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Home > TME Community > Features > The Daily Critique > Jan from Washington - February 16, 2009
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Jan from Washington - February 16, 2009
Started February 16, 2009 @ 12:01am by Kel
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Kel
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| Jan from Washington - February 16, 2009 | February 16, 2009 @ 12:01am | In today’s Daily Critique Craig looks at a beautiful in studio portrait. First Craig talks about quality of light, quality of line and visual harmony. Craig then begins a discussion on The Mindful Eye of cinematic visual design. Craig breaks the image down into three basic planes of cinematic visual movement and discusses how understanding these planes of visual movement may have an effect on how the image is posed and styled.
Click here to view the video.
"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer." ~Ansel Adams | My Blog |
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| February 16, 2009 @ 1:13am | Craig,
Thanks. A very insightful episode of the Daily Critique, and certainly something I will help me in my posing and editing going forward.
To answer a few of the questions posed: The gold fabric was a bit of an accident, we didn't have a lot of fabrics at hand when I shot this, and the posing cube is dark gray foam, so I had to cover it. The gold fabric is actually from a set of curtains we use as backdrop. I picked it because I thought it was another warm color that wouldn't bite the red backdrop, but I can now see the negative impact it as on the z-axis.
On the arm, this image is actually a fairly extreme crop of the original capture. The original camera capture is below. I didn't like the pose of the hand, and balanced out how to capture the head lying on the arm, yet not distracting with some of the other body elements. The closer crop seemed to have more of the mood that I connected with.
The second image below is a new take on editing after watching your critique. I've mapped the backdrop onto the posing cube, did the flip, and left the crop a bit more encompassing. For me the head is not enough on the left 1/3rd and leaving too much negative spaces, but otherwise I like the improvements.
Question: for proper z-axis flow, would it better to have brighter background and darker cube (current), or flip this around. Many times the background fades away into the darkness. It seems the current z-axis has more dynamic.
Jan |
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Last Edit: February 16, 2009 @ 1:17am by Guest | |
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| Thx for the Bg Story | February 16, 2009 @ 7:22am | Jan, thx for the comment & the added MG's. I like the red Bg mapped onto the cube. It improves separation and minimizes visual distraction from the model's face.
Craig, I would appreciate your comments here: for me, cinematic movement has a lot to do with where the eye comes to rest or momentarily pauses. (John Wayne would enter stage L and then pause in the frame when he was talking to Miss Phylis.) Placement of the model's head in Jan's pix in the ULH corner makes my eye move thru the image to the lower RH corner, the area of least interest.
The arms/hands are an area of difficulty for me as they appear too far from the head. Perhaps she would appear more comfortable if the model's head was resting in the crook of her L elbow, with the R hand resting on top of the L fist. Elimination of the hands removes a major visual element for us, as next to the face, we are drawn to others' hands.
Thx for the photos & the feedback!
Rick |
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Last Edit: February 16, 2009 @ 7:23am by Guest | |
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| February 16, 2009 @ 9:30am | Rick, I think you nailed what bothered me in the original capture. I like the idea of having the head rest on the elbow to avoid the long arm extending and detracting from the head. To keep it in frame though she would have to bend the arm, which would put it too close to camera (or I would have to back up and shoot with a lot more compression). Alternatively she could rotate her pose allowing the elbow to go further back and bend the arm but without the hand crossing the camera axis, and hand laying flat face down, fully relaxed. Then crop the frame to the waist instead of thighs to avoid lower RH distractions, and move head into 2nd power point.
Looking forward to Craig's take on this dilemma.
Jan |
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Last Edit: February 16, 2009 @ 9:31am by Guest | |
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| Nice portrait Jan! | February 16, 2009 @ 10:21am | This is the first DC I have ever saved Craig. I knew and had heard most of what you said but I have never heard it explained so well before! So now I even understand the ideas. Thanks to you and Jan for a great Monday morning class!!
Murry |
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Last Edit: February 18, 2009 @ 3:12pm by Guest | |
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| February 16, 2009 @ 3:11pm | I think I prefer the original layout with the model's head in the right hand corner. My eye tends to enter in the top left corner and follows the shape of the right arm round to the face. I think this leads to a more balanced image. With the model's head on the left, i feel the space on the right is wasted somewhat.
Thanks for the excellent image and analysis!
