Re: Re: Beast to Beauty

#19008
Duncan Rawlinson
Keymaster

You’ve done many good things with this photograph both technically and artistically. For starters your first image (the best image), you’ve failed to use any strong photographic elements that helps convey your message. The main object within the image is perfectly centered and the lines in the background and the foreground don’t help to lead the viewer’s eye through the photograph. Nothing is organized.

Your second image however, is well composed and used many of the photographic elements discussed in upcoming lessons. For starters, although you’ve maintained your objects positioning in the center of photograph, you’ve used the lines of a hammock to draw your viewers eye into the photograph. The helmet then acts as a “stopper”. Lines and objects that help hold the viewer’s attention are too often forgotten components of a good photograph.

In the second photograph I also really liked how the background has some color gradient from dark blue to light blue. It helps the background look more interesting without distracting the viewer.

Another important technical component from this photograph has to do with white balancing. Notice your first image is tungsten lights (3200 Kelvin) and your second image is the color of daylight (5600 Kelvin). Indoor lighting (tungsten) has an orange’ish hue to it while daylight has a bluish tone to it. The human eye has the ability to correct what we see so the color of white is accurate. However, camera’s have to be told manually what the color of the light is. Most auto-white balance settings work reasonably well, but I’ve found that in indoor shooting using digital cameras the “orange” is often over exaggerated. This is just something to keep your eye out for in the future. Great first assignment. I look forward to seeing your next submissions.