single photos Summer portrait

This is one beautiful piece of work. What else is there to say?

--Lannie

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Lannie is right. This photograph is remarkable. Congratulations, Stasys.

Big black holes where eyes should be. Another black hole where her mouth should be, giving her a toothless look. Big black blotches where hair should be. And this is a summer "portrait"? No. Just no. This is one of the worst photographs I've ever seen.

I don't understand nothing. Maybe I'm sick or just a fool.... maybe

I have to admit that I find this image a bit refreshing and maybe a bit nostalgic as well. It just has that sort of fleeting moment feeling, less studied than most, to it that we haven't seen here in the POW for some time.

I don't mind the black holes for the eyes and mouth, in fact, I didn't read them that way myself at all. It isn't about those things and they don't really matter to me, one can still read the image and it really isn't about the person.

The nostalgic part is that it harkens back to a lot of older images. I have a Curtis above my computer and the color and texture that has been added is reminiscent of these gravures--which also often had "technical" difficulties. There are many other references that the image brings to me from images I have seen by masters and in the news, particularly in earlier times where everything wasn't so produced looking.

Looking over the thumbnails of the last 14 POW's, this is by far my favorite and provides a much needed respite in style.

I see passion in this. It's a vision, not a representation. The technique is from the gut.

Printed to evoke a mood; this is a woman who likes to enjoy life. Maybe she likes to smoke Marlboros. I wouldn't be surprised if it was printed this way to hide defects that don't allow it to be printed in any other way. (I notice I said "printed." It does remind me of the kind of print you might see on a restaurant wall to try to evoke some type of mood ("have a good time, damn the consequences").

I do kind of agree with Jim about the black holes for eyes being a defect, and I think it is something that would trouble me if it were my picture and I were trying to print it.

I know that everyone has is own taste and understanding, but I don't see nothing good in this photo...not the artistic "note" not the technical"note"...really it is a bad photo for me.

late 60's early 70's old school

This photo is not set up. Light is not arranged. Model does not work for hours and she is not a little girl. After the photo was executed it was not heavily PS manipulated. It is not a quasi pro photo. So it is not a standard POW. Moreover the models face does express something and this expression matches womens genotype. It is a good photo.

I love this image. One could easily envision a starlet from the late 1950's to the early 1970's in such photographic treatment, mater-of-fact, I remember a Bardot image of similar treatment. This image does as Stasys apparently wished to do by title, it gives the air of a summer portrait. Summer, that short time in which many of us rush to get in as much of, before it is gone. I can feel that time was not "wasted" on elaborate make-up and hair styling, nor is there the look of two hours of post processing. I can nearly hear the client say "Capture me as I am, the real me, vibrantly enjoying life at this time of year. How about down at the beach?." Personally, I can see it all here. I consider it a wonderful work of art Stasys.

This photo evokes emotion and stirs the imagination, just as a successful drawing would do. Well done.

This is dreadful, absolutely dreadful. Start with the baby-couldn't-help-it yellow everywhere. Hideous contrast. And the stomach turning baby-couldn't-help-it-yellow. I find this thing pretentious, an unnecessary straining for effects. It has been done before. I won't say better.

I think this would have been a passible photograph if it were done in black and white. The awful contrast would still have made the subject look like a shrunken head--but at least it would have been a shrunken head that didn't seem as if were left outside to fester for a month.

I like it for all the reasons that Alex does not. I think that the graphic impact of a very nearly "high noon" shot does indeed capture the essence of the girl at the beach, with hair blowing across her face. As for the color, the hue conveys the sense of nostalgia that I can also appreciate in this case.

I could say that both the model and the style of portraiture bespeak an earlier era, but the fact is that she appears very nearly timeless to me. The style? It's been done. It will continue to be done. I like it.

Congratulations, Stasys, for capturing precisely what it appears that you were going for.

