Pictures by trees are a little hooky...

[thegreenegg]

So, I wanted to see if I could take some nice pictures of my friends. The first one to be my victim... subject.. was my friend Emily. I was thinking of shots to take before hand because I've never really done it before- my new camera emboldens me. Anyway, we go outside, and she makes the comment seen in the title. But when all is said and done the 'tree' shot is one of her favorites. This is the pictures... I subded the colors to follow with the mood that seems present on her face. Comments are very much welcome...

[ginger_55]

Do you have more? I would like to compare. The amt of room at the top bothers me.

Just could be me, but the best way I could describe is how i think, I see it as two photos, one of the tree and one of her.

And many shots are taken by a tree, tell her. They sell shots to school seniors for good money, and they are sometimes, often when outdoors, shot by a tree.

g (what they charge senior's IMO is highway robbery)

[thegreenegg]

My friend doesn't like the camera much so I was only able to shot a few frames for each different little thing we tried. But here are a few more. I didn't do anything to these except some sharpening. No, trees sorry... however I am in the tree for two of these shots.
Ashley

[thegreenegg]

And...

[thegreenegg]

Also,

[marlof]

But when all is said and done the 'tree' shot is one of her favorites. This is the pictures... I subded the colors to follow with the mood that seems present on her face. I really like the way she's in the bottom part, and I like the mood you got by the coloring. I also love the fact that her right leg and arm (left for us viewers) are in line with the tree branch above her. The left leg (right for us viewers) and the open space underneath her IMO distracts a bit, so I'd probably crop the image so that the frame ends where there's a fold in her jeans. But as always, cropping suggestions are highly personal, and I also like the picture as is. The last picture, where you took the picture fom a low angle is really nice as well.

Edit: I hope you don't mind, but I tried to crop it to show what I meant. See the attachment.

[thegreenegg]

Thank you, I think you're right. I like it alot that way. Hope you have a nice day.
Ashley

[simon bennett]

Do you have more? I would like to compare. The amt of room at the top bothers me. Just could be me, but the best way I could describe is how i think, I see it as two photos, one of the tree and one of her.

Ashley, hope you don't mind me dissecting your shot:

http://img246.echo.cx/img246/103/emily20fixsbv114xl.jpg

This is how it works for me: Your photo has distinct light / dark areas. Most of the light is in the top part of the photo with the plane split by a distinct diagonal. The yellow cross hairs represent the rule of thirds. The human eye will invariably be drawn to these points. It's best to have your main focal point on or approximately near one of these points (this isn't always the case as you can create further planes beyond the first... or none at all). Your eye is drawn along the diagonal but wants to rest on either one of the cross hairs or the eyes in the face (another natural focal point). Instead it's drawn to the blue spiral point and from there is in a constant state of flux between the nearest crosshairs, the eyes, and the spiral point. Staring at this photo for a period of time would cause you to become tired.

There's a lot of psychology and programming used in photography - especially in the realm of advertising.

Colour therapy and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) can, and are, employed in photography. They're useful to know and once you understand how certain hooks work - you'll notice they're used everywhere.

Thanks again, Ashley.

Regards,
Simon.