Photography I need of some harsh critique please?

Hello! The only thing for me with this photo is it is way to dark and I can't see the detail on the face. The parts that I can make out look good but I just think it needs to have more light on it so I can really see the detail. Have a good day!

 

If you want to retain the 'dark' atmosphere of the photo but would like it a little clearer so the details are easier to see, you could increase exposure and then alter the shadows/contrast?

 

I agree about the light. A well-balanced photo has some small areas of dense shadow, some of bright highlight and a good range of greys in between. These rules can be broken, of course, for a particular effect and I do hear that you were going for something dark and mysterious. However, the end result is rather gloomy. You might be able to tweak it satisfactorily even at this late stage of processing by using levels and increasing the highlights a bit and the mid tones everso slightly. Leave the shadows where they are. They are fine.

I like the desaturated colours and limited palette. They add to the feel of it.

Composition is good, nice off-centre point of interest which makes it dynamic. The angle of the hands lead up to the face and butterfly, which is effective. The butterfly then does send the eye off the top left of the picture, which is not ideal, but that is no biggy. I like your narrow depth of field which blurs out the background and isolates your point of interest. However, I might have increased it just slightly so that the hair and the hands are also sharp (don't worry, It is something that I also tend to do and only notice when I have the image on my computer screen, by which time it is too late).

I don't know if the noise is deliberate or the result of an over long exposure. With the image so dark, it is a little distracting on the face. That might change if you brighten his face a little.

I might be tempted to dodge that right hand eye to make it as bright as the left one and bring it out of the face a little. It looks as though it might be a similar colour to the butterfly. It would be nice to be able to see that.

Keep going. You might yet be the best photographer in the doll hobby!

 

Its hard to tell in this photo because it is so dark.. But your doll may look morbid all on his own. It looks like he might have a very goth type face. You could always photograph him brighter lit, and then photoshop the background darker. The doll definitely needs to be brighter. His details are muddled and obscured by shadow.

 

If you want to photograph him to look goth or morbid then you do need a lot of shadow and contrast, a dark background, but there still should be a light on the face itself. There are tutorials out there on Classic Hollywood portrait lighting that might help you get just the look you want. Google it. You want cold, somewhat stark lighting but a dark face isn't what you want. A lot of the time they used to light portraits like that straight up the center of the face from below. Sometimes they used an eerie green gel over the flash or light. It's not about a lack of light. It's about where you put the light and what color it is.

 

This might just be personal preference, but I'm not a fan of photos that chop off the top of someone's head.

 

If you want, you can also experiment with photo editing, and crop him out, place him on a different background, then position lighting from another angle...you can also add layers to the photo, he will stand out like 3D, while the background is slightly more blurred...it's a great picture to play with in a variety of ways..
Actually, if you still read these comments, can you repost the updated, end result?

 

I agree with the chopping off of head, that doesn't quite work in this photo. I also second the call for more lighting. What I like to do when I'm experimenting with lighting is I'll go down to the thrift store and get a bunch of scarves and drape them, or even excess fabric over a lamp to diffuse the light. It's fun to see how it changes a photo!

 

I think that it is too dark. i would like to see the details on the side of his face. he's awesome though

 

Look at the lines. On the camera, it is possible to get up a grid. THen you easily can but the object into a harmonic composition. In this picture, I would have even more space on the side with already a lot pace. It is to little or too much now…

 

There is not nearly enough contrast, the photo is too dark and it's grainy which makes it look like it's underexposed.
The colours are washed out and dirty.

The best thing would be to get some lamps (a gooseneck lamp with a bright bulb would be ideal, doesn't have to be too fancy!) and make sure you have plenty of light. You can then play around with it, by using some kind of translucent material, look up 'DIY light tent'.

 

Not a fan of the background. Feels lazy and rushed. With the sheer amount of background being featured, it's really lacking any interest. Just a coloured blur. Not appealing in the slightest. His one hand being randomly more blurred than the other is a big turn off as well.

When it comes to gothic photography, I always look up to Mana of Malize Mizer/Moi Dix Mois/Moi-même-Moitié. He always has a very high contrast, with either little to no shadows in between, just stark highlights and shadows, or everything around looks gloomy, except the glowing of the skin. I think the biggest problem here is there is barely to no highlights. It's all in the low range, and that really creates no interest. What makes top photography top is not the posing or the clothing or even the editing.. it's the lights. You need more contrast. So much more contrast.

I feel like this photo of Mana from his Moi Dix Mois days might be a good point of inspiration, ignoring the low quality. (Linking it because it's big)
You can see here how his face is the focal point because of the light, creating an interest to the eye that leads you directly to him. The sheen on his sword next leads your eyes down to the blade, and so forth. Light creates a visual queue that your eye willing follows. It helps with focus. And while the background is quite simple, you can see a stone floor and wall, like a castle. Simple, but effective, and not just a blur.

I feel rather harsh, but I feel like you're going for a gothic visual-kei look, and you're lacking the necessary lighting to pull it off.

 

so dark! yet beautiful, i would add a lil bit light in front so the eyes could glow ^^

 

Hope I will not hurt your feelings, but I think if you really want to become a very good photographer, you shouldn't use Photoshop or other picture editing programs. Because, it is the work done by computer, isn't it? Even if you use it just to emphasize little details in the picture. Being a photographer means catching the beauty of what you see around, and your only tool of getting the picture done in the technical sense should be only the photo camera.
It is my own personal opinion though. I'm an "old school" artist and just cannot unite art with computer programs

 

And yet, photographers have been editing photos for over a hundred years, have they not? They just used chemicals instead of computers. A computer program cannot make a good picture out of a bad photo no matter how much time you spend pressing buttons, but when used with skill and experience, it can enhance the beauty of a properly-exposed, well-framed photograph. The computer isn't doing the work now anymore than the dark room did 30 years ago. The photographer is doing the work. The methods have changed, but the artistic eye and skill required have not.

To the OP: As for this particular photo, as I said, the computer program, when used skillfully, can enhance what the camera captured. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the camera had enough light to work with here, so there was only so much you could do with Photoshop afterwards. Dark and gloomy is fine if that's what you're going for, but work within the capabilities of your camera, whether it is film or digital. You can add more light to your scene and still have it come out looking morbid, and it will look more beautiful because we won't be distracted by the grain and lack of contrast.

Also, and this may be just me, but having a big, blurry white dresser in the background really destroys the mood you are going for. Your doll is very well-styled for a morbid photo. Make sure you put just as much thought into the background I hope you will come back and post some updates for us!

 

For me, the photo would be perfect if the hands were equally in focus as the face

 

I think that mostly this is a good photo. Only thing I can pick to do better, is kind of point of first notice. I don't know how to call it, but I'll try to explain.

As the doll is so similar colored to the background, my attention is drawn to the butterfly - only larger spot of color in the pic, and just about center of the photo, too. It's not bad thing, per se, but it kinda makes the photo's main target the butterfly and not the doll - to me at least.