Remember when I did the original chasejarvisLIVE photo shoot way back in winter? If you recall, I was shooting the album cover image for alt/punk country band Brent Amaker and the Rodeo. We also did post production and editing on the images LIVE as well a few weeks after the shoot. Well now it’s time to print these suckers on a limited edition run of vinyl and there is somewhat of a debate on which image is better.
Simply put, and with no further explanation, I thought I’d ask for your thoughts. So which is better, A or B?
Vote in the comments. Also love to know ‘why’ if you care to explain. 500 px wide images after the jump…
[ also, reminder that if you like music and you like chasejarvisLIVE, I’m hosting rising hip hip star RA Scion (of Common Market and Victor Shade) TODAY in 90 minutes at 10:30 pacific/1:30 eastern (GMT – 8). Interview with RA and Village Voice/Time Out/Stranger cultural critic Charles Mudede, plus RA performs LIVE at the end of the show. Hope to see you http://www.chasejarvis.com/live today….]A. With the foreground lady laying down…
OR.
B. With the foreground lady standing up…
Love to hear your thoughts.
BBBBBB
No contest for me–B is the one. The woman in front is a strong eye catching vertical element. However, because of the way she is lit, she became anonymous and wasn’t compelling enough to retain my attention; I immediately wanted to see what was behind her. I prefer the composition of the band and the lighting on them. To me, despite the fact that they were in the background, they were definitely the subject of the photograph. In A, my attention was immediately drawn to the woman in front and it kept going back there. The composition was circular–for me it started and ended with the awkwardly reclining woman. After looking at it for awhile, I compared it to a necklace which consisted of a chain with pendant. What do you spend the most time looking
at–the pendant or the chain? And, last but not necessarily least, in B the band member on the far right appears to be looking right out at the viewer–good way to reel the viewer right in… well, it did this viewer.
So, which one did you prefer, Chase; and I guess more to the point, which one did the client choose?
B.
A. has nice composition – the arch shape. but then seems to ‘nice’ and considering the look of the band…………… and the lady in the foreground looks, awkward distracts as I’m left wondering how/ why is she sitting, or is it lying like that. So the overall image becomes posed.
B. feels like you have walked in on something. and the shape of the composition is more compelling as it is ‘unbalanced’ and this makes it real for me.
The expressions of the boys in the A are great, however they are alone, in the B, the girl dominates the image and the girl in the background exaggerated the pose … I think I’ll stay with A, although I would arrange a few things …
I’d go with B.
B has two plans, vertical (the girl) and horizontal, where one completes the other. A is just composition mess – whole picture is full of something. Can’t imagine including any typo in A, so B is keeper for me.