Hi all. Looking for some comments and/or criticism on this photo. I've been tweaking on it for a while and I've hit a wall, maybe this is where it stops, or maybe there are some other things I could do to improve it. It's almost a dead-center composition, but it seems to work in this case. I wish I had a bit more room around the edges to work with, but it was cropped pretty tightly when taken. Any suggestions? Is the vintage color cast too strong?
Her skin is pretty blown out though, it seems like it's intentional but I think it detracts a bit from the over all photo. The case and the grass are all textured and crinkly, but you want to squint when you look at the girl. I do think it's cool though.
I'm OK with the staging I think its clever. The toning is excellent. But like Jo and Trojarhorse have pointed out, something is off with her skin. Without measuring values to see if/where it is blown out, I think the issue is that its just to bright and perhaps too smooth. Burning the skin seems like a good idea. You might even add a bit of noise over the image to add to the aged look.
Thanks so much for the comments so far. Yes, I suppose it's a bit stage, not often do you find a little girl sitting in an old suitcase in the middle of a field.
Ok, based on suggestions I applied a multiply layer masked for her skin only, and here are the results...
I like the original version a lot. The staging is eye-catching and the girl's pose and expression are thought-provoking to say the least. The overall tone really works for the shot, too. It might be nice to see a version with slightly less vignetting just for comparison.
Interesting that you post that Marcel. I was messing around with a fake tilt-shift look that was doing something similar. I agree that a smaller DOF would've given her a little more pop; the bg is a bit busy. Thanks for the comments and sample.
