Same as everyones, but an opinion is also subject to a difference of opinion, at which point if you explain yourself with a valid arguement, your opinion becomes respected.
 
I like it. The only thing that looks strange is her make up. Her left eye has make up, her right doesn't. Or maybe it's blown out in that eye.
But again, I like it.




pascal
 
Sorry bace, I didn't mean to try and impose my thoughts on to you harshly. I should have said I liked the shot first, but I wish you would have done somthing a little different. Then, I should have explained my reasoning. My bad :)
 
:)
oCyrus55 said:
Sorry bace, I didn't mean to try and impose my thoughts on to you harshly. I should have said I liked the shot first, but I wish you would have done somthing a little different. Then, I should have explained my reasoning. My bad

No impossing on me. I just thought an explanation was at hand.
 
markc said:
- feels like wasted space. There is such a thing as well-used negative space, but most of the time it just feels dead to me. All that black hair on the right feels a bit dead and doesn't add much to the image.--

I agree with Mack about the hair, IMO a 4x5 or square crop would help
 

Most reactions

Back
Top