--Lannie

I think the Elves should be congratulated. Looking at the various posts on this thread, I think their choice of this image as POW was right on the money. It reminds us that there is a variety of reasons for connecting with a photograph - positively or neatively.

Jim Adams: I'm with you completely on this one. Black spaces for eyes, mouth area, neck area and a great deal of lacking detail in the hair. It seems to have little detail anywhere. It appears old 1970's, but is so flawed

One question only for the people who like this photograph. How do you justify that hideous yellow?

Alex, you see it as hideous while obviously others don't. It might a monitor issue on your part ;))

Anyway, we all react to color differently and while I often find yellow offensive, I don't see THAT color here. Certainly, there is yellow, but there is enough red and desat that it isn't garish to me. As I said, it has more of a nostalgic look to it.

But, at the same time you ask about yellow, it might be fair to ask others why the dark eyes, mouth and hair bother you. Is this about the person here or is it about a mood and feeling. Many have talked about how they can feel the beach and wind--and maybe heat--etc. It a photograph only about what we see, a record or are the best those that can make us feel things.

This certainly is a retro type of image (also posted over 5 years ago and by an inactive member--not sure how the elves ever found it) but as I said above, it is so refreshing to have an image that feels like it is really a response to something rather than a production and rather sterile.

The black eyes, etc., might look worse in a print than they do on screen, where there's some backlight shining through them. Seems like a possibility, anyway.

Martin, part of the skill in printing (not that many now print or become proficient at it) is to tweak a print until it does read like what we see on screen. It is a laborious process at times, especially until one learns their paper and printer and can anticipate the needed adjustments--and then there is still some tweaking, just as there always was in the darkroom.

Alex: I am no expert in color theory. But I don't see yellow in the image. I see shades of sepia. I tend to agree this may be a monitor calibration issue.

Personally, this photo does little for me. I do like her cheekbones but that's not anything that the photographer is responsible for. Whether you call it yellow, sepia, red, orange or any mix of colors at that end of the spectrum, I find them unflattering in the portrayal of a pretty woman. I do get a 70's feel from this shot and I believe (but can't prove and will probably never know) this might be a scan of a film shot. Scans do that.

Stasys hasn't posted anything on this site since 2008 so I did some research elsewhere. He seems to be rather successful at stock photography and has received special thanks for 3 episodes of South Park (doesn't say how he contributed.)

He's not known for portraits.

Of the 7 images in his PN portfolio, I would say the color is decidedly off in all but one - a crisp and clever B&W photo of a woman holding up - well, just go look at it. Green sand on three, orange women (probably also scans of film prints) in two others that have the same look and feel as this one). I believe it's the same woman in all 4 photos.

I'm 100% certain it isn't my monitor that needs calibration. I had my new 27" iMac professionally calibrated. So unless PN is doing something . . .

Stasys, if you're out there, what's the backstory on this one?

I just know that I love her and want to marry her.

We can evaluate a photo in a variety of ways. One of those ways is in terms of the emotion that it evokes. Another way is in terms of the technique employed and the quality of the technical expertise manifested both in the capture and the post processing. In this case, it is not clear whether the photo was a technical failure by Stasys or instead represents the effect that he was striving for. I lean toward the latter, but I really don't know.

One thing that is striking is that there is not much middle ground on the comments: people tend either to love the photo or to hate it. I number myself among the former while having an intellectual understanding of the comments by the critics. Alas, as David Hume said, "Reason is or ought to be the slave of the passions." Passion trumps reason on this one for me.

So, on this one, Little Elves, thank you for the discussion that has ensued. Passions have been aroused--all kinds, apparently, lust, anger, revulsion, etc. I added the photo to my favorites, but I have to concede to John A. that, good as it is full-sized, it is even better in the thumbnail version, nesting in there with my other faves. It just sort of stands out. The graphic impact is powerful, even if at the cost of detail. Terminal horniness also helps in analyzing and evaluating this one, I fear. Summer breeze. Girl on the beach. Yummy.

I like this photo.

--Lannie