Young Lady at Mortlock Wing

[Mistyisle]

Hi, I took this image at the Mortlock Wing of the Adelaide Library.  As you can see the place has lots of history and atmosphere (very Harry Potter like).  The question was – could I capture that atmosphere.  Taken at f3.5; ASO 1600; 1/16sec; 38mms (on a cropped sensor).  I have tried a few crops, making her larger in the frame, with less surround, but have come back to this one (thoughts?).  Looking for lively feedback all round – so go to it, sharks!

[LightandShadow]

Well, the URL’s didn’t show the image here and weren’t displayed a clickable URL’s. I did copy the 2nd one (starting at https: all the way to url), pasted it into a window and got the image. I know there’s a way to do this so the image shows here but directs the viewer to the original website but have been unsuccessful in making that work. Bummer.

Anyway, You’ve got a fair amount of lens distortion, so some verticals are and some aren’t. Small issue. When I click on the image to enlarge it, the young woman is slightly OOF. I don’t know if that’s a compression issue, enlarging the image well past 100% or just missed focus. I suspect the latter; 1/16 S @ 38mm is hard to handhold. I might be tempted to blur the entire image, making it more watercolor than photo.

The bit of white sticking out of the top of her bag is a little distracting and would have removed it in post.

I think I would have cropped from the left to reduce the amount of end of the shelf there (and definitely that small bit beyond it) moving the woman more off-center. That would have complicated that nice feature on top of the shelf, so I think I would have lowered from top left. As you say, that would enlarge her but it would preserve a lot of the shelves and books. At large size, I see a good bit of noise that could stand reducing. The glow from her screen nicely illuminates her. I don’t think it disrupts the mood–books vs computer. Others may disagree.

I very much like the mood and the rich, dark colors, and the young woman’s concentration.

[davidc]

The irony in this image is brilliant — all those books, yet she’s on a laptop. I would just straighten it a little, and as L and S said, get rid of the small white bit sticking up.

 

[Robert Apple]

Nicley spotted Jim, I would probably cut it off at the divider in the upper wall and then crop to place her dead in the center. The area left of it is a bit of a eye snare.

[Rob Wood (Admin)]

This is an absolute cracker of an environmental portrait. Such contrast in light, colour, brightness, and subject context! Also a very solid story with the contrast between the old and the new or book and screen. Damn – really really good.

[Author]

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