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Excellent. Not a single criticism from me. Great emotional connection that feels genuine, great lighting, great conversion, great focus, great composition, and if there was any retouching it was done with an extremely subtle touch to get perfect results. If not retouched, all the better. All adds up to an A+ portrait.
DanielScott wrote:
Excellent. Not a single criticism from me. Great emotional connection that feels genuine, great lighting, great conversion, great focus, great composition, and if there was any retouching it was done with an extremely subtle touch to get perfect results. If not retouched, all the better. All adds up to an A+ portrait.
I much prefer this image. Her squint in the other gave her a hard expression. Her expression here is much warmer.
The lighting is also more interesting and flattering. I also like her slight head tilt. Overall, it is a very nice image.
Since you did ask for C&C, I have a few observations for consideration. This is more subjective and has to do with the purpose of the image. I see this a more of a street photo and as such the objective look where every flaw is visible is part of the story. However, if I were to give her a copy of this image, I think I would soften it up, backing away from the contrast and sharpening. I would do a little work under the eyes. Did you do the B&W conversion in post? Did you choose a simulated filter? (It looks like perhaps a green or even light blue filter was chosen). The distribution of her freckles looks more like splotches than freckles. I would have made them a little softer. Also, the treatment makes her lips look dry. I would soften the texture a little.
Finally, I'm on the fence regarding the crop. I'm one who loves tight head shots, but I think I would have liked just a teen bit more space. Backing up slightly would have also helped get the tip of her nose slightly more in focus, for me it's right on the edge of being too OOF.
Really a fine composition Derek! She is a natural attractive woman. The "girl next door" look until you see her dressed to the hilts and struttin' her stuff!
Very well done and agree with Daniel and "dmac"!
Dan
The tooth is very distracting. I would have photoshopped that or looked for an image with her mouth closed. This would be less of a problem with a looser crop.
To me really great portraits aren't the over retouched glam pictures that seem to dominate but the portraits that are real and honest. The ones that when loved ones and friends look at the portrait they say to the photographer that is so and so. The portraits by Arnold Newman, Marc Hauser. Irving Penn, Walker Evans, Richard Avedon's American West portraits, August Sander, etc.
A few words by some of the greats
"I think photography is a matter of controlling what’s in front of you and making it do your will. This, of course, implies absolute mastery over camera, medium, techniques, and the ability to work with the subject and get him willingly and happily without any self-conscious feeling to fall into those things which are natural to him. This is a very complicated thing to do in portraiture. Mine are deliberately self-conscious portraits and therefore contain no forced feeling of candidness… the subject is unaware of the fact that I am waiting – things begin to happen – the man begins to reveal himself.” “If the background becomes overwhelming and you lose the personality, then I have not made a good portrait and it is not a good picture. I think the world is full of intelligent people who are not really trying to be flattered; what they really want is to be understood”. “The more I get to know my subject the more he gets to know me, and so often the pictures taken at the end of a sitting are much better both creatively and interpretively… A photographer is always in a state of preparing himself for a given moment… we have only an instant in which to think and act."
Arnold Newman
"Pure photography allows us to create portraits which render their subjects with absolute truth… if we can create portraits of subjects that are true, we thereby in effect create a mirror of the times."
August Sander
"When a portrait evokes a feeling, then you’ve got something. Technique isn’t really important. What I want is a believable moment."
Bert Stern
"It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are."
Paul Caponigro
"It is one thing to photograph people. It is another to make others care about them by revealing the core of their humanness."
Paul Strand
"Nothing is more hateful to me than photography coated with gimmicks, poses, and false effects. Therefore let me speak the truth in all honesty about our age and the people of our age."
August Sander
"It seems dangerous to be a portrait artist who does commissions for clients because everyone wants to be flattered, so they pose in such a way that there’s nothing left of truth."
Henri Cartier-Bresson
airfrogusmc wrote:
"Nothing is more hateful to me than photography coated with gimmicks, poses, and false effects. Therefore let me speak the truth in all honesty about our age and the people of our age."
