I was looking through Vanity Fair's February issue (the Tiger Woods issue) a few weeks ago, and happened on an article about the new sequel to Wall Street. It was accompanied by a couple of pictures by Vanity Fair contributing editor and celebrated photographer Annie Leibovitz, including the one above, which left me scratching my head a little...
Really? I this the best shot of the cast taken that day?
Let me qualify my bewilderment. On the surface everything looks ok: everyone is looking at the camera, their eyes are all open and the overall composition is fine. It's clearly supposed to be a candid impromptu shot of the cast and director- fair enough. Look a little closer (click here to see the larger image from the Vanity Fair website). Look at The Beef (Shia LeBeouf to the lay person). See how the left side of his face is substantially blown out? The strobe directly behind his head isn't helping matters much. Carey Mulligan's face is a little on the over exposed side as well; though not nearly as bad as The Beef's. Her collar is also mangled and folded over on one side, and the way Mulligan has her right leg wrapped around her leg and partially hidden behind her left calf made me do a double take- it looks awkward.
I have to admit, I take a certain delight in picking apart this picture. Not that I think that I know more than Leibovitz (I'm nowhere near her level as a photographer), but I was stuck my the sloppiness on display in this photograph. In some ways it's kind of affirming to know that a photographer of her caliber can miss things. Nobody's perfect, I guess. But, I'm surprised that a greater effort wasn't made in digital processing to even the exposure out a little... But then what do I know, maybe it was intentional? It's not very flattering for the subjects if it was.
