Nora, Looking Good!

What are your opinions on this simple portrait? Is there enough detail

in the black sweater? Is the background too dark, or should it be

lighter? How do you feel about the subject?

Doug, I would consider this image as a masterpiece. Exposure,light , details of her black sweater, and skin tone are just perfect(superb).The background is in concert with the image.Have you cloned the background?

I think it is a beautiful portrait with just enough detail in the sweater. The choice of clothing and background helps focus attention on her face. I'm not sure if I like the catch light in the pupils of her eyes, particularly her right eye. Once I noticed it, she seems to stare at me, which distracts a bit.

Doug, I'd have to agree about the catchlight. As you have two, cloning the centre one shouldn't be an issue. The rest of it is excellent. Without knowing your intention with this image, it does look as if she is staring at me which is a little disconcerting. I always want to feel an emotional response to a portrait but she isn't giving much away here.

Excellent and gratifying comments, thanks very much.

 

I haven't done studio portraits in so long that I forgot to notice the two catch lights. So, I will fix them right away. I used one main light, and one fill light. The background is a white bed sheet that I painted with various browns almost 20 years ago. For the past 12 years it's been folded up in a bag, or used to cover furniture. It had a few stains on it, but they were easy corrected with a little photoshopping. It shoots a lot lighter than I wanted, so I have a couple of adjustment layers and vignettes to darken it. I'm thinking I should make a better one, because it took a couple hours to get it where I wanted it.

I replaced it with corrected catch lights. Thanks for pointing out that mistake.

Such a great portrait of a great model.

I think you did a wonderfull job with the processing too ... soo wel balanced, and tasty.

Thanks to the previous critiques for these beautifull catlights.

For my taste it would get some more tension by avoyding this hyperclassic cropp. Perhaps you could eliminate the lower part (no elements that are essential for the composition), and add some living space on the right?

I tried it out on a square format, and I find the result even stronger ... if possible than this already nearly perfect result.

Made me look at your - also - great portfolio. Many other strong portraits, but I like the most these portraits where you don't use the vertical format.

For wath it's worth.

Piet

Piet, thanks for your cropping suggestion. I'll play around with it and see. I have a strong and somewhat irrational tendency to stick with the format of the camera I'm using, which is why everything is 2:3 these days. Or is that 1:1.5? Same thing, I guess....

 

Thanks again for your very kind words.

Hi Doug

 

I am glad to see you have given us some more of Nora, she has been missed for a while. The Face is excellent but i dont think here hair is so good in this shot it looks flat but a charming face none the less.

 

Regards

Tony

I love her face, too. It's amazing. We could better with her hair, though, I agree. We have yet to shoot with a professional makeup artist/hair stylist. Thanks Tony

Doug, I think that your technical perfectionism is very obvious in your portraiture. You could surely shoot portraits for a living if you ever chose to do so.

 

As for the face, what can I say? Apart from simply appreciating her beauty, I am also left trying to analyze what it is that makes some faces more beautiful than others. In any case, it is a very special face.

 

--Lannie

Lannie, if I did that, shot portraits for a living, then I'd be obligated to photograph people who I'd rather not photograph. At least now I can be choosy. Anyway, her face is almost perfectly symmetrical, which is a key element in attractiveness, I hear.