high contrast, c and c welcome

hi all,

I try to build some story... my point of making photo below is to create a moody pict, sadness in the middle of joy

few question

1. Did I overdue it? in term of contrast

2. Do I manage to get the message in to the picture?

thank you



--
Nis Daniel
http://www.facebook.com/nisdanielphotography
http://www.vogue.it/photovogue/Profilo/cd037f28-0213-4dcb-8154-4d8475b8fbcf/User
http://www.500px.com/nis_daniel

If you crop much of the right off, you increase the intimacy IMO. Lots of contrast but to each his own.

thank you Rick, if I crop much the white portion, then it may only tell one story, sadness I believe,?

Well it will be interesting to see if others see the lighter part contributing to joy (if I understand you correctly). Regardless, I admire those who think outside the box as you are doing here. I am stuck in landscape mode although that is not so bad.

thanks again, well maybe it's only me think like that though lol... which mean.. there is something off here

I'm not seeing any joy in the image. The composition with the subject pushed to the edge of the frame and starkly lit from one side speaks of alienation or exclusion. The closed body language and expression of your subject reinforces a feeling of distress. All in all an uncomfortable disturbing vibe I think. The image does tell a strong story but that story has no joy.

You must show us joy. The subject must be associated with the depiction of joy while being set apart from it but not alienated from the possibility of inclusion into the lighter mood. The body language of your subject must show her desire for inclusion into a joyful situation.

Tricky to get the right psychological frame of reference.

--
kw
http://www.phototrice.com/
http://www.thealamoproject.com/
http://www.pbase.com/kwhite

NDaniel said:

hi all,

I try to build some story... my point of making photo below is to create a moody pict, sadness in the middle of joy

few question

1. Did I overdue it? in term of contrast

2. Do I manage to get the message in to the picture?

thank you



--
Nis Daniel
http://www.facebook.com/nisdanielphotography
http://www.vogue.it/photovogue/Profilo/cd037f28-0213-4dcb-8154-4d8475b8fbcf/User
http://www.500px.com/nis_daniel

Click to expand...

Something painters consider with their work is being careful not to place anything in their paintings that does not contribute to the image. For photographers it has to be more striving to remove anything in their composition not contributing to the image.

I think you might reshoot this image giving additional consideration to the background. Does the partial door frame contribute to the image? Does the partial chair back contribute to the image? How about the way the table top is presented? Maybe pull the camera back and have the model (who seems to be doing her part rather well) presented full length in the chair with a blank background.

I think this might work as an image with the large empty area to the right and the background fading out, but were I shooting this image I would experiment a bit with the other background elements.

As far as meeting your story telling goals, I'm not much into that sort of thing and have no feelings one way or the other.

--
http://www.nightstreets.com
-
"Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms such as you have named...but a dying culture invariable exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners is more significant than a riot."
This symptom is especially serious in that an individual displaying it never thinks of it as a sign of ill health but as proof of his/her strength. ...Friday, it is too late to save this culture--this worldwide culture... Therefore we must now prepare the monasteries for the coming Dark Age. Electronic records are too fragile..."
--Robert A. Heinlein in "Friday"

CC: I'd go for a bet more detail in the shadow and crop vertically. (all the white space to the right doesn't add anything, IMO)

but that might just be personal preference; it's very nice as-is too!

--
-Jeremy

NDaniel said:

hi all,

I try to build some story... my point of making photo below is to create a moody pict, sadness in the middle of joy

few question

1. Did I overdue it? in term of contrast

2. Do I manage to get the message in to the picture?

thank you



--
Nis Daniel
http://www.facebook.com/nisdanielphotography
http://www.vogue.it/photovogue/Profilo/cd037f28-0213-4dcb-8154-4d8475b8fbcf/User
http://www.500px.com/nis_daniel

Click to expand...

my first reaction was to have a bit less on the right but after coming back to it a few times I am not sure and it is for me a good composition which for me fits the mood your creating nice

--
John aka bosjohn21

this is a very important concept and is the real and most meaningful difference between photography and painting. The camera sees everything. The painter can put what ever he wants on his canvas or leave out what every in the scene he is painting he does not want, Photography is mostly the art of eliminating or reducing in importance anything that is not supporting our idea

