MY NEWEST PICTURE (give me your thoughts)

NathanPresley

NathanPresley

Well-known member
This is an amazing female artist "Sherre Chamberlian"

( http://www.myspace.com/thesherreechamberlainband )

tell me what you like and tell me what you don't like about this picture

thanks

natepresley.com

sherree3test4.jpg
 
Hey Nate. I will offer my opinion. Keep in mind,, its just my opinion and you and/or others may agree or disagree.

What I like about the pic is the environment. I love the randomness of the upright in the middle of a field...like an aerial shot of a baby grand on the edge of a cliff or the Beatles playing on the roof top of a building.

I also thing the clouds are very dramatic and work well off the girl, piano and grassy field.

I also really like the color correction. You seem to have really desaturated many elements of the pic and raised the highlights a bit on the most important part of your image...the singer. I love the gray scale of this image.

Having said that...there are a few minor things that bears consideration. The sky, while being ominous, is almost too soft and washed out for my tastes. It seems like the edges of the clouds could pop more.

The composition could be a little more dramatic. Shes smack dab in the center. Considering the environment you are using, I'm not 100% sure what you could have done to alter the composition but you could play with her position a bit.

I don't know, maybe the piano in the center and her off to the side of the image looking at the piano or away from the piano etc. Or the piano in the background her in a mid shot looking right at the lens? Might give it a more interesting comp?

But, all in all I think this is a pretty excellent shot. My criticisms are just suggestions. So, take them for what they are worth.

Hope this helps.
 
Crop off 1 inch of the bottom to put the subject on the "rule of thirds" axis....
Straighten out your horizon.....

Its a little flat for my personal taste but thats just me.... as said above I would add some contrast to the sky and maybe darken it a little more for the dramatics of it, but I'm being nit picky...

I love your idea and if ya just crop & straighten it out you'll have a better photo, the effects are just gravy.......
 
Mcgee's edit is dead on. Much stronger me thinks.

I only have one take. When I first saw it there was nothing very original with it, like I've seen this before. I just can't put my finger on it, but the piano in a field thing has been done a lot I think. But I do like the desaturation. Nice image.
 
thanks for the comments, but I personally disagree with the heavier contrast.

the picture is already very animated looking and when you turn the contrast
that high it just brings it to a less... "real" and more blown out verison

altho I do know where your coming from I just perfer not that heavy contrast
 
nathan...this is kinda what i meant....

qmeifaixyo.thumb500.jpg


EDIT: Matt you were TOTALLY right about it being blown out. I removed those pics and put up a better example of what I meant. Earlier, I tried to lift some detail in the piano up but blew her out. I knew what I was going for but was going about it the wrong way. Word to the wise, don't drink and color correct. ha!
 
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I think the original was almost perfect to begin with. The only thing that struck me was too much area under her, and the clouds being too desaturated.

rlm7189, the one's you posted are good, but are a little too blown out. Maybe it's just my monitor, but there seems to be a fairly good amount of detail lost with the color or liner dodge look.

I would have dome something much simpler like this:

1183348691.jpg



Just cut off a little of the lower section, put some blue (not a lot, just enough to match the saturation of the grass) back into the sky, and for the hell of it, added a very, very slight vignette.

I also doubled the original layer, blurred it to about 10 pixels, set it so soft light, and cranked it down to about 15%. Gives a little more contrast, and seems to make the colors a little deeper, but I'm not sure the more I look at it that I like that.

Maybe I should have skipped that part. Oh well.

I think with a proper crop, and with a little color boost, the image is perfect. I wouldn't adjust her position to the left or right at all. She is, after all, sitting on to the right of the piano. That lends itself to a degree of isolation, and I think cropping off more or the right side of the pic is overkill.


But that is a fantastic image to start with. I can do a hell of a lot in post, but I sure wish I could take pictures like so many of you. I just don't seem to have the eye.
 
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I like matt's version of this image a LOT.
I can see that as being a poster for a show or an album insert.
 
i wish you coulda taken the shot from alot further away. really show the isolation of the place. also that gives you room for more dynamic compositions. right now it looks too "mid Nineties".
 
I think it all depends on what the picture is for. If it was for a movie poster, i would leave the bottom on and the top and then have text over it. But i thought the image came out great, little more contrast in the clouds, thats about it.
 
thanks guys. I definitely agree with some of the stuff up there, the clouds should be a little more dramatic. Im just very hesitate to push the contrast too much, because I
feel like that every person kinda new to photoshop just hops in and finds the contrast
and over does it.

I feel that its something you see a lot. on the other hand a picture so gray and blan
might be "unique", but thats like calling a horrible singer a "unique" singer its just
stupid.
 
My only critique would be composition.

I like the color correction as is...

i would like to see a version of the image like this...

repo.jpg



What would be interesting to try...would be to drop the camera down a bit more...a foot or 2two? so that you can get the horizon to be a bit lower down on the piano/girl...maybe getting the horizon to be just below the keys of the piano...and when you tilt the camera up a touch you can really get the horizon to be lower in frame and the piano/girl jutting further into the sky...
 
Rich. I almost wish you hadn't suggested that. I can totally visualize your suggestion and now feel the need to see it. That sounds awesome!
 
I like the dark look :)
Any chance you can post the original so I can see/play with it?
 
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