Blown Away

[SandeeWig]

This is my first attempt at using a texture; I used one preinstalled in PS CS2, and I'm not sure if it's overdone or not.

It was early evening around 4:45 pm.
1/1250Sec.
F3.2
Spot Metering
Exposure Compensation: 0
ISO Speed: 200
EF50mm f/1.8 II

My questions about the processing are:
Does the texture add to image or detract?
How does the b/w conversion strike you and the contrast in the image?
Is the border/vignette too much?
Also...
Is the crop tight enough? It was originally taken landscape, but perhaps I should've cut off some of his hair in the upper right?
Generally, is it an interesting composition?
I took this as he was facing the son, so there are some hot spots, particularly on his shirt sleeve. Is it too distracting?


Large version available here.

Thanks so much for looking. I welcome any and all feedback.

[Jesswashere]

I love the texture. It gives the photo an old feeling to it. The cropping I think is fine. I like seeing a lot of his hair because it seems to give him a little character. The hot spot on his shoulder can be a little distracting, but I didn't notice until I read about it, so I wouldn't worry about that too much. You might want to try darkening it a little if you can. The vignette is a LITTLE much, but I like the style you had going with it.

[Japaslavian]

The texture is alright, but the thing that bothers me about it is that it is so uniform. You can see each little square that it makes.

I actually find the crop a little too tight. I thin you had it right the frist time with a horizontal frame because the overall composition's movement is much more from right to left, not vertical. I personally would have left some negative space to the left of the frame, though i do agree keeping in all the hair does add some character to it.

I would soften the vignette a little bit. You can see where it makes a corner, and ends up looking too geometric, especially when the subject is very organic.

The only thing that irks me about the hot spot on the sleeve is that the heavy vignette is right next to it, so there is a huge contrast between light and dark that attracts a little too much attention.

The conversion all together is nice though and the shallow DoF is really nice.

[SandeeWig]

Originally Posted by Jesswashere

I love the texture. It gives the photo an old feeling to it. The cropping I think is fine. I like seeing a lot of his hair because it seems to give him a little character. The hot spot on his shoulder can be a little distracting, but I didn't notice until I read about it, so I wouldn't worry about that too much. You might want to try darkening it a little if you can. The vignette is a LITTLE much, but I like the style you had going with it.

Thanks so much for your comments and feedback, Jess. I'm still questioning the crop; I tried placing his eyes on the top-right third intersection and actually liked it better - I felt like it balanced out the picture more, and it minimized the hot spot on his shoulder as well...though, it did take out lots of his precious curls.

Originally Posted by Japaslavian

The texture is alright, but the thing that bothers me about it is that it is so uniform. You can see each little square that it makes.

I actually find the crop a little too tight. I thin you had it right the frist time with a horizontal frame because the overall composition's movement is much more from right to left, not vertical. I personally would have left some negative space to the left of the frame, though i do agree keeping in all the hair does add some character to it.

I would soften the vignette a little bit. You can see where it makes a corner, and ends up looking too geometric, especially when the subject is very organic.

The only thing that irks me about the hot spot on the sleeve is that the heavy vignette is right next to it, so there is a huge contrast between light and dark that attracts a little too much attention.

The conversion all together is nice though and the shallow DoF is really nice.

Thank you, Japa, for your thorough feedback and advice. I really appreciate it. I understand where you are coming from when you talk about the horizontal movement vs. vertical. The reason I cropped it vertically was because of a white railing just in front of him that I found rather distracting, and I thought the tighter crop would make it a bit more personal.

I definitely agree w/ you on the vignette and took your advice and softened it up a bit.

Again, thanks so much for your time and feedback.