Window Light C&C

Mike4 by The Photo Major, on Flickr

Like this?

 

That last one looks very "real" except that I think you took a little too much off the top, and his face is a bit too high in the image. Personally, I like Lew's crop a lot. I agree with Derrel that the chair didn't add much. The curtains, however, seem to give more context, and I like having them in better than the second image, which could have been taken with a softbox.

 

Just to point out that I added a bit on the top so that his head had some room.

 

Ohhhh I see what you did, you added a black border. Makes sense. I have to print this though.

 

Mike5 by The Photo Major, on Flickr

 

YES--with respect to cropping out the chair, and getting that hand and arm over to the left of the frame. And NO-- As The_Traveler pointed out, the image could use a bit more room at the top, above his head. The proximity of anything to the edge of the frame can alter the visual balance of an image...you see how there is more space below his hands, and much,much less above his head??? Visually, the closeness of his head to the top of the frame is causing some tension, and not in a good way. On the other hand, the closeness of his camera-left arm to the side of the frame is adding something...his arm parallels the edge of the frame. That's working well. The crop you made has changed the feeling of the image quite a bit, but it is still not quite right.

This kind of photo can be manipulated in Photoshop, a number of ways. From a "classical" standpoint, thjere is simply not enough head space above him...and it would look even better if the curtans were to be say, copied, and then a wide and taller canvas created in PS, and then the curtains dragged over to the right a bit, and then "faked" a bit...so that in the end, he would have more space on the window side, to look "into", and also more space above his head.

This is one of the issues with the 35mm format's 2:3 aspect ratio...it's very tall and skinny, or wide and short...this shot was, I would say, framed too tightly in-camera,and there was no extra space above his head...so, it has to be created in post...

 

I see now. Well, I will just have to reshoot then. I will say that this was a good learning experience. This is this weeks assignment for my lighting class. At least the lighting is pleasing. I'll try and reshoot this next weekend.

 

Lews crop is very nice, how about reshooting it with a roll of HP5 that would look good

 

No idea what HP5 is lol. Film i'm assuming lol.

 

Yes Ilford film iso400 but can be pushed to iso1600 no problem i have pushed it to iso3200
http://www.ilfordphoto.com/products/product.asp?n=7
Go on you know you want to try it

 

I don't have a film camera lol.

 

If i lived a bit nearer you could have had my Zorki4 for the weekend it's got a roll of HP5 in it and is fitted with a very sharp 50mmF2 lens