Portraits/Expressions Contest Entry by Berhane Habtemariam

November 21, 2023

This picture was taken at Asmara, Eritrea on a baptism ceremony. I used a Nikon 5200 and lens 18-55mm. I used a speedlight at her back but pointing to the ceiling. for processing I mostly use photoshop but for this particular picture I used lightroom, I am not the best of the software but working on to be better.

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4 Comments

Bryan Button November 21, 2023

I'm guessing you were trying to draw focus to her hair preparation? I like the lighting on her hair, that you can see the desktop full of hair product, and then her smiling face. Compositionally it would be nice to see a little more of her dress which looks beautiful, and a little less of what's going on in the upper right corner. I think if you had been able to scoot her just a little closer to the mirror it would help a little. Overall though I love the look, the subject, and what you accomplished with the stacking composition.

Berhane Habtemariam November 22, 2023 Bryan Button

Thank you for your concern.

kunzelman November 23, 2023

I agree that the upper right corner of the photo draws the viewer's attention away from the subject. It's a bright spot and bright areas of an image draw attention. A simple crop of the picture to just above the woman's head (with some breathing space) eliminates that distraction. I suspect some people will argue that by cropping the picture it takes the woman's face away from the position according to the "rule-of-thirds" but in this case, I think it's well worth it.

I would also clone out what looks like a white piece of paper on the table, as well as the white object hanging over the left shoulder of the woman in the background. The picture is plenty busy as it is, and anything you can do to simplify the composition by eliminating those bright unnecessary distractions would keep focus on the story you're trying to tell and improve the picture.

Going forward, it's always a good idea to look for those sort of distractions and eliminate them from the picture while taking it, so that you're not spending all day in post-processing fixing them. In other words, find your subject but then let your eye roam around the picture, especially the background, scanning for all the little things that unnecessarily detract from the picture... before you click the shutter.