Olive 26

I think of this photo as the opposite of lyric. I feel dark, intense, bass. not sing-song-y. I like the sharpness of the model with fits with her stare. the refleciton in the back works but the asymmetry is a little distracting.

neither poetry, nor lyric, nor rap, this is just a very eye catching capture. there is very slight noise or pixelation which is not to my taste. would have preferred a cleaner look. the sharpness is nice as is the blurred background. the lack os symmetry as mentioned by other commentor distracted me as well.

I don't get a lyric sense from it. It would helpful to hear the elf's explanation of how this photo evokes a lyrical feeling. Putting the subject squarely in the middle evokes a sense of the ordinary, of plainness. The model's body language is defensive, skeptical, or if it were my wife, she would like this when she got tired of me taking photos of her. The choice of DOF is good, the lighting is excellent, and I like the superimposition of her head and the background. But the model's posture/pose and her placement in the frame render the photo more on the uninteresting side for me.

I would agree about the centering/bullseye-ing if this were a shot of someone grinning vacantly and washed out with too much flash. Centering can be very effective and as it's used here conveys power-- "You WILL acknowledge me!" She's standing her ground.

 

I'm trying to get back into my 6x6 again and it's nice to see a square portrait for inspiration!

I'll give this a go but I don't know if I get the overall comment. I don't think the thoughts or feelings are subjective I think its clear what the model is conveying and RAP comes to mind which is far from song like. Two points mention light and modest which in my humble opinion may relate to the lighting conditions and modest appearance of the models clothing, maybe I see things to black and white, no punn intended. If that is the case then it is Lyric.

I like the pose & expression. I think she's too centered & all the white around her is distracting. It keeps pulling the eye away from her

Don't see the lyrics or poetry here... it is a good model's posture, sharp and nice DOF. The center placement is a distrauction .

 

Nice B/W execution.

The models expression is the strongest point for me. Bold confident and a bit bored. Sort of " Are you done yet and the answer better be yes or I'll come over there and kick your #ss ". The lighting is good, nice soft overcast. The separation of foreground and background is fine. I do find the background distracting, perhaps a better placement would have been with the model lined up with the gap in the background trees. The curves in her shoulders looked like they would fit right into the descending lines in the gap. I too see all that noise Puck mentioned. This takes away from the image, the shadows and skin of the model being were I find this most bothersome. Although I am a huge fan of music, I must listen to radically different music to the elf who chose this image. I'm getting nothing lyrical from this image, but then I mainly listen to avant guard jazz which is not particularly lyrical. The earrings and what looks to me like evening wear, seems out of place at the beach?

Who cares what kind of music (id think about opera in this case...) strong woman and strong, contrasting background. I dont care about noises or whatever other technical failures this image has. Everyone's so focused on pics' technical details these days forgetting about more important things! Its so HUMAN with all ITS POETRY in one, and thats what this picture is about to me. So yes, it is lyric in a way.

When seen in the context of the larger body of this man's work, the positioning of the woman is predictable. What makes this one photograph relatively unique within that context is the distance from her and the background, both of which contribute to the overall effect of the photograph (along with the 'bokeh' of the lens).

 

I find this image enigmatic, rather than 'lyric'. Enigmatic in the same fashion that I find the 'Mona Lisa' enigmatic - it is strange and compelling. The longer one looks at her the more one sees in her and yet there is no overt expression or action depicted which would give one a sense of what's in her mind. And yet there is something there. An enigma, yes?

To express that the noise does not have any effect on your view of the image is OK by me. To suggest that if this degree of noise is any sort of issue for others they have "forgotten about more important things! " I cannot agree with. I can see many aspects of this photo one of them being that something went astray in PP, leaving a lot of distracting noise behind and the image would be better off without this noise.

Allright, Im sure you're correct in professional matter, and it'd be better picture without noise etc. Im just saying there are more important things to me in this picture then technical details that many discuss. I dont want to philosoph on nothing, but if the picture was better technicaly, would it change your perception of it on "lyric" level Gordon?

Изузетно леп портрет, одличан баланс тонова, светла и сенки, веома лепо одређена дубинска оштрина. Рука са леве стране фотографије уноси неравнотежу у читавој осталој композицији која је веома мирна и лепа. Приметно је веће зрно на лицу и око лица као последица или превеликог уншарпа у постпроцесингу или превелике ЈПГ компресије, што је приметно и очигледно и на шуми и води иза...

 

Све у свему портет је веома леп са својом једноставношћу и перфектиним осветљењем на моделу. Оптика је колико се чини са неког 6x6 апарата.

 

Живели, Душан

 

д.

I see it as lyric...absolutely! "Having a singing voice of light volume and modest range." Well, whatever this image says it is not loud and agressive. It's subtle...and patient. This is the type of image that you open and have to pause for a second, to understand it's details, to make notice of it's inflections.

"Of or relating to a category of poetry that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings, often in a songlike style or form." Again...I get it! I look at this woman's face and I undertand's it's honesty...she's not faking, she's not posing, she is being herself and that transcends through this image. Everybody who has commented already felt like they could understand how she felt (bored, mad, skeptical, defensive, etc). So yes, it is lyrical in that sense of the word: it most certainly expresses feelings. I'll ignore point c. of the definition of the word lyrical because I don't think that the elf was referring to that, plus, there a lot of people that have never been to the opera...

I can only suppose an answer, since the image at present does contain artifacts, but I'm going to guess the answer to your question would be no. I would find the image to be more pleasing if I did not have that one issue to overlook, it would still be the same image only minus the distraction. I like the photo, it just doesn't sing to me and it doesn't have to sing to me in order for me to appreciate its beauty.

