Eyeball
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 p.1 #7 · Tried something different | |
It is little easier to offer critique or suggestions on these "stylistically-toned" images when you can explain your objectives a little bit. For example, the evaluation may be slightly different in the case of a portrait where the assumed objective is portray the subject effectively vs. a shot for a magazine or catalog where graphic and color matching elements may play a larger role. So with that in mind, I'll just offer some observations, which may be neither "good" or "bad".
- When you apply a fairly strong tint, it starts to move the image towards monochrome so some of the same thought criteria start to kick-in as when considering color or black-and-white. Does eliminating color variation and concentrating only on light and dark help the image or not? In this image, for example, any subtle color differentiation in her eyes has been largely lost. Did you gain enough with the color tint to make up for that? The color contrast between the scarf and the other elements in the frame will be less with this tinting. Is that desirable outcome for you or not? Did making the image more monochrome help eliminate distracting elements? Can the light and dark tones carry the image by themselves?
- There is very little contrast in the face. Going to an extreme with this can produce an effect that looks like eyes, nose, and mouth pasted to a wall. In this case, it's certainly not that bad but it still might be worthwhile thinking about objectives. If it's a portrait, does the softer, low-contrast look better reflect her personality? Would a version with a little more definition be more attractive? If for a magazine layout or clothing shoot, maybe you don't WANT the face to necessarily be the star or attract too much attention.
- A slight technical point: the reds in the scarf appear to me to have been saturation clipped somewhere in your workflow. It's not technically clipped in this Jpeg but I say this because of the way the scarf looks kind of blotchy and lacks detail in certain areas. This effect does contrast with the soft, detailed look of the rest of the image and it is hard for me to imagine an objective that would make that desirable.
- Often with this type of processing there is an objective to produce something "different". To evaluate the success for that kind of objective, it is necessary to understand how strong was the desire to favor that criteria beyond all others and what is the baseline you are using for determining "different". For example regarding the strength of the difference, I would say you have a balance here of the tinting but still producing a reasonably attractive image of the young lady. Regarding the baseline, I would say you have something that is "different" than a straight-processed shot but not necessarily very different from what is currently seen in magazines or even what is fairly common here on FM.
- Sometimes the objective is to emulate film in some fashion, but there are so many types of film and processing that it is nearly impossible to evaluate that without knowing which film and developing process was the target.
I look forward to seeing more of your work.
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