[jayroop]

my friend and i went out to shoot some photos on this archipelago just outside of gothenburg, sweden. it was quite cold, and when we arrived there was a tad bit more snow than we expected. this photo is the result.

for me, controlling exposure and tone of snow has been quite a challenge. this photo has been pulled back about half of a stop and the snow itself warmed up a bit. i'm also unsure of the crop, this is what i got in camera, but feel it could be pulled in a bit to eliminate some of the space in the top of the frame. my instinct is to preserve the sense of open space we were in, but i'm not sure if i've gone about it in the best way.

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Welcome to the forum.

First off, it's usually better to let the picture speak for itself. All that you have written tends to make people less inclined to comment because you have already done so.


You have you subject positioned pretty well in the frame. The shadow at top left is a distraction and shouldn't be there. The shadow on the right is cut in half and it shouldn't be. The subject combined with his shadow would make two sides of a triangle in the frame which would give the picture some narrative. As it is, it doesn't do anything for me because there doesn't seem to be any point to it.
It looks slightly overexposed to me, there's no vibrance in the colours. I can't see any crop that would improve the image.

[MattC]

I don't mind the colours and composition, but IMO photos of peoples backs never really work.
If you had moved around to the front, or tried a different angle, it probably would have more interest - ie we could have seen the persons facial expression, and hence given us a better idea of what they were experiencing at that moment.

[jayroop]

@ damn brit / thanks for the comments. i usually prefer to present what i show, as i feel that helps give some context and therefore generates better feedback. i'll leave out the self-doubting criticism though, ^.^

@ mattc / i was standing on top of a rock when he jumped down into the snow (i was nice enough to let him be the leader this time, haha) and only had this vantage point. i did, however, get a couple of shots of him looking back at me. i'll uploaded them to this post.

[jayroop]

here's that other photo, still figuring out the forum system.

[GoremanX]

personally I like the way the exposure turned out. The snow looks like snow, and the shot clearly looks like it was taken in sunlight rather than at dusk (like so many snow shots tend to).

I'm not sure why Damn Brit deels the colours aren't vibrant, they look very vibrant to me. Perhaps the OP posted the pictures in AdobeRGB? I can't check, I'm not on my own computer and this one has no graphics tools. The browser I'm using may be color managed.

I far prefer the composition of the second shot, although it's unfortunate that the subject's face is in shade rather than sunlight. But I pretty much second all of Damn Brit's composition remarks.

I'm not sure why Damn Brit deels the colours aren't vibrant, they look very vibrant to me. Perhaps the OP posted the pictures in AdobeRGB?

Maybe my choice of words were a little poor, maybe "less vibrant than they should be" would have been better. They just look a little washed out, the snow looks overly bright and the shadows not as dark as they could be.