Crop and "lighten"?

[mrteacherdude]

First critique post ever for me. The following image is the jpg output by my camera and I have not fussed with it all other than resizing for this post. I normally fuss over my photos a little bit, but I'm not sure if this one requires it. My questions are as follows:

(1) Does the photo need to be lighter around the periphery? It's easier to see the other stuff around the edges if I do, but I'm not sure that would be a good thing.

(2) Should it be cropped? I played around with it a little to see if it could take some cropping, and it does on the sides and bottom, but I'm not sure if it's necessary.

Any other constructive feedback you can provide about something I'm not seeing would be appreciated.

Note that I am aware of the movement of the pages of the book in this photo, I was actually quite pleased that my subject was able to stay still for the duration of the exposure, without me even asking for it
Thanks!





Camera Model Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Shooting Date/Time 6/28/2010 9:08:38 PM
Shooting Mode Manual Exposure
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 30
Av( Aperture Value ) 3.5
Metering Mode Partial Metering
ISO Speed 100
Lens EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (NOTE: IS was off)
Focal Length 18.0mm
Flash Off
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode Manual focusing
Picture Style Standard

[ellie mac]

My feeling (and I'm certainly not an expert!) is that a much tighter crop would give this a nice intimate feel. I think lightening would actually detract rather than enhance the image.

[prabbit237]

I hope ya don't mind but..............................I took a little liberty with the picture.

And far be it from me to say who's right and who's wrong. I'm still learning all this myself. But I do agree with Ellie Mac about not lightening around the edges but cropping in tighter.

[jenniferfraser]

(By the way, I've enjoyed your own critiques of others' photos' they are "right on" for the most part!)

If you aren't averse to photshopping, I think it would be cool to use the gradient tool to get A GRADUAL lightening out from the fire, uniting the other elements in the shot. Otherwise, the fire just hangs out there by itself - just a thought!

[Michael_2010]

It has a mood about it and the colors are very rich. Not sure I would do much more than some slight cropping. Is she wearing glasses? There is a very bright point of light near the face that is a little distracting. Could it be toned down slightly without messing up the rest of the photo?

[ellie mac]

Just in response to prabbit237's crop - I had something more square in mind. So I would probably have taken more off on the sides, especially on the right where I would have come in almost to where her back is, taking out the fence post (?) that is lit up a bit more. Possibly would come in between the two rocks on the left (although that would take out the tree trunk too) Would have left more on the top & bottom though so as to maintain the night sky as I feel it's integral to the scene. At bottom I probably would have cropped so that the curve of orange light hitting the blanket is mostly still there.

I agree with Michael regarding the light near her face - a light for reading reflecting on glasses maybe?

[mrteacherdude]

Good comments so far - thank you! I've been leaning toward cropping and it looks like most agree the photo could benefit from that.

Michael_2010, ellie mac, and others who have noticed the bright spot close to her face, yes she's wearing glasses but the bright spot you are noticing close to her face is a headlight she is using to read her book. I hadn't noticed how bright that was until it was mentioned, and you are correct, so I will try to tone that down some. Ellie mac, I hadn't thought about the intimacy aspect of the image until you mentioned it. Thanks.

Jenniferfraser, I'm not adverse to post-processing at all and normally "fuss" over all photos that I end up printing and hanging on my wall. I do see what you are saying about the fire hanging there by itself, and I'm not sure if that is an artifact due to resizing and sharpening performed by the software when resizing the photo for display here. So I will check out my original file and see if that effect is there as well. If it is, I will certainly look into a more gradual lightening as you suggested. I also have a RAW version of this photo which can give me more flexibility in output.

Thanks all and I welcome any other comments others may provide

[mrteacherdude]

Science geek title - sorry.

So I've cropped several different ways, cooled the fire off, attempted to pull together the two dominant objects (fire and wife) in the image, and removed the blaring light from her head. Now I'm not sure I like the crop as I keep wanting to move everything to the left some to regain the tree on the left side, but that would recenter the fire. And I'm thinking I've lost something from the fire by toning it down a little too much. Essentially I'm thinking it is now overdone. Several of you have suggested more in terms of subtle changes to the original. I'm also trying to maintain the original ratio for printing purposes.

Any new thoughts, insights, and suggestions would be appreciated; I've been looking at it too long and now every version looks terrible to me. Thanks!

[prabbit237]

Looks like you used the burn tool on the fire? That tool does unspeakably bad things to the colors in CS3 and earlier (and I always thought I was doing it wrong till I saw a tutorial from a well-known site that agreed on that.) Apparently it works better in CS4&5 but I tend to stay away from it if/when possible. Here, I used a brightness/contrast layer with a layer mask to dim the flames some.

[mrteacherdude]

Originally Posted by prabbit237

Looks like you used the burn tool on the fire? That tool does unspeakably bad things to the colors in CS3 and earlier (and I always thought I was doing it wrong till I saw a tutorial from a well-known site that agreed on that.) Apparently it works better in CS4&5 but I tend to stay away from it if/when possible. Here, I used a brightness/contrast layer with a layer mask to dim the flames some.

Thanks for the input prabbit. Yea - I did use the burn tool and overall I think that's one of the contributing factors to me being pretty unhappy with the last pic I posted; it's all a learning experience... After I posted it, I started all over again and, like you, ended up working it over in layers - eventually ending up with something I was much happier with. I haven't really read anything about the burn tool, but generally try to stay away from it, only using it to darken/emphasize edges such as mountain tops and treelines. Otherwise, it just seems to make things look dull and messes with the color - as you noted.