Invitation to critique "Extraordinary Machine"

Class A · 07-08-2009, 05:17 AM

The title "Extraordinary Machine" is borrowed from a Fiona Apple album. She explained that the title described herself, something that turns sadness, anger, and other "negative" emotions into joy. She thought that was extraordinary from her.

I welcome feedback and suggestions regarding composition, post processing, etc.

K-9 · 07-09-2009, 10:00 PM

I would have filled the shot even more with the one eye, as the dark area in the upper left takes away from the composition and draws my eye there too quickly.

*Ash* · 07-09-2009, 10:36 PM

This is a tough capture.
I too would have thought to flatten perspective a little by having her eye more front on, but I suppose that's not what you wanted to create in the first place. Though the subject being the pupil, it would have come up bolder looking straight in.

Class A · 07-09-2009, 11:54 PM

Thanks K-9 for biting.

After 30-odd views and no comments I had almost lost hope.

Originally Posted by K-9

I would have filled the shot even more with the one eye, as the dark area in the upper left takes away from the composition and draws my eye there too quickly.

Thanks for the the feedback. I thought I needed to provide a bit of context and would have thought that if anything I'm too close already. At one point I wanted to provide more space to the left but I didn't capture enough of it. Nevertheless, I very much appreciate your input!

Originally Posted by Ash

This is a tough capture.

In what way do you mean "tough capture"?

Originally Posted by Ash

I too would have thought to flatten perspective a little by having her eye more front on, but I suppose that's not what you wanted to create in the first place.

Yes, you are right. I was after a "profile" shot. You might be right that it doesn't work that well, though. Thanks for the input!

**Damn Brit** · 07-10-2009, 12:07 AM

I would have bitten earlier if I had seen it, honest.

I actually quite like it as it is with the proviso that, as it is borrowed from an album, album covers (both vinyl and cd) are square. So if you crop it square, the problem with the top LH corner goes away.

Slightly OT, it's hard to tell because of the size of the posted image but do I see a couple of hot pixels? One on the right where the eyelashes meet the upper eyelid and one on the left a little away from the top of the picture and the line of the nose.

Class A · 07-10-2009, 04:04 AM

Originally Posted by Damn Brit

I would have bitten earlier if I had seen it, honest.

Oh, those sunglasses do get in the way sometimes, don't they?

Originally Posted by Damn Brit

I actually quite like it as it is with the proviso that, as it is borrowed from an album, album covers (both vinyl and cd) are square. So if you crop it square, the problem with the top LH corner goes away.

Thanks!
I just tried the square crop and I have to say imagining that as a LP/CD cover is quite cool. I'm still not sure whether it is the most effective crop for the image as such, but the context definitely adds something.

If you guys are interested, I'll post the square crop.

Originally Posted by Damn Brit

Slightly OT, it's hard to tell because of the size of the posted image but do I see a couple of hot pixels?

What you are seeing are actually real small particles. They look so bright because of the high key processing I did. There were a couple more of them but I retouched the most disturbing away.

Thanks for the heads up and for not biting too hard.