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Mr Noded
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| Flipped Image for me | February 16, 2009 @ 4:16pm | | Amazed at how the flipped image just looks more natural. Guess i am reading it from left to right myself. I don't have a problem with the original crop. It seems to me that both solutions to the cloth on the cube are still too busy and take away from the image. Perhaps a bit more selective focus would help. |
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Last Edit: February 16, 2009 @ 4:20pm by Mr Noded | |
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SkiUL8r
Posts: 95 |
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| February 16, 2009 @ 4:48pm | I gotta go with Ricks comments on this one. I like coming in from the left and pausing on her face on the right instead of pouring me right out of the bottom of the frame on the lower right, especially with no natural stop to rout me back(even if it is going up hill).
I thing Rick and Craig both nailed the arm position. I can see that without a wrapped position, keeping it compact, interesting and at the same time creating a golden spiral, why Jan edited the photo the way he did.
Jan...I know the color of the posing stand might be a smidge off, however, I HAVE to compliment you on the "rule of thirds trifecta"(left to right, top to bottom and near to far)...Bravo my friend, I feel like I can get in there and move around!
Great Critique Craig!!! I love how you included "how color theory might be applied to depth of field" in the Z axis.
Dave
Dave - Highlands Ranch, Colorado: http://www.skiul8rphotography.com
The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.
Dorothea Lange |
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MikeH
Posts: 182 |
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| February 17, 2009 @ 1:21pm | Craig, Thanks for some important clues to this every amazing and confusing photography stuff. You have made this simple and understandable, thanks. I've run across some discussion on what some call "a dense image", but this x,y & especially Z which creates the depth is really what density is about. Jan thanks for posting a great image.
Mike H
Website: http://www.photographybymeh.com |
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Craig
Administrator
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| Thank you | February 17, 2009 @ 5:10pm |
Hi Everybody,
Great comments. Happy to see this new way of talking about image design has led to such a great discussion.
Jan, I really like the uncropped version here with the background mapped onto the posing cube and flipped. The only thing I would change is getting more curve or arc into the pose of the model's right arm which I think would suggest more of the idea of circle. That would do two things. It would create more balance between the left and right side of the image and the shape of the circle (which is obviously softer and more organic than a diagonal or horizontal line or anything strongly suggesting linear line) would be more congruent with the organic flower design of the background and the soft and sensual feeling that I get from looking at the model in this pose, lighting, styling and setting.
I agree with Rick that where the eye stops or rests is a huge element of visual design in stills and... where actors stop and start in a scene ( part of how a scene is blocked) is one of the most critical elements of designing how a movie scene will be shot. For my own tastes I like how my eye moves and where it stops when the pose is flipped. Thank you again Jan for sharing a great image and set up and thank you for how much you have generously shared in this discussion.....Craig
“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” -Soren Kierkegaard
“The secret of life…is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” - Paulo Coelho, from The Alchemist
PPY
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Flo
Posts: 17,472 |
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| February 18, 2009 @ 9:52am | Thanks, Jan, for this lovely image. And thanks Craig, for choosing it to discuss. Thanks also to all those who have contributed to this discussion.
In Jan's original image, my eye has no problem moving from left through the image very quickly to her face (X axis). I also find that there's a subliminal movement from the lower left corner UP to her face (Z2 axis)!!! I've never been aware of this secondary subliminal eye movement before.
So my first eye movement is along the X axis, but along with this is eye movement along the Z2 axis! I suspect that the placement of the model's right arm is responsible for this Z2 movement.
The arm from shoulder to elbow goes in direction from upper left to bottom (the Z1 movement) and then bounces back up in the Z2 direction to her face. And so my eye picks up this double-Z movement subliminally on its way from left to right.
For me, the horizontal flip version doesn't work nearly as well. My eye comes in from the left and almost immediately gets captured by her face and doesn't want to move from there to the rest of the image. Also, the subliminal tug of her arm is now from her face down (Z1) and then back up toward the upper right (Z2). I'm finding this subliminal tug uncomfortable, as there's nothing in upper right to catch my attention!
I've mentioned to you before that lots of times I do not move through an image the way you say we westerners, who read from left to right and from top line down through succeeding lines to the bottom right, do. But I don't think you've really believed me.
I know other left-handed people who've told me that they do read images differently from the way westerners are "supposed to" read them. Yet, you are a south paw, too. So I'm wondering why you tend to read images the way westerners are "supposed to"?
When I'm composing to shoot an image, quite often I think about how we're "supposed to" read an image, yet for me, if I do it the "western" way, it just doesn't seem right!
I'm going to post an image in the Architecture section soon. It "reads" for me along the Z4 axis. So I'll also post a flipped version and ask which one people prefer - and if they know why they prefer it.
Flo
Flo - PPY
"May we live in peace without weeping. May our joy outline the lives we touch without ceasing. And may our love fill the world, angel wings beating." aziza
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