Re: [Leica] CRM PAW Week 7 and Revised Week 6

["Ted Grant" <tedgrant@home.com>]

C.R. wrote:
>>>> Ted is of course correct. I converted the photo to Black & White, which
I think helps. Her husband might not understand if I gave her roses. I opted
for home-made fudge.   It seems to take me three or four days to be able to
appreciate criticism.  Keep it comming!<<<<<

Hi C.R.

Good on you!  Keep trying, quitters get no where when miffed by a critique,
even a smack in the mouth critique. ;-) One should always take the critique
with the idea that, "hey maybe he's right !"  And I've had to endure some
very tough critiques in my day, yep they are always tough to swallow, but in
many cases the comments make one a better photographer! Certainly a better
editor of one's own work.

Always ask yourself this question, " Is this one of my best 10 pictures?"
And if you can't answer that automatically with a big "YES!"  Then there is
doubt and it's out! It took me sometime to swallow that when I first heard
it from my assistant/associate Sandy Carter when she asked that very
question. I'm ooohing and aaaaahing through a number of slides on the light
table and like a bucket of ice water over the head she said, " But is that
one of your best 10 images?" And when you think the images are really cool
and you're king of picture taking, "wham!" Not soooo cool after all! :-)

Quite frankly your converting the flash picture of the lady in red to B&W
made a major difference in quality of acceptance. I see this shot as a good
example of  "when you photograph people in colour, you photograph their
clothes!"  The red dress completely takes the eyes away from her face and
makes for just another flash on camera in the face picture of nothing.

However,  making the conversion as you did now you have, "When you
photograph people in B&W, you photograph their souls!"  And you made a major
improvement in the image through the conversion, which quite frankly is far
more acceptable and I wouldn't have jumped you the way I did when it first
appeared. ;-)

Ready for week 7? ;-)

Now I know you looked at this image, but you didn't really see it.

The woman on the right is chopped so badly it looks like she, by accident,
got in the way of you shooting the counter. It's bad news chopping that
tight with the overall crop you have here. I think you could've taken it off
the right side and given more to the person, if it were on the neg.

The picture on an overall basis has some potential through cropping and if
this is someone you know and could give direction to. If that were not
possible then you should've dumped the picture and found something else.

Do you see those round mirrors upper level of frame? An interesting picture
could've been made using one of them by shooting into the mirror and showing
the same person holding the compact in hand. Go really wide aperture and
focus on the image in the mirror and let all else drop major out of focus,
this would've isolated the mirror image and made something out of a
generally nothing location.

Cropping?  The lower left corner hot spot, either burn it down or crop the
frame just below her elbow and get rid of the bottom portion of the frame
completely. Then come in from the right  5 rows of those round objects
leaving two, crop it there. This tightens the overall look and also
strengthens the subject on the left even though you chopped her pretty
badly.

There is potential to squeak something out of this shot with some judicious
cropping, certainly if there is more on the left side of the neg. Try it and
see what you can pull out of it. Best bet? prove me wrong or right, your
choice! ;-)

I hope this helps.
ted

Ted Grant Photography Limited
www.islandnet.com/~tedgrant
- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Marshall, C.R." <C.R.Marshall@uwsp.edu>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2001 2:11 PM
Subject: [Leica] CRM PAW Week 7 and Revised Week 6


> Week 7 is up at http://my.voyager.net/~cmarshal/wk072001.htm
>
> I am back in Black and White. As always, comments are welcome.
>
> Regarding week 6, (http://my.voyager.net/~cmarshal/wk062001.htm) Ted Grant
> said:
> >Unfortunately you did this girl no justice whatsoever in the first
> photograph! If she says "nice picture" buy her a bouquet of roses, as
she's
> probably fibbing! Sorry mate I calls them the way I see them.
>
>
> Ted is of course correct. I converted the photo to Black & White, which I
> think helps. Her husband might not understand if I gave her roses. I opted
> for home-made fudge.
>
> It seems to take me three or four days to be able to appreciate criticism.
> Keep it comming!
>
> C.R. Marshall
> http://my.voyager.net/~cmarshal/pow2001.htm