".. Watching.."

[shidyar]

I was across the room when I chanced upon my sister watching T.V while waiting for the rest of the family to get ready. I saw the shadow play on her face and decided to snap a quick one.. She has since printed and framed this photo and I'ved received many good words. But i guess those are in the eye of the layman and I've always wondered what the more knowledgeable brothers here would think.

[sprintist]

Originally Posted by shidyar I was across the room when I chanced upon my sister watching T.V while waiting for the rest of the family to get ready. I saw the shadow play on her face and decided to snap a quick one.. She has since printed and framed this photo and I'ved received many good words. But i guess those are in the eye of the layman and I've always wondered what the more knowledgeable brothers here would think.

i like this picture, there's contrast on the face but still a lack of, in a way it looks very greyish ie no white point but not dull. Still, more to the artistic side i think it suits this mood and feminine shot.

you can have one more that has more contrast in black and white but this is nice to me at least

[nigel84]

this is gd, but i believe you wan it better. LOL... Anyway, the exposure seems to be controlled nicely, especially on the face which is slightly overblown. It works for me. However i believe this shot was taken with lots of time on your side. Meaning you could had composed this pic better. I would prefer such protrait pics with no cropping of the subject away, eg in your pic, your sister's right arm appears to be slightly cropped away. Try to avoid this, it makes pics look incomplete. Have a little more room on your sister's right. And like wat Sprintist had said, pushing up the contrast a tad more would make the pic look more capturing.

[shidyar]

ahh.. point noted a little more contrast.. and to compose better .. trying to replicate the shot seems a wee bit difficult due to my inexperience.. but all points will note for future shots .. thanks...

[lastboltnut]

With the above said, I would like the frame to be lower, like less negative space over her head but more of the cushion under her hand.

I think the tonal range is not that big, do you want to try out high key processing? I am not sure, it MAY turn out nice, I think.

PS> For the so call BW photo, you can add a subtle brown to tone it up a litte.....very subtle only, those that people can't really tell its BW or not....Ü

[espion]

The light is flat, ie too uniform in all directions, resulting in poor modelling, ie poor rendering of the 3D. The highlight, which prob comes from a window, is too strong relative to this flat light. And that is why you get this almost uniform, uninteresting grey for the whole picture,and with the highlight almost blowing.

A few things can be done to improve the pic via processing:

- Try PS shadow/highlight to reduce the highlight.
- Try using "digital GND" to introduced more variation in the light, eg making the left side darker and thus improving the modelling.
- Try it in colour instead of B&W - without contrasts B&W don't work.

But I think the bigger flaw is the pose itself, the subject looking away too much.

The catchlights in the eyes, eye catching albeit, does make itself makes a picture.

[shidyar]

point noted.. but then again as i have said earlier this is not a posed picture.. Shaz was actually watching tv..
with regards to the light source .. yeah its from an open door..lol..