POTD 13 August - Big Head

[Mike Farley]

Big Head

Big Head.jpg (115.4 KiB) Viewed 3794 times

For more about this image, see my latest blog post - http://lightintotheshadows.proimageblog ... -big-head/.

[davidc]

This is really good, I like this one a lot. It's much better in colour too, so good job on not converting to black & white.

[Mike Farley]

This is really good, I like this one a lot. It's much better in colour too, so good job on not converting to black & white.

Thanks for the feedback. I enjoy it and it has much going for it compositionally, with various diagonals and the woman looking in the opposite direction in which the pushchair is going. It was never going to be mono, as I feel that the colurs complement each other and help make the shot.

When I take it to club, I will probably clone out the detritus on the ground, against my instincts, as most judges seem to want images which are clean and tidy. In other words, I am going to "camera club" it.

[davidc]

I personally wouldn't, I don't feel it detracts at all.

How about straightening the horizontals? I don't know if it's needed either but had you thought about it?

[Mike Farley]

How about straightening the horizontals? I don't know if it's needed either but had you thought about it?

I must admit that I had not really thought about straightening the horizontals, but I am not sure that it is strictly necessary. Diagaonal lines are normally more dymamic and could add a bit more interest. I have done a modified version to see how it would look and also remove some of the larger and more unsightly items of litter. What do you think?

[davidc]

If you hadn't said you'd removed the litter I wouldn't have noticed - testament to your cloning skills but also maybe reinforcing the idea the litter isn't adding or dtracting to the scene?

I think I marginally prefer the straightend shot and although you are right about diagonals, there are plenty of them still in the scene. I would be inclined to present the straightened one because a judge might miss a deliberate inclusion of more diagonals and assume it was an error. You know what judges are like

[Mike Farley]

If you hadn't said you'd removed the litter I wouldn't have noticed - testament to your cloning skills but also maybe reinforcing the idea the litter isn't adding or

More like testament to Lightroom's Heal brush. It might be different on a small, lo-res image, but I found some of the detritus odds and sods distracting on my monitor. There was a large lump at bottom left which I am sure would be picked up by a judge compalining that it took his eye away from the subject. Similarly the light patches in the darker parts of the subway I found to be irritations.

I think I marginally prefer the straightend shot and although you are right about diagonals, there are plenty of them still in the scene. I would be inclined to present the straightened one because a judge might miss a deliberate inclusion of more diagonals and assume it was an error. You know what judges are like

It definitely needs thinking about for the final image. If a judge does not like a shot, anything like that gives them an instant get out of jail free. Removing anything obvious means that they are more likely to have to fall back on saying something stupid and adding to my burgeoning collection of WTF comments.

Mind you, they will have to go some to beat my current all time favourite. An otherwise harmless shot rejected because it was "not the sort of image I want to see", which constituted the entire critique. Brutally honest, maybe, but other than refraining from taking that genre of picture, difficult to know how the comment was intended to help me progress as a photographer. Oh, what great fun is to be had.

[davidc]

Oh greater fun can surely be had by seeing what a judge does not want to see! Do share!

[Mike Farley]

Oh greater fun can surely be had by seeing what a judge does not want to see! Do share!

I will be sharing, but you will have to wait a while. If all goes to plan, in my talk to the club on 26 October I intend to include a section about how different people perceive images and the shot will be one of those shown. In that particular competition, I actually had two shots which had been taken in the manner which the judge claimed to dislike. One bombed, the other was nominated as one of the best of the evening.

As we all know, there is no section of the community more diverse than judges when it comes to assessing shots and there will be a few surprises, including a bizarre critique from a top judge on my most successful image.