Assignment 5 Critique

Concept/aboutness/idea/context: The top three images could work as a series or individually I thought.  I couldn't pick one image by itself though so I chose these three.  I like how the eyes are so different in all of them.  The first one looks innocent, the second she is not looking at the camera but you get a strong feel from the squinty sense, and the last is a very powerful look.  I think that is what makes them go along so well together.  The main idea of all of my images was people blending into their surroundings. I also think the three go together well because they are all placed on the right of the frame.

 The top three are more of an optical allusion, whereas the bottom three are more about how people blend into their comfort.  I took the bottom three pictures candid with people just in their natural environment and I said they could pose as they chose, that is why I think it works well.

Image 1:

Cropping: For this image, I chose to zoom in on the crop a bit.  Now that I look at the image I wish I had cropped even more of the top off so the hair was not as visible. However, the hair is dark like the images behind her so I think it works.  

Sharpness and blur: I really wanted to have the entire image in focus.  If the subject was in focus and the background was blurry it would take away from the meaning entirely.  I wanted the subject to blend into her environment so I used a fast shutter speed.  The image was dark but I was able to lighten it in photoshop.

Lighting:  The lighting was also important for this image.  I wanted to have the least amount of shadows possible but I only had one lamp to use so this was difficult.  I placed the lamp right in front of the subject's face. There are a few shadows but I do not think this is too distracting, though it makes the subject stand out more than her surroundings.

Image 2:

Placement of subject in frame:  I chose to include a lot of the subject.  I even included the hair but mostly only people I liked how this image worked in the series of three.  Individually, I think this image is weakest when it come to what I wanted my meaning to be.  I also chose to include the hand because I felt it helped with the powerful expression.

Contrast:  I really increased the contrast for this image, and for all of them.  Increasing the contrast was very important for this image because without increasing the contrast, the subject looked a lot more gray than the background.  This made the subject pop out too much, and this was not my intent.  The subject is still more gray than the background in all the pictures, but I don't find it too distracting.

Background elements: The background elements are what makes this picture, and all of the pictures.  The attention is supposed to be divided evenly between the background and subject, though this was difficult to do.  I really tried to use a slow shutter speed and high aperture so that all of the image was in focus but it was difficult because of the lighting I used.

Image 3:

Orientation:  I chose to portray this image horizontally, as well as all of the other images.  I think this works in this situation because you are able to see a lot of the background, and the background is the most important aspect overall.  

Focus/shadows:  Just about everything is in focus in this picture which really works.  Individually, I think this is the most successful image by itself.  Though the shadows make the subject pop out more than I would like, the placement of the subject, the amount I chose to crop, and the contrast, all work pretty well.

Images 4, 5, and 6:

Shape/pattern:  The shapes in all of these images are very significant.  the rectangle itself is important.  I chose to make it a rectangle because I thought it would cut out a good portion of the stomach so that you would be able to see what is going on.  In retrospect, I would have had a larger rectangle because it kind of just looks like the subjects are holding up a picture.  All of the shapes are significant because it helps in showing that the people are blending into their natural environments.  

Background: In the second image, shapes are important because of the door shapes.  Also, I think this image, of the three, is the most successful because of the background image.  It has very definite lines and shapes, and therefore you can tell that the picture is of the background.  The other two you can, but you have to look hard and naturally you don't think that the picture is the background.

Distracting elements:  This is one of the only times, I have found, that I was not afraid to just take a picture regardless of lighting and distracting elements.  Although some of this image could have said to be distracting, I really don't think they are because they add the meaning.  If I had staged everything, everyone would have looked more posed, and this would not have been what I wanted.