Critique Whisky Portrait Series

I like the idea Tom, but I guess it will depend on the balance between the person and the whisky. The first one seems dominated by his tattooed forearm and watch due to the composition, and I'm left wondering what the wording on the glass might be? The second one looks like a guy about to attend a wedding (his own?) and not looking too happy about it. You need the bottle in this one as it could be cola in the glass due to the b&w, but at least it's a drop of the good stuff. I'll be interested to see more.
 
As Peter said it's a good idea and i'm sure the series will evolve. As always watch the backgrounds and may be in the first he should be looking at the glass. The second has a wedding-y feel and could be father of the bride drowning his sorrows, I quite like it, nice light in the right places.
 
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The second take is it: warm and bold,
sharp and fully tonal… very good! (y)(y)
 
Peter B said:
I like the idea Tom, but I guess it will depend on the balance between the person and the whisky. The first one seems dominated by his tattooed forearm and watch due to the composition, and I'm left wondering what the wording on the glass might be? The second one looks like a guy about to attend a wedding (his own?) and not looking too happy about it. You need the bottle in this one as it could be cola in the glass due to the b&w, but at least it's a drop of the good stuff. I'll be interested to see more.
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Thanks Peter, yeah the watch is one of those distractions I caught after this shot but couldn't get the same expression which I preferred and the glass too yup ... tattoo is whisky related so makes sense (in my head)

Appreciate the wedding comments, definitely stuff to take into account.

sirch said:
As Peter said it's a good idea and i'm sure the series will evolve. As always watch the backgrounds and may be in the first he should be looking at the glass. The second has a wedding-y feel and could be father of the bride drowning his sorrows, I quite like it, nice light in the right places.
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Thanks, I have a few different from the first one but preferred the expression here, comments on background definitely one i need to look at more
 
Kodiak Qc said:
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The second take is it: warm and bold,
sharp and fully tonal… very good! (y)(y)
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Thanks :) appreciated... the colour balance was thrown with a horrific mix of natural light and awful tungsten(ish) so it needed to go B&W but i think it works for it.
 
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Now, in retrospective, I see that my comment
could have applied to a good whiskey as well!
 
As above, the second is a winner, the first I'm afraid isn't, distracting elements that add nothing.

He's an interesting looking guy though and hopefully you can go back and shoot him again, paying more attention to the important bits.

Look forward to seeing some more though :)
 
Phil V said:
As above, the second is a winner, the first I'm afraid isn't, distracting elements that add nothing.

He's an interesting looking guy though and hopefully you can go back and shoot him again, paying more attention to the important bits.

Look forward to seeing some more though :)
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Thanks Phil, as he's my mate I can reshoot nytime and agree with you wholeheartedly so will likely redo it soon
 
For me the unsharp face in the first demands to much attention, also the background is to bright to get the full attention on the glas there is no storie in the image. The second is much more interresting, here the atmosphere and the and the storieare prominent in the image. Nice work
 
kawaracer said:
For me the unsharp face in the first demands to much attention, also the background is to bright to get the full attention on the glas there is no storie in the image. The second is much more interresting, here the atmosphere and the and the storieare prominent in the image. Nice work
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I wouldn't disagree with any of that The first one was a last minute and very likely to be reshot in a different way
 
2 is the real whiskey drinker...scot of course is his real name but he had to change it
the first is a mish mash of things to look at...the eyes are a bit strange and the watch is too posh for a whiskey drinker...usually a cheaper watch leaves loads of bawbees to purchase the electric soup
time becomes irrelevant

brilliant idea..think i might do this for irn bru or vimto...
cheers
geof
 
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Bobsyeruncle said:
Nah, whisky is good, whiskey less so :p
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By the translation, I saw both and didn't know
which to take… animinimynimo!

I learned this this morning:
  • Countries that have E's in their names (UnitEd StatEs and IrEland) tend to spell it whiskEy (plural whiskeys)
  • Countries without E's in their names (Canada, Scotland, and Japan) spell it whisky (plural whiskies)
There is some good stuff in both spelling I think! :cool:
 
Kodiak Qc said:
By the translation, I saw both and didn't know
which to take… animinimynimo!

I learned this this morning:
  • Countries that have E's in their names (UnitEd StatEs and IrEland) tend to spell it whiskEy (plural whiskeys)
  • Countries without E's in their names (Canada, Scotland, and Japan) spell it whisky (plural whiskies)
There is some good stuff in both spelling I think! :cool:
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Not quite true ... only Ireland and USA use the E every other country in the world (including Sweden, France, Germany, New Zealand which all have Es in their name) spell it whisky

(FYI I manage a whisky shop for a living)
 
Kodiak Qc said:
The quoted text said "producing countries"!
but I omitted to include that important part.
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All of the countries listed also produce whisky (Whisky is produced in many places around the world now including India Taiwan and Australia) ... whisky is produced in almost every country in the world
 
Been playing with edits, the first image above consigned to the "reshoot better" pile and second i've went back to colour, applied a Totally Rad action that i love and then tamed it back again. Went back to 4x5 crop instead of square also, much happier and think this will be the first finalised image.

For those that commented before though i'm going to keep adding images (tests and finals) untl i get a full series.

Scott Colour Edit by Tom Thomson Photographer, on Flickr
 
Great idea and i really like number 2. Well done.
 
I like this last iteration best. I'll be happy to model if you plan a Rum series.
 
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