[BityBabyNurse]

Please critique my pic. Please include what you think about my lighting and the fact of it being off center. THanks ima newbie.

[Dave]

Hi & welcome to Pixalo.

Off centre is perfect , as per rule of thirds here :- http://www.pixalo.com/articles/Rule-of-thirds.php . Lighting to the side can create a moody feel to shot, so your on the right track. I would say the Mono conversion has left the shot feeling a little flat though. With Mono you are trying to get a decent tonal range right through from pitch black to white. Have a look at some Mono conversion techniques here that may help :- Converting colour photos to black and white using Photoshop

Looking forward to seeing more of your shots

[Dabhand16]

I like the composition, but think the light background draws the eye from his face. Try a similar shot with different backgrounds to see what looks best - post here too!

[fionaB]

agree with what has been said.. i also think that the image itself needs to be sharper. did u use a tripod?
perhaps a reflector on the right (ours so his left) so there is not quite as harsh a line between light and shadow?

Fi

[BityBabyNurse]

Would anyone like to try and PS this to make it look better? Please tell me what you did. Thanks P.S. I took the pic in b/w mode on my camera.

[fionaB]

ahhhhhh never use the mono mode in camera, even most of the camera manufacturers say this unless u are printing direct from the camera.

Fi

[BityBabyNurse]

Originally Posted by fionaB

ahhhhhh never use the mono mode in camera, even most of the camera manufacturers say this unless u are printing direct from the camera.

Fi

So, I should just remove color afterwards with PS and not use the parameter b/w? Is that it?

I'll have to give this another shot this week when I get off work, and I'll try the reflector advice too. Thanks.

[fionaB]

yep shoot in colour and convert to mono later, there are lots of way to do this, if you look on the tutorials on here there are a number of ways shown.
The incamera mon ust does not offer the same levels of versatility that converting in ps does...... its a bit like changing to greyscale and not doing anything else, leaves the image looking flat and often not with the full range of tones it needs to bring it alive.

Fi

[Markulous]

I'm not too keen on the lighting, to be honest - very bright backlighting and not much from the front, so leaving too much shadow over the face but I'll admit that I'm no portraitist!



Shadow/Highlight, dodge some of the darker areas, crop, sharpen, border

[BityBabyNurse]

Yeah, I think I like that better, but I would get rid of my reflection in the glasses!

[JMitchell]

Actually I think it adds to the shot, and it would be rather unnatural not to have a reflection in the glasses. Nice one mark!

[skipper954]

Off center (centre?) is good. The original is too dark in the face, and Mark's pimp works well.

To expand on what Fi said, never let your camera do any processing for you. It limits your options and you lose control.

If you can, shoot in RAW, then make that changes that you want in your image processor.

skip