Sharing one from a recent session, he recently started learning the instrument, a motivational shot for him
580EXII shot through a 60inch umbrella at 1/8 power camera left and feathered away triggered by cactus V5.
Canon 5D MKII with 50mm, 1/100 sec, f/3.5, ISO: 100
I love this. The lighting is very atmospheric. Great stuff, except for me the highlights on the guitar sound board are a bit too bright. It feels out of context with the rest of the image and really distracts my eye as I try to study the rest of the image.
If that's what you were looking for then fair enough, if not then its easy to drag back of course.
To me the there is too much reflection on the guitar and not enough detail in the face.....that's just me though. My eyes are continually being pulled to the brightest spot in the pic, in this case the reflection
Michaelparris wrote:
To me the there is too much reflection on the guitar and not enough detail in the face.....that's just me though. My eyes are continually being pulled to the brightest spot in the pic, in this case the reflection
Exactly my thoughts.
The light on the face is important and you do need to avoid the reflection.
Sorry, but this would be a shot I'd work on a bit more.
As far as a reflection being bad, I feel differently than some others above. I think a reflection can be a very clever and interesting part of an image if done with some care and depending upon the subject, composition, and what is shown in the reflection.
Also, having the lightest part of an image away from a face is not necessarily a bad thing either, depending upon what YOU want the viewer to see or notice first.
What would I do differently?
A few things, but here is the simplest to correct:
See the reflection. Notice the rays. Are those the spokes of an umbrella? If so, try to avoid showing them in the final image.
As far as a reflection being bad, I feel differently than some others above. I think a reflection can be a very clever and interesting part of an image if done with some care and depending upon the subject, composition, and what is shown in the reflection.
Also, having the lightest part of an image away from a face is not necessarily a bad thing either, depending upon what YOU want the viewer to see or notice first.
What would I do differently?
A few things, but here is the simplest to correct:
See the reflection. Notice the rays. Are those the spokes of an umbrella? If so, try to avoid showing them in the final image.
The composition has very good feel to it overall, but I have to agree with previous posters about lock of detail on the face and reflection on guitar which really bothersome to me since I can see the umbrella rods in it.
really appreciate the feedback, less light on the face is intentional for this one. I have a variant with light on face. Personally I like this.
Now working on the guitar and tackling the spokes (rays)
The face and eyes do not always need to be lit, especially if that's not the focus of the photo. I get what you are trying to do here, and I like it. To me it's more of a boy embracing his guitar and fondness for music, it's not a head shot portrait. I agree with previous posters though, the guitar is slightly too bright distracting the overall mood, and good call on the spokes form the umbrella, I was wondering what that was :-) Overall I like it, and look forward to seeing an resubmit if you wish to do so. Thanks for sharing.