Gordon,

 

The reason that i can overlook the noise is because as of right now, I don't know what he used to shoot this image. The noise may be a compression artifact and not be present in the original. If I read that he shot this with a 6x6, then I would assume that the noise is indeed not on the film. If it were digital, he could have used a very low quality setting on the camera or when he resized it for upload.

 

Maybe I'm being a bit platonic here in looking at this image as an imperfect instantiation of a more perfect form somewhere else. There have been times that I have images that look like "meh" on my camera's screen, but end up looking considerably better on my monitor (more often, though, the opposite occurs).

 

I guess I tend to look at these images in the way that i watch fireworks on TV-- not as spectacular as they might be in person, so I adjust my reaction a bit based on that. Okay, I really don't watch fireworks much on TV, but you know what I mean ;)

 

Am I the only one who thinks that *this* particular use of centering is a strength? I don't know what people mean by "distracting" sometimes... I didn't even really think of the sky until people began pointing it out...I guess I found the subject distracting ;)

Too bad we can't edit here :)

 

Anyway, I think that having her lined up with the gap in the trees (assuming that you mean with the gap directly behind her) might end up looking *too* symmetrical and perhaps to the point of looking like a weird accident or a hidden message. I would wonder if it were intentional or not, if it had meaning beyond pure aesthetics, etc. I don't know, though. I guess someone could photoshop it :) (I could give it a shot from home later).

Matt, I think the grain/noise is the artists choice. Have a look through theo's portfolio -- it is a recurring choice. I like the grain/noise a lot of the time, but not as often as theo clearly does and not in this image where I think it disrupts the skin tones, steals attention from Olive (how dare it!) and disrupts the lyric qualities.

 

I find the pose and the liberal spacing around Olive to be strengths (and the centred composition too). By granting this space we can see how fully dominating Olive is. She has a true elegance and also a command. Her seeming control paired with such grace lead me to imagine her as an opera singer or other 'diva'.

 

It is a compelling portrait, a very good portrait. But, maybe not an exceptional portrait. But, there are a few in theo's portfolio that are exceptional (and some I'd pass over; and then a vast number of good to very good images).

wonderfuls shot, very expresive well done

I'd like to tackle the poetry aspect of lyrical for this portrait because I find no music in it (and

I'm a rap AND opera lover). If Olive were a poem she'd be one verse, very to the point and

making a statement rather than asking a question. I get this from her body language. Her

hand - fingers open - conveys impatience to me, as does the slouch to one side. The

expression on her face clearly says ticked off. The noise - if you blow this up in PS to 200% -

is mostly around edges. That's usually a sign of over-sharpening. And if you moved her head

to the crook between the clouds she would have horizontal rabbit ears. Th th that's all folks :)

Forgot to say that I mean no disrespect to Theo whose portfolio I admire greatly.

I can see feelings and thoughts in this photo but not one of melody , it seems more like " OK this is the last shot and dont publish it"

Thats my first impression , and she does not appear to be in the mood for a song . Lyric it is not to me.

I am impressed by the number of people who think there is something overly centered about this photo. While her body is centered from left to right, that is about the only way this image is centered. The multiple horizons are anything but symmetrical and the break in the tree line certainly weighs nicely against the contrapuntal movement of her shoulders against the water line. I especially like the opposing gesture of her two hands... The whole arrangement seems subtly poly-rhythmic, like a bossa nova.

The "rap" reference is a little flawed. Commercial rap music is heavily dependent on the downbeat, quite regular, and predictable in melodic structure. It commonly has an angry attitude which is certainly not present in this image. But then the best rap is truly poetic and quite emotional, so there are those common attributes. And rap music is literally lyric dependent, and essentially poetic, so that is not incompatible with our elf's thinking.

One critic finds "the asymmetry is a little distracting", while another finds the "subject squarely in the middle evokes a sense of the ordinary". It's almost like they are looking at two different images. What fun.

If you were to measure the "tones" of this image, I think the majority would fall well above the mid-tone. Actual blacks seem relatively minimal, The sky and water share extremely light values, and the trees on the far shore are very lightly rendered, so I think "having a singing voice of light volume and modest range" is close enough to make this metaphorically "lyrical". Check out the histogram.

As for listening to "avant guard jazz which is not particularly lyrical". I'd like to know what "avant guard" jazz is, if not redundant. Personally, I find a lot of jazz to be the essence of lyric... emotional, light of tone, operatic, narrative and poetically so. Consider In A Silent Way, by Miles Davis, particularly the extended studio sessions. Certainly avant guard, even today, and the very essence of lyrical expression.

And, having just come from a week at the beach, I can say that many women wear jewelry at the beach, while they sip margaritas and eat shrimps. I did it with them, I recommend it highly. And this doesn't even look like "the beach" unless you call a lake shore a "beach". Note the lack of surf. The water is mirror-like, precisely reflecting the high smooth tones of the overcast sky.

There's no reason a work of art can't be lyric and enigmatic at the same time... they are not contradictory characteristics... in fact, I'd call them complementary, especially when used in concert with "poetic".

"c. Of, relating to, or being musical drama, especially opera: the lyric stage"...Here merely substitute "visual" for "musical" and we?re back on "lyrical", which makes perfect sense to me.

What a different discussion this is, from the usual POW discussion. Cool. Thanks to all... t

Might I suggest viewing the photographs made by all the contributers to this thread? I find it wonderfully insightful... t

Trees, I meant trees, not clouds (re: the gap in)