On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 08:34:14 -0700, Shel Belinkoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Frank ... > > This popped into my mailbox just as i was about to log off. Glad to see it. > > I like the concept. Essentially a nice portrait framing Vivian within the > frame of the bike. > > The background, however, is distracting. It's too busy, and takes away > from the impact of the subject. Try shooting with wider apertures when > making such portraits. A little softening of the background would go a > long way to improve this and similar photographs. Having Vivian stand by > the bike rack is a nice touch, yet the rack and the numerous bikes behind > her, while adding a bit to the story, take away from the impact of the > portrait. Again, a wider aperture, more selective focus, which would still > show the bikes and the rack, would be preferable. > > Now that you've got Photoshop, you can load up the pic and play around with > blurring the background and other such manipulations. PS is a good tool > for seeing how your photos might look if photographed or presented > differently without the need of making numerous trial prints or shooting a > gazillion frames of film. > > While I know that what I'm going to suggest is not what you had in mind > when you made this pic, for I'm sure you wanted to show more of the > environment, pics like this sometimes look great, and make a stronger > statement, when photographed against a more neutral background, such as a > wall. There are then fewer distracting elements and the viewer's attention > is, literally, focused on the subject. > > Well, just a few random thoughts. And you got me to think about a few of > my bike pics, which I've not looked at for some time. > > Thanks for posting this one ... it's a nice way to greet the morning, along > with my cats and a cup of hot Mariage freres French breakfast tea ;-)) >
Thanks, Shel. I shot this IIRC at f4.0, but it wasn't wide enough. I should have just opened it all the way to 2.0. I was thinking that at the time, but both of us were in a hurry to be off to other places, and I only shot two frames. If there's one thing I have to do, IT'S SHOOT MORE FRAMES of a particular subject. Take another minute or two, and fool around with apertures, etc, to give myself more choice. That especially makes sense now that I'm getting contacts, and maybe only blowing up one or two on average per roll - it's really not going to cost me money by "wasting frames" if I'm only getting one or two printed either way, right? I do like the shot (and I think Vivian will too, when she gets to work tomorrow and sees the jpeg I sent her), but you're right, it could certainly be improved upon. Thanks for your thoughts as always. cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