August Sander
"All my photographs are portraits—self-portraits, because you can’t photograph someone without reflecting/echoing, like a bat sending out a signal that comes back to you. You get not only a picture of who you’re photographing, but you get a picture of yourself at the same time."
-Bruce Davidson
Allen,
You have listed many of my heroes. I'll add W. Eugene Smith, Diane Arbus and Bruce Davidson to the list.
Perhaps my suggestion of very slightly softening up the photo is related to the post I quoted. I see a pretty girl in the photo and I guess my instinct is to help her out a little bit without taking away the power and the impact of the photo. I personally feel a tension between the lyricism of Clarence White versus the brutal honesty of some of Richard Avedon's portrait work.
As for the above quote from August Sander, there's been many times I have wanted to respond to posts in People forum with that quote screamed in all caps.
dmacmillan wrote:
I much prefer this image. Her squint in the other gave her a hard expression. Her expression here is much warmer.
The lighting is also more interesting and flattering. I also like her slight head tilt. Overall, it is a very nice image.
Since you did ask for C&C, I have a few observations for consideration. This is more subjective and has to do with the purpose of the image. I see this a more of a street photo and as such the objective look where every flaw is visible is part of the story. However, if I were to give her a copy of this image, I think I would soften it up, backing away from the contrast and sharpening. I would do a little work under the eyes. Did you do the B&W conversion in post? Did you choose a simulated filter? (It looks like perhaps a green or even light blue filter was chosen). The distribution of her freckles looks more like splotches than freckles. I would have made them a little softer. Also, the treatment makes her lips look dry. I would soften the texture a little.
Finally, I'm on the fence regarding the crop. I'm one who loves tight head shots, but I think I would have liked just a teen bit more space. Backing up slightly would have also helped get the tip of her nose slightly more in focus, for me it's right on the edge of being too OOF....Show more →
Thank you very much for the thought provoking input. The b/w conversion is indeed an Adobe preset.
Feb 11, 2022 at 01:24 PM
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Danpbphoto wrote:
Really a fine composition Derek! She is a natural attractive woman. The "girl next door" look until you see her dressed to the hilts and struttin' her stuff!
Very well done and agree with Daniel and "dmac"!
Dan
elliot-kramer wrote:
The tooth is very distracting. I would have photoshopped that or looked for an image with her mouth closed. This would be less of a problem with a looser crop.
Thank you so much for the feedback, I agree the image would be much different without the tooth showing in her expression, but not that it would be better.
airfrogusmc wrote:
I agree with Daniel on this.
……
Thank you Allen very much. Your quotes of some of the masters certainly are thought provoking. I find myself questioning more deeply than usual why I approach strangers asking if they might take a minute with me while I make a portrait of them. There are many reasons, many of which have to do with the photographic process, the creativity of interpreting light and form, the challenge of placing a subject in an unexpected light—but ultimately for me it is the ineffable and fleeting connection made momentarily with a stranger which couldn’t exist otherwise, just as Ashley, in this instance, is seen in a way as never before, nor ever again—the eternal. “Ode on a Grecian Urn” comes to mind—truth and beauty…
Dneufarth wrote:
Thank you Allen very much. Your quotes of some of the masters certainly are thought provoking. I find myself questioning more deeply than usual why I approach strangers asking if they might take a minute with me while I make a portrait of them.
I agree, this has been a good conversation.
Like you, I enjoy street portraiture. Also like you, I enjoy the interaction with those whom I meet through the process. Covid has made this a trying endeavor and I look forward to a time when we can interact more freely.
However short our interactions have been, I feel enriched by the encounters I've had. Everyone whom I've approached has been gracious, even if they have declined my invitation to be photographed. I've done some impersonal street photography, but prefer interaction with my subjects. We help with organizations who help the homeless. Because of this, I don't do "bum on the street" photography.
This takes the first shot of Ashley to a whole 'nother level. I love that you shot or cropped in tight. This is intimate and even more evocative. Just voted for FTOW!
friscoron wrote:
This takes the first shot of Ashley to a whole 'nother level. I love that you shot or cropped in tight. This is intimate and even more evocative. Just voted for FTOW!
