Bad Photograph

[Overbeyond]

Went to a wedding last week and just brought my compact with me.
Heads cut off, feet cut off, blown out bits (took Ronnoco's advice and stuck to all the guidelines) but yet it has become one of my favourits from the day.
Any opinions would be appreciared.
Tom

[poker]

The shot is interesting. The expressions are unique and the color is nice.

Since the man in the middle is complete, try cutting (cropping) more on the people on the side. Recompose the shot so that the people on the side frame the man in the middle. It's just a suggestion not to say it would be better.

Cool. Thanks for sharing.

[molaselake]

Ack! I don't like the crop suggestion. I think screwing around with this in that sort of manner would ruin it. I really enjoy it just how it is compositionally. I'm going to sound like a broken record because I'm obsessed with black and white, but have you tried it with this image??

[Don Schaeffer]

I think this is hyper-realistic. I see human beings here not models. One rarely gets such a clear view of human beings.

[Photo-John]

You know, I really like it. It may not be a good wedding photo and it may not be what you set out to do. But it's important to let accidents happen and not be too quick to toss them out. Often, the "bad" photos are the most important ones in the big picture and the photos that we learn the most from. When I find that my technique and process starts getting too tight, I looks for a way to loosen it up and allow "mistakes." Because I want to be able to let the mistakes happen and see what I might be missing.

In this case, what I see is a very interesting, three-way dynamic. What makes this work is that each person is doing their own thing, seemingly oblivious of what the other two are doing. It's a very human situation and might even be seen as a cultural statement. This moves above the level of recording an event in an aesthetically pleasing way and starts to say more about who we are as a culture and our relationship to ourselves and each other.

Good job on catching on this moment. But you are to be commended more for being open to what the photo is showing and being true to your heart in recognizing it as meaningful. Many people wouldn't have recognized it for what it is, or would have denied it because it didn't meet with their expectations. This very well may be a photo that sends you on your way, in a larger and more meaningful direction. I love it when that happens!!!

Thanks for sharing it and also for offering me the opportunity to wax philisophical

[biggy smalls]

I think this is hyper-realistic. I see human beings here not models. One rarely gets such a clear view of human beings.

I agree 100%. I really, really like this image. I have seen images done in this style before for mags (they were obviously staged) and I really liked them. The fact that the head and heal are cut off gives this image a great deal of character, and the expression on the face of the man in the centre really does it for me. This image really leads me to wonder what they were talking about.

[LeeIs]

Love expressions and photo Tom. It's really hard to describe but this shot has a very good "story like" impression to it. And that's the way I like to see people captured. With so much to say. Here they do that very effectively.

Getting a bit more technical and being in the newspaper industry where I have to colour correct photos on a nightly basis (even though I'm not the photo editor at work, I help out after he leaves). I have to say that you've captured the skin tones very well. One of those less work for moi!! Oh, I love those!

[Seb]

Went to a wedding last week and just brought my compact with me.
Heads cut off, feet cut off, blown out bits (took Ronnoco's advice and stuck to all the guidelines) but yet it has become one of my favourits from the day.
Any opinions would be appreciared.
Tom

Tom, I think that this is really really neat. It's just too bad that the right guy head and foot are cut off because I find the picture to be unique and twisted in a most interesting way. I love the colors, these guys poses and most importantly, the relations betwen them. the fact that the background is washed out is also great. I can't figure out where they are which make the scene even more surreal.

Seb

[Ronnoco]

Went to a wedding last week and just brought my compact with me.
Heads cut off, feet cut off, blown out bits (took Ronnoco's advice and stuck to all the guidelines) but yet it has become one of my favourits from the day.
Any opinions would be appreciared.
Tom

Ah, cut off means "cut off" totally. Nevertheless technique and composition either contribute to the photo or detract from it. Your subject is definitely interesting but the "dented" looking, head on the woman and the cropped head of the man as well as the blown out background detract from your photo.

Ronnoco

[Overbeyond]

Thanks so much to you all for your most interesting comments on this one.
The best thing about weddings for me is just people watching and sometimes it's easy to catch them unawares when they are wrapped up in a conversation and maybe had one or two too many LOL. You can catch them 'real'.
Liz : I have since tried a B/W on this and it does work fine though someone else did it elswhere and it looked a lot better than my effort.
Don and Photo John; You have read this in a similar kind of way to myself. I was going to call it 'Body Language' or 'Who's Listening' and may stick with one of those titles.

Ronnoco; You are right. These are the very obvious "faults" as I pointed out but I feel happy looking beyond them in this instance.

Seb, Leels, Manasca, Biggy Smalls; Thanks to you all. Your kind words encourage me to "stay at it".
Tom

[Lava Lamp]

Three comments:

• There is often a balance between a technically correct photo and an interesting one. We've all seen sterilized Walmart portraits that offer good lighting and are sharp enough, but devoid of any personality and thus uninteresting.
• Portraits are almost always bout the expressions (and body language to a lesser extent) and this has it in spades and is therefore successful.
• Cutting off parts isn't neccessairly a killer -- if you look at some of the Impressionist painters -- especially DeGas -- they embrace the way snapshot can cut off a scene, giving it a finite rfeel and also making it more intimate. Personally, I think this would be a better picture if it weren't cropped so much, but I'd trade that for the expression naytime.

[Overbeyond]

Thanks very much Lava Lamp. Much appreciated.
Tom