Requesting C&C

[bazooka]

This is one I've been working out in my head for a few weeks.

I like the exposure, colors, light quality, etc... The nitpicky things to me are the following:

1. The sihouette almost looks like it's coming from her. How could I make it more obvious that it is a nefarious character that she's tracking down?

2. I struggled with her hands. The shots that I liked better otherwise, her hands were a jumble and it was difficult to tell what each hand was holding, which one was in front of the other... and I can't blame anything but myself because I told her exactly where to put them! It's always the little details that hang me up. Hands are tough to deal with.

What do you guys think?


Amy Davis Investigates by Tim Herschbach, on Flickr

 

[Carny]

I agree on the shadow coming from her. Almost implies that she is the "bad guy"

 

[MLeeK]

I'd like to see how it turned out with her from the waist up and the shadow larger in the frame. I really like the way the shadow is what is showing in the magnifying glass. I know it is correct in being upside down, but how would it feel if you turned it right side up in there to echo the shadow on the wall?
Very cool idea.

 

[Diddy2theJJ]

Yeah very cool idea. Hands are sometimes tough, but experimenting and looking at alot of spy photos or illustrations might help out a little bit. I also feel like a closer crop on her might be beneficial. I wonder if a landscape orientation would work and maybe have the shadow's light opposite of how you have it now so she's lit from the left and the shadow would be lit from the right and maybe slanted more so it's more obvious that it's not coming from her. If it was horizontal or landscape you could offset her left and use that background space to place the shadow so it would be hopefully more separated from her than it is now. Nice work, I look forward to seeing other versions if you get time to do them!

 

[SCraig]

If she's holding something in front of a magnifying glass, presumably to investigate it closer, why is she looking at the camera instead? IMO #2 does need another visit.

Also, there's a big dark shadow on her left cheek from her nose. That's to be expected given the light placement (which I do like) but it makes her nose look bigger. Perhaps a bit more diffusion in the lighting?

I love the concept and I do like the lighting except for that big shadow.

 

[DennyCrane]

My first impression was that it was the bad guy's shadow... and I noticed what appeared to be a knife in the shadow's hand. So, for me, that part worked. Not until I viewed the picture full-size, was I able to tell it was a key in her right hand, and the aforementioned shadow on her face makes me think some VERY careful use of the dodge/burn tool might help both these areas. But honestly, I really like this picture and all my critiques are nitpicky.

 

[Derrel]

I think the shadow "reads" as a bad guy in the background...the knife is recognizable as a knife--but maybe an 11 inch butcher knife would have been better??? Bowie knife? Cavalry sabre? (lol, I keed, I keed!)

The way the bad guy's shadow shows up in the magnifying glass upside-down is way cool; one thing might make the shadow and the upside down one really stand out more--perhaps select the cyc white areas, and lighten those up. This is an interesting situation--if the cyc had been lighter behind him, it would have also been lighter in the magnifying glass!!! But, now, after the fact, it'll take two retouching steps.

I looked at the shot in Flickr at Original size. Her clothes look great--good texture on them, lovely colors. I do think a tiny bit of lightening of the shadow side of her face would help. It drops off to blackness and leaves kind of an unusual edge to her face, which is only visible when seen large. Seen small, here on TPF, it looks okay.

 

[pgriz]

For starters, if the shadow is the "target", then have the figure facing away from the lady, and smaller than her in overall size in the image. As it is, it seems to imply that "it" is stalking HER.

 

[bazooka]

I'd like to see how it turned out with her from the waist up and the shadow larger in the frame. I really like the way the shadow is what is showing in the magnifying glass. I know it is correct in being upside down, but how would it feel if you turned it right side up in there to echo the shadow on the wall?
Very cool idea.

I took a few landscape shots but those are the ones that her hands were just a jumble. I like the aspect better, but the specific shots I took I did not.

I wonder if a landscape orientation would work and maybe have the shadow's light opposite of how you have it now so she's lit from the left and the shadow would be lit from the right and maybe slanted more so it's more obvious that it's not coming from her. If it was horizontal or landscape you could offset her left and use that background space to place the shadow so it would be hopefully more separated from her than it is now. Nice work, I look forward to seeing other versions if you get time to do them!

Excellent reasoning for putting my key light on the other side. I think this would make it obvious that it is not her shadow. Very good. Unfortunately this was a one-time shoot for her so I won't be doing a re-take, but I would like to perfect the idea eventually. In any case, this information will certainly be helpful in the future for other similar situations.

