A certain gleam in her eye

i really like the arguments and discussions of the "know how" gentleman`s from above. i have to admit, if it was not for them i would not knew about the photoshop lab. most probably i would have had worked my b.. off to try and achieve something like that and most likely failed, or maybe not! but as a novice the only point i could make it`s about the crop factor involved in the discussion. i could not see the following sample, but i did try to see it cropped in my own way. and i have to say that it does not work for me. cropped square only takes away of the intensity of it, which its what makes this photo so great. the lower 'black hole' the dark,the one that one of the gentleman`s was talking about, makes a great contrast to the other side o her shoulder /scarf, whatever she was wearing which its light. to me those "two differences'-the light and the dark- makes her face pop out with the intensity we see. its almost like her head its popping out between two curtains. without those 'curtains'(cropped), the photo becomes only a face expression and not a portrait to me. a seven for the aesthetics and a five for originality (-2 points for the lab thing).

In my defense, I have read none of the above comments, and really only want to convey mine. The shot is lovely. Her eyes are the eyes of someone much older than she is, the dof is spot on. Your b/w treatment, conversion however you got here is perfect.

She is beautiful.

J

Beautiful portrait! When I first saw this portrait it reminded me of Steve McCurry's Afghan Girl. Of course the subject is as day and night and yet there is a certain mood that this picture evoked, that took me back to that 1980's image.

Agota Page

Anders, you caught exactly what I was going for with each of the two shots you're discussing

:) The girl in question is my daughter, who seemingly never passes up an opportunity to be in

front of the lens.

 

The square-aspect portrait shot was more of an exercise in replicating the tonality of a

graphite pencil portrait through photography, while the POW shot was all about deliberately

going over the top to produce a punchy glamorized picture.

 

Each of them was as much an exercise in post-production for me as it was an exercise in

shooting the picture in the first place.

 

In the first one, I wanted to go for a gritty feel to the picture that showed her beauty and

determination shining through the extraneous facts of messy hair, my imperfect lighting, etc.

The tonality is rough, and the presentation stark, yet I feel that it serves its purpose well. This

is the treatment I might give someone's portrait whose self-worth is high, and whose self-

esteem is strong enough... To that effect, I chose the green channel as the basis of my

conversion to black & white from the original color. The green channel most closely

approximates the natural luminosity of a scene, which was what I wanted. I wanted the

midtones darker than they are naturally to evoke the feeling of graphite pencil shading.

 

In the second one, I wanted to deliberately evoke the feel of a Hollywood starlet glamour

headshot. I wanted the skin smooth, the eyes bright, the shadows deep, the overall effect

being all about immediate impact over and above natural reality. With that goal, I shot with

warm lights bounced off a yellow wall, and chose the red channel for the basis of my

conversion to black & white because the red channel has a tendency to be at once very

contrasty and yet incredibly smooth in skintones. Perfect :) This is the treatment that I would

give someone who is uncertain of themselves, or whose ego needs a boost - just the thing to

help them believe in themselves...

 

-- A

Bernhard, I personally tend to agree with your ratings assessment :) This was deliberately

derivative and going after a certain well-defined in-studio glamourized look, as such I think

the originality score should probably be average. I'd like to believe that the aesthetics of it

are a bit higher than that, though ;)

Greg, than you for the very technically astute advice about the zones and the skin tonalities!

 

I keep telling her she needs to stop growing up, but she cheekily keeps ignoring me and

doing it anyway. sigh. ;)

Ken, thank you. I agree with you that solid clothing would have been better for the shot

itself, but this was very much spur-of-the-moment, with my daughter flouncing in from

playing outside to discover that I was setting up the studio equipment for an upcoming

session, and begging me to let her pose to help zero in the lighting and the exposure :)

 

Sometimes I just take what I can get and go with the flow ;)

Mark, thanks for your indepth and well-thought-out critique. I really appreciate receiving it,

and you make some very reasoned and valid points in it :)

 

Yes, there were details in that deep shadow in the lower-left corner. During the post-

production process, I decided to bring that shadow down as deep as it is as a counterbalance

to the bright patterned fabric in the opposite corner, and also to soften her jawline on that

same side. Also, I wanted very deep shadows in the picture to enhance the overall dramatic

impact of the shot. As you say, this isn't a standard interpretation of the shot, but I'll stand by

the choices I made and the final product. It produces the impact that I wanted when I decided

how I wanted to post-produce the shot. I wanted a shot that would reach out and grab the

viewer by the throat...

 

I have to respectfully disagree about a square crop being the best choice left: it is as it is

because I deliberately made it that way :)

 

-- Aaron

Erik, yes Marc is correct: I did burn that dark shadowed area down considerably.

 

I did it for a couple of reasons - one of which you discovered as you were bringing details

back: the picture to me seemed better when her right cheek and jawline receded back into the

darkness. I thought it really added a lot to the picture to remove those details. Like you, I was

very struck by the diagonal that was brought into the lower half of the picture by the long

edge of the lower corner's resulting triangle :)

 

Second, I did it as a deliberate strong counterbalance to the bright fabric on the right side of

the picture. Done this way, I thought there was actually a nice triangle made between her

expression and the two opposed tonalities at the bottom. I also thought that the way it was

post-processed resulted in her expression being so strong that it actually needed a non-

traditional and very strong counterbalance below...

