sepia, red sepia

[Allegra]

[attachment=1:1jcgqpet]scenesincolors 032sepia.JPG[/attachment:1jcgqpet]

[attachment=0:1jcgqpet]scenesincolors 016sepia.JPG[/attachment:1jcgqpet]

[Duncan Rawlinson]

Wonderful choice of filter. I think you’re the first person to submit an assignment using a sepia filter.

Both images are very strong artistically and have many great compositional elements to them. However, there are a few technical issues I would like to bring up regarding both images.

Let’s start by looking at the image of the cat looking up and outwards towards a window.

I have two technical concerns with this image. First of all, you’ve included the secondary objects of wires near the bottom left corner of the frame. I find those wires slightly distracting because of the way the shapes interact with one another the wires almost appear to be coming out of the cat’s back. Be very careful with how your objects in different layers interact with one another. You may find you need to re-frame or reposition yourself to exclude certain extraneous information.

However, even more significant that the detail discussed above, is the issue of overexposure in the cat’s eye and belly region. You have direct sunlight coming in and your camera is having a difficult time handing the wide range in light.

This is a very common issue with digital cameras and we’ve written an entire blog post concerning the issue. Please take the time to read about dynamic range and latitude on our blog here:

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

These areas that are overexposed are referred to as “blown out” or “burnt out” areas. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, but as a general rule of thumb, try not to blow out any areas that are essential (parts of the face, the eyes, forehead etc). You’ll noticed in a lot of digital films or photographs that the sky on a sunny day is often blown out. This means that all details is lost. It’s not something you can correct in post production. That information simply isn’t there anymore.

Your second image is quite interesting. The cat’s tail acts as a leading line helping guide the audiences eye into the photograph because it comes from the bottom left corner and draws our eye towards the main subject of the photograph. It also helps create an interesting curved shape that is continuous through the photograph (also seen in the cat’s back).

Overall, great work. Just keep an eye out on the technical details discussed above.

[Author]

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