PLEASE critique - Album cover shot

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

06/13/2007 11:19:15 AM · #1

Probably the single best image I pulled from the aftershow wind-down of the Tres Sombreros de Copa performance. The rose is quite spontaneous and totally fitting.

For those who may or may not be familiar with the play, the character is Dionysio/Antonini (a play on words for ninny) who is a fool with a heart of gold. He gets repeatedly taken advantage of in the play, falling in love and stealing the heart of a treacherous woman trying to steal him away from the woman he will marry the next morning - a union which she falsely believes is actually going to be his true love. In the end, he leaves his new love to get married to a girl he little knows, with his heart torn, but his mind confused, being dragged off by the hotel keeper who is trying to prevent him from getting mixed up with the 'gold digger' girl. It's a pretty durned good classic story, performed exclusively in Spanish by Taiwanese students.

Brilliant.

There were quite a few worries about this guy for the role, but the boy flippin' nailed the performance... even overcoming unexpected technical malfunctions.

Absolutely brilliant. IMHO.

This is a straight from RAW to Batch process, resized and lightly sharpened. I am also including a 100% crop.

Since this is a preliminary edit, PLEASE critique and let me know honestly what ya think I can do better.

I'm looking specifically at technical aspects of the shot. Is the crop bad? does it look unnatural? Are the colors crap?

I'm going to print this at 8x10 and if the Spanish department will pay a bit, I will do my first 16x20. I believe it will print up quite easily at 150DPI at 16x20 and look fantastic.

Message edited by author 2007-06-14 10:30:17.

snaffles

Nikon D7100

06/13/2007 11:37:23 AM · #2

I love the shot and the colours, crop looks good, but maybe a fill flash on the side of face in shadow to bring out his expression. Nice job.

xianart

Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

06/13/2007 11:47:57 AM · #3

this is one take on it. concentrating the view much more on his face, i mulitplied the background, desaturated and added two patterns to break up the figures in the background. this is a cheap and cheerful edit - 5 minutes with a child pulling on me!

06/13/2007 08:28:06 PM · #4

Thanks Xianart and snaffles.

PS. Snaffles, I was thinking of doing a little curves adjustment to pull the face a bit to that end. Reshooting is completely not an option.

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

06/13/2007 10:58:55 PM · #5

Still looking for advice on this one.

zardoz

Nikon D200

06/13/2007 11:45:46 PM · #6

I'd be tempted to go with a tighter crop and certainly remove some of the background distractions. I think you need to try and bring the contrast down somewhat and lighten the eyes. A bit like this rough edit I tried

Message edited by author 2007-06-13 23:47:23.

zardoz

Nikon D200

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

06/13/2007 11:49:56 PM · #7

On second thoughts, I'm not so sure about the tighter crop. Perhaps just burning out the distractions on the right but leaving in the full rose stem.

06/14/2007 08:45:14 AM · #8

Thanks zardoz.

i'm probably going to leave the people in the background as it provides a nice context. it is after all 'after the show', not a portrait strict.

but I do appreciate the feedback, it's good to look at this from a different POV. I've been working on photos so much lately that I'm second guessing just about everything right now... oy.