Composition help

[slr_noob]

I showed a photo of my favorite figure to my friend that I took. But I looked at it many times and still have no clue what's wrong with the composition of the photo and or the posing (sp?) of the figure. Thanks in advance.

Cropped (I pretty much cropped it for my screen)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/madbikes/IMG_0652_crop.jpg

Before it's cropped
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v455/madbikes/?action=view&current=IMG_0652.jpg

[FlyingPhotog]

First off, welcome to POTN...

Here's some thoughts on this:

1) The edge of the table is not level. This is called "Key Stone-ing" and can be fixed by moving your camera more to the right so that you are square to the table.

2) You either failed to frame the entire stand in the shot or else you cropped it out. Knowing that it's a figure, I'd rather see the whole stand.

3) Looks to be about a half to 2/3 of a stop underexposed. The whites are a bit on the dull grey side.

4) Your white balance looks just a bit blue-green.

5) I'd apply a little sharpening (although it might look soft do to jpg comression...)

The framing itself is actually fine as you don't want to just plonk your subject in the dead center of the frame (Rule of Thirds...)

Could be a very nice figure study with a bit more thought and work.

[chauncey]

Once you get the exposure and WB set suggested it is quite a colorful image.
But, by the time you correct the 2 degree out of level, there isn't much image left.

Shoot it anew and follow FlyingPhotog's suggestings, you'll have a nice image.
Don't forget to "expose to the right". Check out this link http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

[Radtech1]

Question:

Why did you choose to have so much empty space on the left half of the shot?

Rad

[TheSonofDarwin]

Since the stand is kind of a lost cause not being totally in the frame, I think it might look better without it. White balance here is easy - set white on the arms, black in the eyes, and grey on the table = perfect. Blending the grey in the table was a bit harder, and I didn't do a great job of it especially around the shoes :confused:

I hope you don't mind, but I wanted to try anime-ing it a little

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/thesonofdarwin/anime3.jpg

[chauncey]

My take, sans crop. No saturation or anything else, just color balance.
.

[Radtech1]

Question:

Why did you choose to have so much empty space on the left half of the shot?

Rad

Still waiting your response. :)

Rad

[kennykodak]

since subject is looking to the right, it would be more interesting to have more space on that side (looking into) as opposed to wasted space behind the head.