Danelle #1

[gawie]

I'm experimenting with props, different clothing etc. Please comment on how this looks.

[Photonut]

Originally Posted by gawie

I'm experimenting with props, different clothing etc. Please comment on how this looks.

Love the picture & color contrast. The shawl works very well. I would clone in the patch of hair on the bottom right of the picture by extending the shawl. In my opion it looks so much better getting that distraction out of there.

[n5wd]

Originally Posted by gawie

I'm experimenting with props, different clothing etc. Please comment on how this looks.

Lovely lady... beautiful eyes. It's a captivating look.

There is a "rule" in art, based upon provable science, that says 'we pay more attention to images where the center of interest is not in the middle of the image, but rather at one of the intersection points where the piece is divided into thirds.' The rule is, as you probably guessed, The Rule of Thirds.

On the image below, in the right frame, I've approximated the thirds on your original image to show how you've got the center of interest, her eyes, right smack dab in the middle of the image. On the left, all i've done is crop it so that her eyes are in the upper thirds intersection points.

Tell me which one you think has more impact?

[DaveB]

I think this is the best image of yours I have seen to date. Lovely, lovely, lovely!

You should be quite proud of yourself.

[RobArtLyn]

Originally Posted by n5wd

On the image below, in the right frame, I've approximated the thirds on your original image to show how you've got the center of interest, her eyes, right smack dab in the middle of the image.

Not even remotely close. Your "middle third" section is obviously much larger than the outer sections, both horizontally and vertically. The original composition actually has her eyes very close to the intersctions.

[R_Fredrick_Smith]

I don't know how Wayne got his guides so far off from the thirds area, but somehow he did. I created an action at one time to just do the rule of thirds overlay (using guides) automatically. Just start recording an action, and for the first stop choose View | New Guide. You then see this dialog:



Since this is the first step, choose Vertical and 33% and then click ok.
Now repeat the step again, and use 67% and Vertical.
Do the step again, but this time choose Horizontal, and 33%.
Last, do it again, and choose 67% and Horizontal.

Stop the recording.

Now whenever you run the action on a photo, you'll see the rule of third guidelines appear as it by magic. Now you might ask, how do you get rid of them. Well just press Ctrl and the semi-colon ( Ctrl ; ) (windows systems) and it will toggle them off. Press it again, and it will toggle them back on.

I have my action assigned to the hotkey Ctrl F2, so all I have to do is press that sequence whenever I want a rule of thirds guide.

By the way, I also have another action that does a golden mean grid line set and then you move an important point to one of those intersections.

By the way, I agree, the image look quite sharp and well composed to me.

Cheers,
rfs

[DocSmith]

Beautiful portrait! Just great!

Maybe it's just my contrarian personality, but I like the original best. The "Two Thirds" crop loses all of the framing effect of the blue fabric and the enlarged image is too much "in your face" for my taste. Rules are appropriate only in context and I don't think any of us would want to edit every image to coincide with the 2/3 grid intersections or have the grid etched into our viewfinders. Also, maybe it's just my advancing age, but the more I look at "Before" and "After" treatments in Photoshop, et. al., the more I like the "Before" image, and the more frequently I'm using the "Undo" button.

Just my opinion, others may disagree,
Doc

[DocSmith]

RFS -

There's an article in the current issue of Layers magazine on the history and use of the Golden Ratio (Divine Proportion). I'd be interested on your Golden Ratio action, if it is available.

Thanks in advance,
Doc