Graffiti & Model Attempt 1

Hey All,

I dragged some friends out shooting with me the other day and had them pose as my practice models. I've never tried with graffiti backgrounds before --

Any suggestions on how to make this a better / more interesting shot would sure be appreciated! My model is aware that I'm posting this here.

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Anne:

I'll take a stab...I see two things happening that I'll offer my opinions for.

First, there's a lot going on this picture. The background...well, you know, it's graffiti...is loud and bold. I like graffiti backgrounds, and I choose to shoot them a little differently. I put my subject 6-8 feet in front of the background so that I can get some separation between the background and the model. With that separation, the background goes out of focus and doesn't compete with the subject for the viewer's attention. Even though he has the bright red shirt, the strong whites in the background are fighting for attention. Pull them out of focus and some of that attention goes away.

Second, I'm having a difficult time finding exactly what is in focus. He's a little bit soft-focused in his face and I'd want that to be tack sharp. You've got great examples of tack-sharp focus in your Flickr account. That hawk is amazing! The focus is dead on the base of the beak so the viewer can see the individual tufts. That kind of focus on your model's face would help here.

Thanks for sharing your work and welcome to POTN!
Hope to see more.

In regards to soft focus on face -- I think I over did the de-noise in LR3 -- would that affect it at all?

Separate him from back ground -- got it! Going to try again this afternoon - so this feedback is awesome! Thanks!

Thanks too cpam.pix for the feedback on the flickr shots! You just made my day.

I'll figure people shots out eventually, but its sooo much fun to try!!

I'm very new to this photography thing myself but thought instantly about moving the model out from the wall and using a shallowish DOF to somewhat blur the background to help separate the two. It would also help to hide the rectangular panel on the wall directly behind the models head (I find it distracting).

Other than that, I like it.

Well first, lets start with this model. Completely wrong look for someone who should be by some graffiti, this guy looks a lot more conservative rather than outgoing and unlawful haha. If you use graffiti get some gritty, tattooed friend or something, or a kid against authority, something that had more impact on the meaning that coincides with the graffiti.

In terms of the composution, where the guy stands and his gesture is okay, just isn't that interesting. Could have used a bit of a contrast boost(5-10 in LR) and a bump in saturation as well(I normally do about 10-20 depending on the photo).

As you said in your last post, you spoke of having some very shallow DOF. If you did this with a perspective that was very low(have him almost standing on top the camera), to make him seem larger than life it would have had a much better impact for the viewer.

Just my .02

I think CSMF's idea for a low angle is great! I'd get really low - down on the ground with a WA lens and shoot up. The graffiti could use a boost in saturation so select the guy, feather it, invert it and open a saturation or vibrance layer and pump up the colors a bit.

I love the low angle idea -- I don't currently have a WA lens though (getting one soon!). When I get it, we're going back, and we're going to totally try all these ideas!! Also, I don't yet have CS6 (or anything) so I can't feather and invert -- wouldn't even know how. Getting that program as well and will figure it out!
Thanks!!!

The only thing that really distracts me is around his head, on the wall. The rectangular part that sticks out bothers me a bit, as far as taking away focus from the subject.