Mirror, mirror

[gahspidy]

An image from a Brooklyn Republican Convention that I was hired to shoot.
What are your thoughts on this one . . .

thanks

[SmartWombat]

Nice idea
But the focus is on the mirror frame, not the reflections of the people.
Was that intentional?

[Addies Granddaddy]

Gary, I'm one of your biggest fans, but I'm having trouble associating the people in the mirror with the people in the foreground. It looks like the people in the foreground were pasted into the shot. And FWIW, personally I'd like to see where these mirrors were hanging to get some sort of reference point. Then again, I may be missing entirely, the whole point of this shot. On the whole, it might work better without the folks in the foreground, but what do I know.
John

[Yoyo Szeto]

Hi Gary,
I like the symmetry of the mirrors. I think the colour of the wall is too strong to attract the viewer's attention instead of to the reflection. The idea is good and worth to explore more.
yoyo

[gahspidy]

Thanks Paul, John, and Yoyo for the comments.
I was not sure if this would come off as I see it and I guess it does not.
Paul, I was on Auto focus the whole night and had the camera focus on the subjects in the mirror. I think the frame looks sharper because it is static and bold whereas the reflections themselves are softer.
John, I understand what you are describing. I felt the people in the fg gave some reference.
I appreciate your thoughts on this.
Yoyo, did you mean the brightness of the wall rather than the color? It is a white wall. Thanks for your feedback
btw, this was just a shot I really took for myself, whereas the rest of the evening was spent shooting portraits and some candids of the individuals and the event itself.
Thanks much for the great feedback

[Yoyo Szeto]

Yes, Gary. I mean the brightness.

yoyo

[Overbeyond]

Great idea Gary that works pretty well.
I would like to have seen more of the people in the foreground but this may not have been possible. At the moment, from behind, the positioning of the people standing around did no favours yet their positioning of their reflected images is great if all this makes sense. . i'm getting confused myself now. There is great impact in those two wonderfully ugly mirrors and I'm guessing that there was huge potential for something great here but all the circumstances for not getting the best out of a situation conpired against you.

[CLKunst]

In an event situation, coordinators (i.e. the people who hire you) like to see elements of creativity like this. I've certainly done this type of shot before at galas and what not. It's a great way to include people's faces without interrupting them and getting the cheesy hand shake shot that you always see at these kind of functions.

My suggestion for next time is don't worry about the heads for reference, fill the frame with reflection. Also, if the available light is good enough, shoot it with the flash on and one with it off or if it must be with the flash then shoot the mirror at an angle where the glare on the reflection won't be so harsh. The real distraction for me on this one is the glare around the edges of the mirror where the cleaning hasn't been as precise. Not your fault, but it detracts from the image.

[Greg McCary]

Gary. I like the fact that the mirror is sharp as a tack but the faces are a bit soft. Also that the mirror isn't perfectly clean. I think it would have worked better with some seperation between the mirror and the heads. Also some detail to the wall. It looks as though the mirror is just suspended as is and I think the flash hurt the shot some. I think the over all idea was a good one. How was the food?

[Didache]

I'm going to disagree with most people here by saying I think this is a hugely interesting picture and very creative. The size of the foreground people, the colour of the wall, and the apparently sharp frame/soft people doesn't bother me one iota. I like it as it is.

The one thing that detracts is the flash around the edge of the mirror which shows up where it isn't clean, but I imagine that could be dealt with by a bit of judicious cloning.

Cheers
Mike

[Shooter Tiff]

I agree with Mike

Before I read any comments, the first thing I thought was... Great Shot!, and of course you could clone out the smudges.

I like that the mirror is so dated because looking at the whole pic, it looks like it could have been taken when the mirror was new.
Have you thought about upping the vibrancy and saturation in ps?

I like the heads in the foreground they seem to match up to me. My only other thought about that is it may have been nice to have gotten down an extra inch or so the get all of the back of a few of the heads.

[GB1]

Gary - Overall I think you have a successful photograph here. Yes I do agree with most of the other issues that people have correctly pointed out, but it still an interesting shot any way you cut it. I think what might hurt it is that the people in the mirror are pretty much looking away at odd angles. But at least you can see their faces and recognize them ! and I think that alone will make them happy.

Another thing I would suggest is to do an expt to deal with the area in the left, right and top areas. It may be a bit too bright. I would consider putting a vignette on the image in those area to counter that, which might suck attention away from the subjects.

Did I say great eye for creativity? Well done

Gb

[gahspidy]

Thanks Tom, Cindy, Greg, Mike, Tiff, and GB. Really great feedback and some encouraging thoughts.
Thanks for the tip,Cindy. I am really new to this type of work and am working in collaboration with another photog.
Good points about the people in the fg, either more or none at all, but I recall now having difficulty in finding the right position so I was not in the reflection and that had alot to do with me shooting at this exact spot. I guess I could have stood far across the room and mounted the 200mm, but I did not want to swap lenses out just for this one shot as there was alot that I needed to be shooting.
The flash was bounced up at the ceiling for this shot (this cocktail hour room had a reasonably low ceiling) but some of it did show up as glare in the smudged portion of the mirror especially.
Thanks guys (and gals,Cindy ) this has been a great help in understanding what worked and what does not.
BTW, this place is called the Grand Prospect Hall and has been around a long time. It is a huge spot with 4 floors of Victorian style layouts.Very Gawdy looking, but still takes your breathe away when you first enter. If you google it, you can see many an interesting even took place here.