porcelain portraits (tm) Dasha with Guitar

Lovely portrait, Steve. I like the high-key-type effect, and that you managed to do it without a blown-out spot. Nice job.

Dasha is our talented Russian foreign exchange student. She has a

serious side as well a very pert, fun-loving side to her personality.

Belleza de imagen, perfecto retrato, genial luz, color y bella composicion, saludos cordiales Steve.

Absolutely lovely portrait. How did you get this soft effect? Is it a post process or a filter?

Is bad :( Sorry.

 

Cheers, Cristian.

Very painting-like. Pastel colors make give a water color feeling. Yes, this works well.

U are right. I can't express myself in english like in my own language, but let's talk about your picture. Why is bad: The selection of the guitar body was brutish; nose was burnt too much; the blured areas wasn't improved the pic. at all; the env. reflected in the eyes are not intresting; the guitar body texture it's also not interesting... bg likewise; colors don't tell a story; fingers position... And it's not abstract...yet :D.

I understand that u wished to achieve an very soft shadow/highlight/blurred stylized image and I don't tell anything about the guitar plastic strings/grif (this word is in Romanian language and it's about the part with the keys... maybe in english is 'neck' or something...) details and apropos...three strings from above(bass), thick ones, has metal dumpling rolled around the plastic and are

jagged...

U supposed to start by putting two identical layers and on the top one: Overlay blending mode/ opacity 60-80 percent, you decide and filter/blur like wise, to achieve that effect in PS.

I'll attach u two povs (minimalist/abstract) with your picture without any use of any brush in PS (very quick) with the same composition!

Hope to like them.

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I didn't want to be rude with my first v. short and direct comment but... time is precious for me as for you, the picture with Dasha maybe :)

Thank you for your comment despre my fotografii si deasemenea pt. "inside kiwi fruit" Pt. ca mi-ai cerut detalii, ti le-am dat. Cine nu cere, nu i se da. Dar cind faci fotografii e bine sa nu ceri niciodata, cel putin in tzara mea :)).

 

Cheers, Cristian.

2

Cristian, you show great promise as a photographer. In many ways our styles are similar. However, as a constructive critic/teacher you require a great deal of development.

 

Choice of the guitar is "brutish"? You mean I should have chosen a less brutish guitar or is it that guitars are not worthy as being part of a portrait composition? Neither makes any sense.

 

You state the "nose was burnt too much". Perhaps you may need to seek a little more understanding of this genre of high contrast portraiture. You may as well be criticizing a black and white photograph for lack of color. Skin tones are not supposed to be realistic. That is why they are "porcelain" portraits. The intention is to render a painterly, pastel effect.

 

I was hoping perhaps I could learn from your reworked examples. However, both of them, the first more than the second example, display abstraction with no soul or sense of truth. They seem to be disingenuous manipulations which kill the essence of the subject. Neither is worthy of you.

 

I mean no offense, but your critique has little instructional value. It seems more to be designed as a haughty put-down rather than an analysis that readers, including myself, can benefit from. I think you have gained your vision as a photographer, but you need to appreciate that teaching is also an art.

 

 

Thank you for your very kind words.

 

This genre of photography is done with a combination of high-contrast makeup and image manipulation. The makeup almost looks like a clown face in real life. The subject must have seen samples of what the outcome will be, or she will be very self-conscious wearing it.

 

The actual set up for taking the image can be very primitive. This particular set up was nothing more than Dasha on a stool under an overcast sky in front of a bed sheet. You would laugh if you saw it.

 

The next step is to reduce the contrast by manipulating the tones. In particular, I soften the shadow areas. This is done in Photoshop with a 40 - 70% transparent layer having been softened with Gaussian blur and with parts of the layer selectively erased.

 

I used to do these in my film-based days with B&W film, over-exposed and manipulated in the darkroom with perhaps a little selective coloring using photo oil colors.

Steve, glad to have you back, showing and telling as you do best!

Lovely shot to begin with, lovely post-processing to finish off...

Best regards, as ever, from Kenya,

Mark

It's an interesting example of portraiture and, in my opinion, shows a well developed style. I'm not convinced by the skin tones but I've never been a fan of make up in portraiture, anyway. The trimming is just right, I think, with the guitar adding a nice contrast to the face and the hand well placed. All in all, this picture works well for me, even with the make up.

 

:-)))

This is a portrait using a muted pastel palette. The nose is 100% white as is part of the cheek on the left of the image. These totally blown highlights ruin an otherwise reasonable image.

 

The fingers look awkward.

 

My own 2 guitar images can be seen in this folder. Maybe the above person will also find the guitar still brutish in my images!

Click for Folder link

However, I am a bit surprised at your comment on the blown out highlights. This is typical of this type of high contrast portraiture.

 

I invite you to look at the rest of the folder if you have not done so already:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder.tcl?folder_id=485859

 

Perhaps I am even more surprised because you published above on your own website a very lovely portrait that also had "blown out highlights".

 

Admittedly, the fingers are not conventionally posed with the typical gentle "C" curve, placed lightly together, exposing the sides of the fingers. However, while this hand pose is very useful, I chose not to use it to avoid its looking contrived.

Steve the actual print has tone everywhere. I wasn't aware that toneless portraits was a genre. Litho prints yes but not this type of print. Personally I wouldn't supply a print with a blown highlight on the skin, i regard that as bad printing. No web image ever looks as good as the print. Sharpening for the web etc. all introduce higher contrast than I prefer.

 

You will find other comments on some of my images regarding blown highlights but generally people come back and retract their comment when they look at the image on a calibrated monitor (luminance 100).

 

I am never happy with any of my images, just happier with some than others.

 

cheers

Louis

 

PS I looked at the folder and I understand this is a style you like, I don't but that is my problem not yours.

:) Your "It is much more satisfying than holding the light too close to the ground." comment in my folio... I apologize. You are an very smart and educated person. I still don't like this work but doesn't matter, now I understood your POV! Thank you for your wisdom. Cristiann.