A toy may feel alone too

[vafa]

A toy may feel alone too, when she had been left him.
Does it work for you? Do you see what I saw?
vafa

http://www.bytephoto.com/photopost/data/503/2108Picture_050-2-med.jpg?8957

[ndh]

I just noticed your post after posting my own photo of a sad object (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=34394&highlight=). Perhaps we can critique each others' posts! (I'm a newbie though, so take anything I say with a big grain of salt.)

I like the placement of the toy off to one corner. I think the pathos is defeated a bit by the colours being so sunshiny-bright, though. What do you think of blurring the background? I think that would add to the feeling of the toy being lost and alone...

[Penguin_101_1]

I agree on blurring the background. I think that would give it a more lost feel. Great colors!

[vafa]

Did you mean so?
vafa


http://www.bytephoto.com/photopost/data/500/21082108Picture_050-2-med.jpg?7695

[damnengine]

did you blur that by hand? If you use photoshop, you better copy the layer, put a gaussian or lens blur (if you have CS) over it and make a mask with a gradient and brush the bear back. You'll get a mask like this (I brushed it a bit back in the foreground too which makes the DOF look a bit more natural)


http://www.damnengine.net/scrap/mask.JPG

as a result you should get a pic like this

http://www.damnengine.net/scrap/bear.jpg

I also made the blurred layer a bit darker to emphasize the bear a bit more and as you'll see the bear gets a bit of a halo, you should actually clone that out (in the blurred layer), it will look a bit more natural then:

http://www.damnengine.net/scrap/bearwithouthalo.jpg

[vafa]

It's wonderful to me.
thanks for your comments and learning procedure.
vafa

[stopbath]

The feeling of isolation works better in the original shot for me. In the final version presented, the photo is a bear on the ground.... That's it. But the first shot, is a bear on the ground left alone as the forgetful owner has dashed off into the apartment building (for lunch?)

Background could also be a playground with one or more kids playing in it, but blurring out the background takes the story away. (Since the playground would be cluttery, a small blur could work.)

[Jewel]

It's a nicely composed picture, but I don't "get it"?

Jewel