Took this pic tonight. At first glance, I really like it, but the more I look at it, the more I see that it's not quite there. The problem is that I'm not sure what's not right about it. I think a good crop would help a lot, but I can't seem to get it. Or is it something else.
Would someone with a more experienced eye take a look at this pic and offer some tips on how I can improve it? I don't think it's far from being excellent, but it's just not quite working for me, and I can't put my finger on why.
imho I was thinking two things. These may be way out in left field but I want to express them anyway. Please take them as you will
1. Mabey crop out the light source and see what happens, from just looking at it I can't tell what that would do for this shot
2. Mabey revisit your set up one more time and move the light source to just behind the cue ball, making the light to seem to radiate from the cue. this may take some reframing to get that beautiful shadow effect and may not work at all, but I think it would be worth a try
maybe you could take your backlight up a little higher and get somthing reflective to through some light on the back of the pool balls. then crop out the light. Or at least clone it down some. I think if you used a flash it could take away froom the shot. Be sure and post your new shot, I will be interested to see how it turns out.
Jackson I really like the shot. The only thing I personally would change is to rotate it a bit so that the far edge of the table is horizontal. Apart from that I think its a moody and surprisingly evocative image.
The are of interest in the piece are the racked balls, but they occupy only a small percentage of the image. The bright parts of the image distract from them. The lighting's too harsh - soften it.
The are of interest in the piece are the racked balls, but they occupy only a small percentage of the image. The bright parts of the image distract from them. The lighting's too harsh - soften it.
Just my thoughts.
ahh, that's better - thanks. I tried a few crops, mostly to remove the overbearing light source, but just cropping the top 1/3 of the image screwed up the scale. I think this type of cropping works much better.
I'm at work, and I don't have the original to work with, but I'm really happy with this version. In the reshoot, I need to make sure my light is centered so the glow on the rail behind the cueball is centered. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with it.