If she's holding something in front of a magnifying glass, presumably to investigate it closer, why is she looking at the camera instead? IMO #2 does need another visit.

Also, there's a big dark shadow on her left cheek from her nose. That's to be expected given the light placement (which I do like) but it makes her nose look bigger. Perhaps a bit more diffusion in the lighting?

I love the concept and I do like the lighting except for that big shadow.

I agree, the pose is disconnected from her hands. My boss noticed that as well. I think this comes down to me having difficulty guiding the talent with words. I don't verbally communicate well.

I like the quality of the light, but I do agree the shadow is a bit much. I could have scooted the light around a bit more. Thanks for noticing these aspects and bringing them to my attention.

My first impression was that it was the bad guy's shadow... and I noticed what appeared to be a knife in the shadow's hand. So, for me, that part worked. Not until I viewed the picture full-size, was I able to tell it was a key in her right hand, and the aforementioned shadow on her face makes me think some VERY careful use of the dodge/burn tool might help both these areas. But honestly, I really like this picture and all my critiques are nitpicky.

Again, thank you. I was afraid the key would get lost. It was a last minute detail that I through in so she would have something to look at through the magnifier instead of just holding it. Unfortunately I didn't put enough thought into how I would separate it from the deep black AND make the form obvious that it was a key. The last few horizontal crops are closer, but for the aforementioned reasons, I did not use them. If anyone's interested, I can post one tomorrow.

I think the shadow "reads" as a bad guy in the background...the knife is recognizable as a knife--but maybe an 11 inch butcher knife would have been better??? Bowie knife? Cavalry sabre? (lol, I keed, I keed!)

The way the bad guy's shadow shows up in the magnifying glass upside-down is way cool; one thing might make the shadow and the upside down one really stand out more--perhaps select the cyc white areas, and lighten those up. This is an interesting situation--if the cyc had been lighter behind him, it would have also been lighter in the magnifying glass!!! But, now, after the fact, it'll take two retouching steps.

I looked at the shot in Flickr at Original size. Her clothes look great--good texture on them, lovely colors. I do think a tiny bit of lightening of the shadow side of her face would help. It drops off to blackness and leaves kind of an unusual edge to her face, which is only visible when seen large. Seen small, here on TPF, it looks okay.

It was either that or a steak knife (I think there may have been one laying around). I think a steak knife would have been more threatening but I wasn't sure it would have been much of an improvement given the effort taken to find it.

The upside down silhouette was a fortunate accident. I love those. So you think I should dodge the white wall (the cyc is black, pulled back to expose the white wall) in the reflection and leave the actual wall the same?

The clothes were a fortunate accident too. She usually wears something nice so I wasn't too worried about it. I usually just catch these subjects unaware so I don't control wardrobe. Sometimes I'll try to look at what they're wearing and match the background, but I usually forget. This is something I definitely need to improve upon.

I considered putting up a separate fill light, then considered setting up a c-stand with a reflector. I should have done one or the other. Instead, in a hurry I found a 2'x4' white foam core and propped it against my tripod just outside of the frame. The softbox was so directional I don't think the foamcore caught ANY of the light. I see no shadow detail. I was debating whether or not this would be good or bad in the days leading up to the shot. I decided no detail would be better than too much detail because I wanted to make sure the shot was, above all, dramatic. But ideally I agree, I would like to have had a little detail.

So when, if ever, would you not want ANY detail in the shadows of the face?

For starters, if the shadow is the "target", then have the figure facing away from the lady, and smaller than her in overall size in the image. As it is, it seems to imply that "it" is stalking HER.

Again, agreed. I considered this as well but for some reason I thought, compositionally, it would be better balanced to have his head toward the center instead of out on the fringe. However, I think concept trumps composition for this shot and having him running away would have better told the story. I'm glad you brought it up, otherwise I would have thought it doesn't matter.

Again, thank you everyone for your very detailed critique.

 

[Overread]

*moving to people subsection*
Please remember that beyond the basics is not a photo critique subsection.

 

[PrestonS]

I think the part that bothers me the most is that she is looking at the camera. Kinda loses the entire scene for me. If she was looking at her hands it would help lead my eyes to the objects in her hands. That might also help your worry that we would not see what was in her hands.

 

[spacefuzz]

cool idea

 

[gopal]

the thing, knife in hand shd hv been better elaborated...i mean more light on that...the feel is good...really the shadow on her left cheek shd hv been avoided....looks odd, when critically viewing her [email protected]