Fire and Iron

Was wondering what you think of my latest from a series of Blacksmithing shots.
The face is a bit soft on the focus and I have bodged a clone-out of a distracting window to the right of the shot in a hurry, but in general do you reckon the shotis acceptable or do I eed to sharpen up the features?
The problem was the light levels of course but I was using 2 studio lights and a few smaller lights and ISO 800

I like the shot 'cos the flying sparks make it quite dynamic, I don't think there's anything to the right of the fire that adds to the appeal though. I might be tempted to go for a squarer crop and lose the lot - especially the Fire Exit sign which keeps drawing my eye...

LOL ahh yes the Fire exit sign I was meaning to clone that out but forgot.
I took lots of variations on this shot so will mess about some more and I take your point about right of the flames, will try a crop.

What you think about the soft focus on the face? Does it ruin it?

Not for me - it gives a sense of movement which is all helping towards that feeling of dynamism which I like. If he'd been static then the sparks would have looked unconvincing so it's all good IMO.

Thanks for your thoughts hefty, I will try and post a couple more here tomorrow.

The light looks natural, which is good, and the movement in the subject is consistent with what we might expect, also good. I don't think you should clone out the Fire Exit sign, just crop the right hand side of the image. This will fully concentrate our attention on the subject.

Very nice sparks flying, which is the major strength of this IMHO.

I think what you are calling a 'soft' face is actually motion blur. Good composition and interest but could do with some cropping of the right hand side of the forge. It doesn't add anything, so lose it.

I agree with the others, go for a square crop and it'll look great.

Cheers, Kris.

Thank you all

A square crop it is then

The problem with just chopping off the right side is that you'll place the figure right in the middle of the frame, which in my opinion will weaken he composition.

I think this image is a good candidate for a black and white conversion. This will help simplify the image. I'd also think about slightly vignetting the shot and perhaps blurring the background slightly using the lens blur filter in photoshop.

Toby

The shutter speed is good I think, because it has captured nice long spark trails. Obviously a little motion blur to the face is going to detract a little.

I realise you've lit the scene, but I think that these shots are nicer alot darker, where the light sources seem to be the fire & iron. This helps concentrate the eye on the key elements of the scene. (face, iron, fire) I had a very quick play in photoshop & liked a much darker version with the white wall area to the right well burnt to stop distracting the eye. This was just using the "variations" option, I think with proper curves adjustment it could be even better. Give it a try.

A square format is about the only format where you can center just about anything and it works.

RR
I have many exposures of this and the original idea was to be a lot darker with the effect to be lit by the fire glow. I will take another look at that and maybe re-post
Thanks
Steve

I disagree, but I guess that's just my opinion. You can use the rule of thirds within a square frame to dramatic effect. The figure faces slightly towards the right so usually he would be positioned more towards the left side (in more traditionally composed images). If you just crop off the right side, the image doesn't balance. Taking a little of both sides to form a 4x5 ratio crop, leaving the figure near to a third of the way in would be my preference.

Toby

I have had a bit of a play in PS and here are two crops with slightl differences, both have been adjusted in curves and a little shadow/highlights and finally a bit of unsharp mask. I think I may have oversharpened the second

[IMG]http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/Hannabella/squarecrop.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/Hannabella/squarecrop2.jpg[/IMG]