Mini Cooper Love

[miyukisarah]

This is a shot of my boyfriend and his beloved mini cooper. I wanted to get a shot of him and his car under a streetlight, and we found one in my school's parking lot with a "G" on it which is perfect because his name is Graham.

I'm wondering if it's too dark, or if the "G" sign is too light. I wanted to go with the pure whites and pure blacks for B&W in this image though. How is the angle? Is there anything in the shot that's distracting? Is Graham too blended in with the car?

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T1i
Shutter: 3.2
Aperture: 4.5/f
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 18mm
Flash: Off

*My ISO is at 100 because I was setting this up to shoot with my film camera and I was using 100 film.

[zona5101]

cool image... i think you can improve it by cropping it tighter. The sign is radiant and looks cool, Graham against the car is a bit too dark. A little selective lightening maybe just the ticket to pop him a bit out from the deep shadow. Cool concept, darn fine execution & nice b&w conversion.

[statichash]

I think a tighter crop taking out what looks like an oil spot on the pavement but initially caught my eye thinking it was a shadow in the lower right of the image. I agree with zona that Graham could be lighted a bit to provide some contrast between him and the car. Good composition and overall a pretty decent night shot, they can be tricky.

Cheers!

[miyukisarah]

Update!

So I dodged Graham to make him stand out some more, cropped in a bit on the bottom and left side and clone stamped some of the oil stain out.

[zona5101]

I like it! Nice work. I stll might take a look and see if a portrait orientation turns your motor. It would take out the bright light on the right and give the "G" sign some more impact/emphasis as the sign and the image will be aligned...
Nice improvement here, did a well balanced job on the dodge.

[mandyatm]

I would crop out the tree on the right instead of cropping on the left. The tree is bright and keeps getting my attention, as does that bright spot in the background next to it. It looks much better after you lightened him.

[work2well]

Zona had a good point, with upright orientation, or cropping the right side off. But, where was the camera focusing ? it looks like the post was closer in focus than he or the car...VERY effective shot otherwise.