people Village Elder II

This took a long time to get. The full story is with the picture

comments. I have burnt in the background. He is seated in the

doorway of a temple.

When I visited the temple an old man was peeking out from the temple doorway and I absolutely wanted that photo. I asked but "No way" so the guy in the B/W portrait in this folder volunteered and really he was second choice. Then I ended up taking a photo of the whole group from a table top they brought out to the yard for me. I promised to send copies to the head man. When I got down the original old guy (in this photo) came up and grapped my elbow and let it be known I could take his photo. He then went and got a chair and sat down in the doorway of the temple. I made a bit of a mess of taking his photo, time was against me but there you are. I did manage 2 other good shots. Let me know if this is of interest.

Louis

Thank you again for your comments and ratings in the rest of my folder.

Very striking. Nice capture.

One Cool Dude. Great Shot Also

This is an example of portrait photography at its best. The position of the arms is especially telling.

Outstanding portrait and well worth the wait.

Very well done Louis. Nice pose, and the lighting is deftly handled. Very good shot.

Excellent! I love the lighting.

Awesome. Wonderful lighting, very good portrait. Congrats.

If you read the story related to this you know I did little except get him inside the doorway because the lighting looked good and he was photogenic. He is sitting because he was tired I had just shot pics of all his mates. I always have a fillin flash to get some catchlight in the eyes. If you are looking and thinking it is good it wasn't that hard technically. The hard bit is asking to take the photo. Remember he turned me down at first. The rich colour comes from pumping up the saturation as in real life his shirt was a bit dowdy but I saw his as a venerable mandarin type and the portrait is my vision of HIM. I believe that in a portrait you can catch a fraction of someone's soul (a direct connect to them). There are other ways to explain this but it is my simplest way of saying it. That is my aim. In this image I believe I succeeded and also in the Berber Boy and Staring Eyes and some of the others. I guess this sort of personal comment may cause the odd hoot but its why I photograph.

Louis

Exceptional portrait. Everything is perfect, light, pose, balanced composition. I'd say also for me it looks very original.

Bravo - great portrait!!

 

When you refer to "burning in" the black background, I assume you are using Adobe Photoshop, is this correct?

 

Herman

Yes it was photoshop used. Thank you. louis

Excellent light and pose.
I face expression is unforgettable!
I admire you for your will power to take this photo which is very well done.

This is one cool shot of a cool guy.

 

I hate to bring a negative note to this seemingly perfect portrait, but only one thing bothers me about it. Is it just me and my inexperienced eye, or is the face of the man a litte 'hot' or 'washed out'? I understand that Louis didn't have much time to perfect the exposure, but does that make the photo 'less than perfect', or is that a 'feature'??

Again, I hate to bring a tone of negativity to this fabulous photo, but just had to comment...

 

Jon

Louis,

It makes me want to go to Vietnam and photograph portraiture of people. I love everything about your picture. It is perfection.

Excellent portrait. A lot of experience in those hands and eyes. Thanks for posting.

So forceful in his pose, full of dignity, that this portrait deserves to be in B&W. I'll visit your folder to see them. Admirable shot!

I love when a face says something like this does, beautifully done

I really find it flawless, simple, with sultry beauty

nice liting with a selective colors ... very nice shot

one of the best i've ever seen on this site, period.

I like the crisp edges and the background.

Striking ! Change Nothing

Great color and skin tones.