For my project I chose to alter an image of my brother taken by Jake Cunningham at one of his shows. I really love this photo, the setting is pretty awesome and the photographer managed to catch an image that encapsulated my brothers relaxed and focused style. Initially I was unsure what to do to the photo, I played around with removing him from the photo and leaving just his sticks and the kit, but the staging didn’t allow for the impact I was hoping for, and the background transition behind him would’ve require a significant amount of time to get just right. Instead, I chose to remove the sticks and the drum kit from the photo, leaving my brother, caught in the moment, without any explanation for his pose. I was really satisfied with how this turned out both technically and with regards to commentary. In the public eye, drummers are often overlooked, but their work is the backbone of the music. The removal of the drums leaves just the musician, unable to be ignored.
I think it would have been better if you kept either the drumsticks or the drum kit because now I feel there is no story to the composition. As I look at it, there is nothing to focus while I think if you left the drumsticks, then it would bring up the question as to why is there no drum set.
The removal of the drums is an effective choice here; it demonstrates the power of removing an important focal point and forces the person looking at it to look at more subtle parts of the image that are often overlooked, such as the intricate wall design or even the traffic cone!
I like the interpretation you came up with for the project. I think you did well in subtracting the drums, leaving only the player behind it. However, it’s a bit noticeable that his bottommost hand has been cloned; I think you should clone the finger behind the drumstick from a part that has similar color to his hand.