NDaniel said:

hi all,

I try to build some story... my point of making photo below is to create a moody pict, sadness in the middle of joy

few question

1. Did I overdue it? in term of contrast

2. Do I manage to get the message in to the picture?

thank you



--
Nis Daniel
http://www.facebook.com/nisdanielphotography
http://www.vogue.it/photovogue/Profilo/cd037f28-0213-4dcb-8154-4d8475b8fbcf/User
http://www.500px.com/nis_daniel

Click to expand...

as is my normal way of commenting I do not ready your explanations nor the other responders before I post my comments. Having now read your mission statement I must agree with KG there is not joy here but a very strong sense of aloneness fear and for lack of better word cringing. I think its a very strong image.

--
John aka bosjohn21

I would crop at least half the negative space and about two thirds of the gap above her head.

I like the girl, she looks more reflective than sad.

ian

NDaniel said:

hi all,

I try to build some story... my point of making photo below is to create a moody pict, sadness in the middle of joy

few question

1. Did I overdue it? in term of contrast

2. Do I manage to get the message in to the picture?

thank you



--
Nis Daniel
http://www.facebook.com/nisdanielphotography
http://www.vogue.it/photovogue/Profilo/cd037f28-0213-4dcb-8154-4d8475b8fbcf/User
http://www.500px.com/nis_daniel

Click to expand...

You're doing several things very well IMHO - edge flicker is well controlled, so no gutters are created around your frame; area of greatest contrast is her face and that's keeping us on her, figure ground relationship is certainly putting her as the primary focus of the scene. And there are some nice right angles being formed in many places - a wonderful example of that.

There are some things that could be improved I think. One is the aspective view - having her arms folded up like that obscures her form. I think you're overcoming it well by highlighting her forearms, but it would be nice to have her upper body not in pure shadow/blackness. As is, it doesn't add anything and if shadows were lifted, it would add a lot more visual interest. In general, the contrast of it isn't really doing anything for the image but obscuring detail. In people shots like this, this little bit of detail removes intimacy.

As for the message, if she's contemplative and all that, then you probably want to portray that in high key with less contrast and some soft detail as the low contrast implies on the right. As for sadness and joy, there's nothing suggesting either really and I don't think assigning an emotion here is necessary. Her expression stands on it's own whatever it is. Trying to say that joy is the light and sadness is the dark (I assume) doesn't really work if both halves of her face are gloomy. She's just feeling gloomy and that's fine.

thanks KW

I guess I have to experiment further to introduce the joy feeling, appreciate

Thank you

I do agree with your background distraction, for both chair and wall portion, I am not a glamour photography though, my.main interest in documentary and street,there for, in shooting this picture, I don't bring any lighting device, not even a flash.. lol..., I just rely in natural light, in this case, side lighting from transparent glass, I could not move model if I want to achieve clean and proper background, without sacrificing the mood that I want, it will have different shadow and highlight portion..., however.. I will try and get more prepare this time for another shoot, thanks...

as for table top, I am lost here, do you mean more portion? to include shadow? if that what you mean... no, I dont like it, my main goal is to introduce moody feeling, by adding some reflection, will distract the view, since there are at least 2 pov on scene

thanks, yeah.. more detail will be nice

thanks.... I have try to eliminate all the right portion of the frame, in other word, eliminating the negative space, but the sense of lonelines, sad etc, has dramaticaly reduce... and I let it stay as it is...

indeed john....

NDaniel,

Thanks for posting your photograph. It's great that you wrote about why you made it and specifically asked for comments.

Like others here, I think you may have more empty white space than you need. I'd suggest cropping to approximately 8x10 or even square.

I think the strong contrast is OK, considering what you are trying to express. The only thing the image needs is a title that will nudge viewers towards your theme. The subject does seem to be pulling away from the light as if afraid, or perhaps just not ready to embrace the joy. She is resisting whatever the light represents - joy, truth, beauty, enlightenment, love, peace of mind, acceptance . . . . . . Perhaps it's the end of sorrow. There's room for viewers to viewers to find their own story.

There is an expression . . . . "I could light a candle, but I'd rather curse this darkness ".

Steve