Photo Critique

[Olena Babak]

Hello everyone and thank you for the feedback.

Claudemir, this is actually my dilemma: The mother of the children really loves the picture, but I feel that they need to sit straighter, and he needs to have more space on the left. But, due to the size constraint, I cannot move them because it will cut into the girls arm.

Terri: Thank you so much! They are very good points and I will be keeping them in mind as I'm working on the sketches and the painting later on.

David: I agree. But I don't have another chance for a second photo shoot... I'm just trying at this point to figure out how I can make this particular picture work. This picture is proportional to the size of the canvas that the mother wants; this is my work area and I can't change it.

Any ideas on how to make the movement and composition work within the painting?

Has anybody seen any good examples of dual portraits with similar poses?

Thank you

[Mike McCarty]

Olena,

You might want to re-check your photo proportions to your canvas size. I don't think the ratios are the same. If this is true you will need to make some modifications to get this image on your 33x27 canvas.

That said, I agree that the composition would benefit from some additional room on our left. Also, I agree that if you could straighten the boy up a bit it would help a great deal. You might be able to accomplish this if you make a few sketches toward that end. Even if it were just his head... maybe, and bring his right elbow out a bit. The angle change on his right arm might help the slanting issue. You would have to experiment. Rarely do we produce the perfect photo image.

The other thing you could do is reduce the size of the subjects within the given canvas size thus giving more room on the sides. This is not a great solution because smaller is rarely better.

These are all the type of tricks you'd rather not have to consider. It is for these reasons that I work out in my mind whether I want to tackle these problems before I ever show a photo to a client. It's not a good idea to allow a client to have so much control over the creative process. They don't understand all the issues. And, after they have "fallen in love" with an image it's difficult to make them understand the problems you will face. They usually just shrug and say "well, you're the artist, you can make it work." Easy for them to say, they don't sign at the bottom.

Consider whether or not a custom sized canvas a few inches wider wouldn't be just as suitable to the space.

As someone said: This is not brain surgery, it's much more difficult.

[Allan Rahbek]

Originally Posted by Mike McCarty

Olena,

You would have to experiment. Rarely do we produce the perfect photo image.

A little more space around the couple will be good. I have dragged the photo in Photo Shop.

[Olena Babak]

Mike,
thank you very much for all the good advice and the last paragraph

As someone said: This is not brain surgery, it's much more difficult.

I know, I should have gone through the photos myself and after showed them to the client. Next time I would go about this a bit different. Live and learn... I'm just keep saying to myself that the best way of gaining knowledge is to make mistakes.

I tried to incorporate all the things you and the other members of the forum were talking about.
Take a look what I came up with. I stared at this picture for way too long now, so it

[Olena Babak]

Allan,
Thank you,
I like your suggestion. I need to do some sketches now to figure it out.
I think I started to get a pretty good idea on how to resolve the issues in the picture.
Now back to the studio...

[Chris Saper]

Olena,

I certainly agree with all the prior advice about getting control over the selection process. Rotating the image is a good suggestion, as show.

My biggest concern though would be the girl's head and expression. Personally, I would find it pretty close to impossible to reinvent her positioning so that her head doesn't look like it's floating on the boy's shoulder, not connected to her body. Her wide-grinned expression would likewise present a problem, at least for me.

You say you cannot do another photo shoot. Are there other possibilities for the girl from the photos you did take? I wouldn't hesitate to tell the client that a particular image is indeed beautiful, but should remain a lovely photograph. Even after the initial selection.

[Olena Babak]

Chris,
I know what you are saying.......

After all I took more time to adjust the picture. Dos this make any difference in your opinion?

[Chris Saper]

Olena, Here is a quick thought (you can see how rudimentary my P S skills can be!)

[Allan Rahbek]

Olena,

I agree that , if, in any way, you can get another photo session with the clients, you should go for it. It will be a lot easier to use references that are dead on.

[Carol Norton]

It is for these reasons that I work out in my mind whether I want to tackle these problems before I ever show a photo to a client. It's not a good idea to allow a client to have so much control over the creative process. They don't understand all the issues. And, after they have "fallen in love" with an image it's difficult to make them understand the problems you will face. They usually just shrug and say "well, you're the artist, you can make it work." Easy for them to say, they don't sign at the bottom. ......
As someone said: This is not brain surgery, it's much more difficult.[/QUOTE]


Mike: Showing clients photos that wouldn't work make this difficult job even more difficult! These are very wise and important words that bear repeating! Show your clients ONLY the photos that you KNOW will make an excellent painting!!!! It is often through experience that one learns this the hard way. (Gee, how do I know that??) That's why the experts like you make the education offered on this forum so greatly appreciated and valuable!