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 Comments I don't like the star system either, but lets just say vision is really an odd way of saying composistion, and impact might be the over all effect the image has, i.e. did you stop, click on the thumbnail, and how long where you on the page?
 I disagree with saying its rather niche, its only as niche as you want it to be. There's so much you can do with these references and it's not necessary to follow the lighting to a T, a demon hunter (hello diablo) walking through a dark forest, a sci fi alien lair, the possibilities are endless and just because it's unusual does not make this any less helpful.
Great for study of lighting, great refs my thanks to Kxhara.  Niche isn't bad! It just means it's for specialised purposes (like the ones you said) instead of what most artists happen to draw most of the time. Like I've said, it's very useful for what it is, I just thought the photographer should be aware that it is niche use rather than general.
The thing about lighting is that it's very difficult to predict/imagine accurately, with all the subtle shades and ways it twists around form, so getting a reference that matches your lighting as closely as possible is useful. (Either that or a super-good understanding of 3D form and perspective, and know what shape the thing is intimately. Most of us fudge it because it would take so much training to do this accurately.) It's not trivial to just change the lighting (at least not while having it look realistic). hmm, it appeared that you were stating it as a flaw though and most of your responses below seemed like you were just defaulting to using the explanation of "niche" and I felt that was rather limiting.
but it is good that we're on the same understanding that niche isnt bad. I'm aware that lighting is very difficult to predict and imagine accurately even for the masters, Im on my own journing studying it- but these photos make a great study and at times are better than nothing, so thankyou for pointing out what I already know? Yes better than nothing (and as we agreed fantastic for those niche uses that might be hard to find clear reference pictures for), but the reason I commented in the first place was because artist asked for critique.
I mean arguably, this is just a marketing issue -- if it said something like 'reference lighting for niche situations', I'd have no crits because that's what it's designed for. I just mention because it looks a bit like accident and the photographer may not have realised that having the light low implies it's a rare kind of light. urgh forgot to add, the items i listed are really not specialised purposes, if you take a look at the things that Feng zhu and the greats draw, I mean...sci fi lair, fantasy these things are common. So throwing in another perspective there. For concept designs these are great, and really not that"niche" per se.
 Well think of fire pits shining up on a dark night, or kids holding flash lights up to their faces, or even an explosion that flashes across the body.
Yes, I'm saying it would be more useful for studying drawing if the lighting was more typical of situations you'd normally want to draw.
It also would allow artists to internalise attractive lighting better, so make more attractive pictures. The reason it's called Rembrandt lighting is no coincidence -- he chose that because it was flattering. Portrait lighting was invented long before cameras were. |
Great for doing this, though. Good model, clear lighting.
NOTE: I give a default of 3 stars for everything in critiques because I don't think the star system is meaningful. (I have no idea what 'vision' or 'impact' means and I don't see how it's relevant to art.)