Hello Tim ... This is one of your better photos, and the processing is pretty good as well. Good work - there appears to be quantifiable improvement in your concert pix. One strong compositional point is the diagonal created by the microphone stand, the microphone, and the angle of the singer's head. It gives the photo some additional strength.
Your choice to desaturate the photo seems like it was a good one. It may have even benefited from more desaturation, or even conversion to B&W, with deeper and darker shadows - but that's one of my personal preferences not a criticism necessarily. The photo might be stronger still with a bit of cropping. A 5:7 ratio seems to work pretty well, imo, as it emphasises the diagonal element, reduces the void in front of her, and brings her back a little closer to the right edge of the photo, providing more of an "anchor" and lessening the feeling of her "floating" on the stage. I don't understand her reddish/orange hand. It doesn't match the skin tones on her face, and causes the hand to stand out from the rest of the photo, and drawing the viewer's eye towards it and away from the face, where all the power and emotion is, lessening to a degree the overall strength of the photo. I did a quick desaturation of the hand just to exemplify my thoughts. A little more work with color adjustments might be helpful, although you get the idea. You can see the adjustments here: http://home.earthlink.net/~shel-pix/misia.jpg The highlights on her face seem just a little bright. Bringing them down just a little might be a good idea, although I've not actually tried doing that. They're not bad, but a little harsh and distracting from the overall power of her facial expression. Unlike many similar photos that have been posted here, where the microphone obscures the singer's face, your choice of shooting from the side gives the photo the power it deserves, and captures very well the emotion and concentration of the singer. Good work! Shel "You meet the nicest people with a Pentax" > [Original Message] > From: Tim Øsleby > > > http://foto.no/cgi-bin/bildegalleri/vis_bilde.cgi?id=204786
