• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Quirky portrait

Paul Bestwick

pro member
Female .....loves her dogs but hates photos of herself. Just a crazy one off from the shoot.

Cheers,

PB

z18%20copy.jpg
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Paul,

There's a curved road with double yellow lines clearly telling is this is a curve which cannot be taken lighltly. There's one black and one white dog giving two aspects of looking at things. We don't see her face, which means that the picture is acceptable for people's home's and offices where they may not wish to see someone else's face, a common commercial criterion.

I like the idea, but not yet the excution. The woman's head is pointing away from where she is going and this creates an uneeded conflict. Also it appears that she may have been sharpened to appear distinct from the b.g. but for whatever the reason, she is not part of the picture, but on it. I hope I have enough credit to be frank!

This image is probably a small portion of a larger picture.I have no objection to the lack of detail or the grain. I'm a sucker for winding roads and looking at the progression of such a lady into this path, despite potential traffic could seduce me. This version, however, seen on my computer, seems to fall short this time.

I hope you can work on this more. At least you have made me think about this kind of composition and what might make it work.

I expect you have other versions?

Thanks for sharing.

Asher
 

Paul Bestwick

pro member
Hi Asher,

thanks for that insightful summation of the image. It was a one off & I furnace blasted it in Photoshop.
I was looking to make a highly stylized image. Break all the rules. The point you made about her head facing the wrong angle is spot on & probably the weak point in the image. The blown highlights, added grain, sharpening etc are all there by design.

Cheers,

Paul
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Asher,

thanks for that insightful summation of the image. It was a one off & I furnace blasted it in Photoshop.
I was looking to make a highly stylized image. Break all the rules. The point you made about her head facing the wrong angle is spot on & probably the weak point in the image. The blown highlights, added grain, sharpening etc are all there by design.

Cheers,

Paul

Paul,

I believe that so-called "One-offs" in art can be important erruptions from a layer of creativity beneath the surface that need to be interviewed before setting aside.

I'd suggest that looking at an S-curve as the change in direction of a path is intriguing. One should care about the woman and her dogs. That means that she could be doing something that shows interest or perhpas something else attractive like her figure or clothes. Also the side hedge.bushes of the road needs to be substantial enough block the eye so that the path is the easy choice for the eye. Also the three trees on the road, if made substantial parts of the composition, serve as progress marks along the way for the eye to track the path she might go.

This minimalist ad-hoc rendering can work well, however work is needed for that!

I hope you will continue with this.

Asher
 
Top