Took this photograph of a friend in the parking bay of a shopping mall. I used the fluorescent lights present to light up his face. I would love some feedback in terms of composition, and retouching.
Took this photograph of a friend in the parking bay of a shopping mall. I used the fluorescent lights present to light up his face. I would love some feedback in terms of composition, and retouching.
In some ways I like it. The out of focus background looks good, apart from the strip light behind his head, which is not a good thing. I am not keen on the strong shadows of his glasses on his cheeks and think the colour should perhaps be greener, to relate to the flourescent lighting. Not a typical portrait colour, for sure but this could be more cinematic grade if handled that way. Obviously, it is not a landscape format image so cinematic may not be ones' first thought but the available light, you have decided to use, is cinematic in nature.
So it is a mixed report.
Thank you very much for your commentary and advice! I'll take that into consideration in the future.
The light behind him is distracting. It looks like you used the light above and in front of him to light his face. I would have placed him so the light is above and just behind him, to create a little backlight, separating him from the background. And Ian is right (as usual), that shooting this in landscape would have given it a very cinematic feel.
Thanks! Will surely think of that next time!
Aside from the shadows, the reflections in his glasses are what get me. They seem to be localized to the top of the lenses, so if you had him tilt his head down just a touch, you probably would have eliminated them altogether.
Thanks for the advice!