Isolation

I was exploring the idea of negative space with this shot. Comments welcome!

I like this very much. Bold!

Well I like it very much as well ... It's strange, there's nothing to see at all apart from the man, and the holes in his jeans , but the blackness draws you in, I find myself actually exploring it ... So its nothing, but still something ...

I'm interested technically as well, as I'm delving into flash techniques with my new 540fz. This looks like a high speed sync effect, with a very fast shutter to eliminate all ambient light, plus a flash on a stand off right, perhaps with a snoot to direct the light. Is it something like this? It's a handy way, even outdoors, of removing clutter and just isolating the subject.

Very effective!

Phil

This is advanced composition, not done to be different for difference sake but for maximum effect. It isolates the subject and in so doing forces attention on the point of the picture.
It does, however, observe one classic rule of composition, the subject is close to the intersection of the thirds.
I can imagine some of the more cloth headed camera club judges dismissing this with horror while their more enlightened colleagues might welcome it as a breath of fresh air.
Perhaps a winner of a weekly or monthly competition can chose this is a subject in the near future?
David

PPG: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/artists/davidtrout

"Perhaps a winner of a weekly or monthly competition can chose this is a subject in the near future?"

We already have a winner!!!

'tis different, but I am getting distracted by a lighter splodge just by his left shoulder, otherwise still undecided

Thanks for the comments.

Technically, it was a studio shot with quite strong lighting and a black background. This was then moved onto a black canvas in Photoshop and the size of the subject reduced until I was happy with the scale of the figure.

Hi John,

I appreciate your compositional thoughts and agree on the principal,for me there's to much black height,

Forgive me in uploading a slightly different version hopefully in keeping with your initial idea.

It still works .... Just not as boldly and effectively as the original. And those holes in the jeans are far too big now!

Thanks for the alternate take Chris.

It's fine in its own context, but it makes it a different message IMHO. My thought was to minimise the man, hence the title "Isolation", but of course the format shape and degree of reduction have endless possibilities in themselves.

I prefer the rectangular format, but would not crop as much as Chris... just a bit from the top to achieve the 3:2 ratio - none from the sides or bottom.

I think the square works best, giving that opposite corner effect rather than being just down one side. Does That make any sense?

Yes it does, and I agree.

The title of the photograph is Isolation, which is the feeling the square original gives us.

The rectangular crop looks more like bad composition than isolation. Sorry to those who like the rectangular more.