Chanelling Louis

I 'm looking for some composition feedback on this image.

I saw my son sitting on the sofa at our friend's house, loved the catchlight in his eye and thought this would make a gritty mood photo, so I pushed the iso up to 3200 to increase the noise and simulate grain.

Natural light. I darkened the corners a bit in Photoshop, to focus the eye on the main subject. Nothing I wouldn't do in a darkroom.

Great shot, good eye and capture. I hope you don't mind but it was easier if I did the adjustments I thought it needed. The subject is the child, so I cropped it to emphasize him and bring the attention of the viewer to him. There is a lot of empty space in the shot and too many things distracting the viewer. The bright light just above the end of the horn on the left, as well as being too bright. The horn itself was distracting. The light on the forehead was a little too bright. The area just above the head was a little too bright. All these areas I burned to bring back detail and let the face and the eyes be the center of attention. I hope this explains what I did.

Interesting. It becomes a different image.
It wasn't my intent to make just my son the centre of the picture, but rather my son playing the sax. It was about the mood.

I love that photography is so subjective. Everyone sees it a bit differently.

I struggled with whether to lighten the dark side of his face.
I decided not to because I wanted the mood of an old Jazz musician in a bar.
My cropping didn't seem quite right to me, which was the purpose of requesting a critique.

Thanks for the feedback. I didn't see the highlights as that hot until you brought it up.

Denis, I love the original version. It tells a story and captures a mood. I think the curves of the saxaphone are important --flow of the curve seems to tie the whole image together. I also like the light and shadows on the pant leg. I think empty space and shadows always add drama to an image and your caption certainly matches the image --it's ethereal and mysterious. The catchlights are perfect.

Joseph's crop is excellent if you wanted the entire focus to be your son's face and it does change the image completely.

The only thing I would change in your image is to crop a little from the left and the top possibly to take out some of the black area, and also smooth out the rectangular square of light on his chin. (isn't it funny how everybody finds something different to distract them )

My 2 cents worth. it's a great photo.

Best Regards

I have to agree w/ Helene on this one...I think cropping it takes too much away from the image. Something with the lighting isn't sitting right with me either. My initial impression was that he was blowing a big puff of cocaine dust out of that sax. Just sayin'.

I would do something with the shine on the couch, it's a bit distracting and drawing my eye away from where it should go. You don't want the brightest part of your image to be a big puff of cocaine dust.

hehehe. I love to read the different observations of everyone. Makes me look at photos differently every time. Personally, I see merit in both photos. Both convey a different "sightline" of the viewers perspective. Hopefully the recipient of the critique takes it in which it was intended.....to draw attention to a missed detail, to improve, to enlighten.....all those things and possibly more. In my mind there are no bad critiques, just differing opinions on what moved them about the photo in the first place. Interesting.

In my mind there are no bad critiques, just differing opinions on what moved them about the photo in the first place. Interesting

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Well said, Jack. Always valuable info, in my opinion.

I love this!
I think the different views and perspectives are great. I'll wait a little longer and take a crack at fixing some of the issues and posting an update.

Tomorrow I'll post a lightpainting image for critique. I want to learn about other peoples' light painting techniques.

fotojack said:

Personally, I see merit in both photos. Both convey a different "sightline" of the viewers perspective.

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Couldn't agree more.