The Reader

Perfect details and lights, nice portait of a beautiful model. Congratulations!

Deb,

Your portraits are just as excellent as your landscapes. This is stunning with perfect lighting and composition.

Best regards!  -  Lester

I agree with Lester, Debra, your work is truly lovely. This one is particular has a very 'classic' look and your lighting is exceptional. I think it is 'key' in this particular portrait, so lovely, timeless.

From landscape to portrait,but is a delight to see this large view.All around this is a special mood created.Soft light on face and very nice and elegant dress.Compliments for this work.

Nice portrait, with beautiful Lighting

This is a gorgeous portrait Debra! Beautifully lit, and expertly photographed.

All the best,
Neil

Excellent work! (6)

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This is truly an outstanding portrait Debra. Nice, very nice. Happy new year and keep on that way. Regards ;)

The distance between the eyes and the book looks unnatural to me and causes the photo to look posed/staged.

Everything else, especially the lighting, looks great.

A beautiful portrait indeed and I can't offer any technical improvements. Compositionally I would like to see a slight crop from the bottom

and left to move the subject off center, but this is a minor concern. Debra's portfolio reflecfts a consistant production of near perfect

images and this earlier shot is no exception.... Mike

Debra certainly has a sense of theatricality, and there are some of hers here that I like better than this one - mostly because this particular recipe, while so carefully lit, is ringing a little oddly with me. The subject feels more contemporary than her dress (and the dress isn't quite as small as she is) - likewise the backdrop plays like it's from yet another era... so, a little bit of a stylistic hodge-podge, which distracts me from the careful goal. The looking-past-the-book part doesn't bother me, as she appears more to be thinking than reading.

Looking at the rest of her portfolio, I have to applaud her willingness to get out there and do this stuff - a lot of effort and passion there. Which is wonderful.

What strikes me when looking at the Portraits folder of Debra, this photo jumps out for a Vermeer or Caravaggio light quality. Not to degrade the other portraits at all, they're strong work but a slightly different style (to me). But this one has a tranquility and great use of light(ing) working for it, qualities less obvious in the others. It's very beautiful done, and technically an excellent photo in my view.

As a portrait, though, it does not move me as much. It's got a charming tranquility, but to me, it's also somewhat detached (and also in this respect, I find it the odd photo in the portofolio - the other portraits seem to connect me).I also noted some of the points with regards to the contemporary looks as Matt highlights. I'm not sure whether they disturb me or not; it gives me the impression of being an hommage to great painters, rather than a re-enactment of them. But I admit, that's fully speculation and I could understand people not liking it.

Overall, as beautifully executed as this one is, I sense a distance between the photo and the viewer, and it does not engage me as much as some of the others. I admire the technical qualities of the photo, and move on.

Thanks everyone for your thoughtful critiques. It is always helpful to consider the insights of others on my past work so that I may continue to improve my future projects.

I like this picture. This a traditional formal pose and careful, classical lighting that illuminates the sitter beautifully. I love the subdued color as a way to help forward the classical, timeless theme.

The hair does not quite match the period costume, however, and I would like to see the left hand. I think it's under the book but it looks amputated and a well posed hand on the book would have given this study a bit more character. Nit picks aside this is a lovely portrait with professional level qualities. Nice work Debra!

This is a nicely done, single light portrait that is technically well executed. But one thing I always look for, especially when a scene/period is created--where costumes etc are employed, is the attention to details in styling and propping. It is just an embedded sensitivity from years working in commercial photography.

So, this might seem like a nit in an otherwise nicely done image but I feel I would be remiss not mentioning it. The issue that my eye went to immediately is just how this woman doesn't feel like she is wearing her dress but rather positioned behind a shield at her chest region. The fabric just stands out way too far from her body, is seemingly rigid,showing no contour and then ends up ballooning out the over garment and creating a very unnatural black space on her shoulder--to our right. These things can usually be adjust pretty easily with even a clothespin on the back side to pull things a bit tighter. Again, this may seem small to many but when we consider how many people create these sorts of images, it is paying attention to the little things that will make one's work stand above the crowd of otherwise technically well done images.

I did read the other comment about the hair and recognize that as an issue as well, although it didn't jump out at me quite like the clothing did. I think the hair works ok but could have been worked a bit to make it more integral to the period intent.

dupe

It is beautifully lit and, like last week's POTW, has a beautiful subject. But it doesn't make me care. To me, it's an aloof presentation of a known quantity and quality of "beauty." The problem for me is that there is beauty in this portrait, but no person. Like Wouter, I feel more of a connection to others in Debra's portfolio.

There is a feel of the traditional portrait in here. Everything from light to composition makes one think of a painting than a photograph and it is refreshing to see how the traditional can still have a place amidst the very modern.

Lighting on this portrait is nice but framing and pose are too rigid and unnatural. Here is an interesting collection of reading women by Pierre-Auguste Renoir with beautifully flowing and natural poses: http://bjws.blogspot.com/2012/09/women-reading-by-pierre-auguste-renoir.html

Wonderful link, Thomas. Vermeer is so much more than light and composition. Through pose, gesture, and expression he so often expresses his subjects' absorption in what they're doing, whether it's pouring from a pitcher or reading a book. The engagement is palpable.

Looks like classical work of painting. Really in a very nice MOOD

A classical sort of pose and ambiance. I agree with those who find the lighting very good but the pose rigid and the model's clothing unconvincingly worn. One doesn't need to have the subject concentrating on the book, as this photo of a painting of a dreaming subject, amidst reflections of a country cabin, may suggest. One enters not the book but the subject's mind and thoughts.

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=13424815

exquisite.