 

In the end, I'm quite happy with the end product, and the print of it in my studio is constantly

a magnet for attention.

Thanks for your honest opinions on the picture :) The point of the way that I post-produced

the image, though, was not at all to give it a natural feel - it was to deliberately emulate a

specific look.

 

I have to respectfully disagree that it's a failure. It's a success at what I aimed it to be, which

is as an attention magnet. If I were going for a purely natural feel to the picture, I would

definitely not have given it this treatment :)

Kausik,

 

One strobe was about 30 degrees counter-clockwise from the camera, about 8-10 feet

from the subject, and about 6 feet off the floor. It was reflected into an umbrella, and then

passed through a diffusion panel.

 

The second strobe was 90 degrees counter-clockwise from the camera, about 6 feet from

the subject, about 2 feet off of the floor, bounced upward off of a yellow wall which was

about 10 feet from the subject.

 

The reflector (3 foot, silver) was about 80 degrees clockwise from the camera, about 4 feet

away from the subject, and about a foot off of the floor. In retrospect, I'd have put this

closer to her, because it actually didn't reflect much :)

Anders,

 

I agree with your assessment of the square crop as presented by Marc. To me, her shoulder

and the stark shadow below her face are absolutely necessary to the overall picture's mood,

and are what keeps it grounded :)

Jengish,

 

Perhaps I did take her eyes a bit over the top ;)

Atanas,

 

Yes, here's the original color version (straight from the RAW converter in Lightroom).

Jennie,

 

This is indeed processed. I was going for a very specific look in the post-processing. I

wanted her eyes very bright because to me they were the center points of the whole

image.

 

Her skin is that luminous because I shot it with warm lighting, and then chose the red

channel as the basis of my conversion to black & white. The red channel has a tendency to

drastically smooth skin, and to reduce its contrast; just what I was going for with this

particular shot. I wanted it to end up all at once striking, somewhat mysterious, and

strangely ethereal :)

 

I was definitely weighing in at the dramatic side of the organic vs. dramatic scale with it,

but it was deliberate choice that led me there.

 

-- Aaron

Romeo,

 

Personally, I agree with you that the crop and composition as I presented it is a part of

what makes it work. For my personal view of the picture, that specific composition was

essential. I thought long and hard about where to crop it and what aspect ratio to make it

before settling where I did with it.

 

Thanks for the confirming voice in support of my decisions :)

 

-- Aaron

Technically yes, great. You wouldn't show us anything less.

However, you say she 'posed' for you. The essence of Portraiture is to capture the true person. Next time, try for an image that shows a another side of her.

Very nice. This kind of stillness and seriousness is tough to capture in children. This portrait shows a lot of personality, and feels very full of life.

 

I love how it echoes classic Hollywood portraiture, but little telltale signs like the faint sprinkling of freckles (which would almost certainly have been hand-spotted out of one of those old 8x10 studio portraits) keep it both modern and childlike.

I keep coming back to this picture. The high contrast works so well. What great eyes!

This is a wonderful picture of a beautiful girl. I would like to see the same picture without those veins on the sclera. I don't know if removing them the wonderful gaze would be lost.

Very intense eyes and strong looking pose, amazing

Absolutley beautiful portrait and fantastic post processing. My only niggle and it may not prove true unless compared with the above is that due to the contrast/saturation applied it has increased the appearance of vessels in the eyes. Don't get me wrong Im not suggesting you remove them glossy magazine style just that maybe the vessels be masked when applying the contrast enhancing work. Regards to you both.

 

Fantastic photo, superb focus and a charming subject.

I have, though, just a little comment about ratings. The 2 ratings are for "Aesthetics" and "Originality". I can't see how this rates less than 6 or 7 for aesthetic effect (I gave it 7). However, personally, it's not what I'd call outstandingly original, and indeed, some of the most aesthetic pictures are not necessarily "original". Take a marvellous beach sunset picture, say. It can be fantastcially exposed and so beautiful that it brings a tear to the eye, but it's not, in my book, original. It doesn't of course have to be; a really good "standard" shot like a sunset, or a flower, or somesuch can be excellent without really being in any way original; in the same way, a highly original shot can impress due to its originality even if aesthetically or technically it's not 100%.

 

perhaps the rating system is too simplistic. However, perhaps it's done like that deliberately in order to promote thought...

 

Austin,

 

Yes, I agree with your assessment completely: in my opinion this is not a tremendously original image. It's largely a riff on old-style Hollywood glamour portraiture, and is very derivative.

 

If I were to rate it myself for originality, I'd be inclined to give it a 4 or possibly a 5.

 

To me, this one was all about the aesthetics. I wanted to push the standard form of the picture as much as I could to explore its nuances, and to understand what makes it tick :)

 

Thanks for your honest and straightforward opinion; I distinctly appreciate it!

 

--A

Although this is an eye capturing image that is perfect in many ways, I find the whites of the eye a bit too white, making it just a bit artificial. I am actually surprised it didn't bother anybody else. I would give it a 6/6. You can take my portrait anytime Aaron!

 

Herma