Re: Re: hard, soft

#19175
Duncan Rawlinson
Keymaster

Hello and thank you for your assignment submission.

You’ve accomplished exactly what was asked from you for this assignment. Both of your images use very different lighting and it has a dramatic consequence on the final outcome.

That being said, there are a few things I would like you to consider.

Your first image of the man’s face is well composed. But I do have two concerns. First, as a rule of thumb, you want to leave a little room on the side of the frame where the subject is looking. For example you should have more room on the left side of the frame in this example to help provide a better sense of balance.

My second concern with this image is that you have “blown out” (overexposed) areas in the subject’s forehead. This is generally caused by limitations of digital technology and we’ve written an entire blog post outlining the issue. Please take the time to read the following article we wrote about dynamic range not long ago:

http://photographyicon.com/blog/2008/11/26/digital-cameras-latitude-dynamic-range/

Your second image is very well composed. You have incorporated the illusion of depth by including part of the arm of the couch. This helps provide a sense of depth and stops your image from being flat and boring. My only concern with this image is that you have soft focus. It’s more noticeable when you enlarge the photograph, but as you progress as a photographer you’ll want to start enlarging your prints in which case focus will become a critical part of your work.

Other than that… great work!