NON Square Cropped Portraits - (nSCP's) - please post them here

[Katy Noelle]

When I saw your excellent image yesterday Joanne Van Praag, I tried to do something similar. What do you think of my work ?
Not so good at your I know but...
Your turn now... Be as honest as I am please.

Now, how in the world are we supposed to critique you, Antonio? However!

I think that the lighting is a little too harsh where it is bright. Then, there is so much of her face in shadow and, sometimes, this is alright (?) but this time.... It feels like I want to "see" her but I can't quite - too much shadow (too "strong" and the majority of her face is in it) is my beginner's guess.

Also, I haven't been around very much this week and am just, now, jumping into following the conversation and think that I might be missing something. Where's the emotion, Antonio? I saw you mention the 'lack of' up above? Are you just experimenting with something and not focussing on it? The thing is - I feel like she has some wonderful expression waiting to be brought out and caught at just the perfect moment. I want to see something in her eyes - clarity, light and expression, perhaps.

Alright! Enough! Am I making a ding-dong fool of myself?

[Katy Noelle]

It's what I call a portrait with soul !

Yes! It's what we yearn for, eh?!

[Antonio Correia]

Now, how in the world are we supposed to critique you, Antonio? However!

I think that the lighting is a little too harsh where it is bright. Then, there is so much of her face in shadow and, sometimes, this is alright (?) but this time.... It feels like I want to "see" her but I can't quite - too much shadow (too "strong" and the majority of her face is in it) is my beginner's guess.

Also, I haven't been around very much this week and am just, now, jumping into following the conversation and think that I might be missing something. Where's the emotion, Antonio? I saw you mention the 'lack of' up above? Are you just experimenting with something and not focussing on it? The thing is - I feel like she has some wonderful expression waiting to be brought out and caught at just the perfect moment. I want to see something in her eyes - clarity, light and expression, perhaps.

Alright! Enough! Am I making a ding-dong fool of myself?

I am sorry but I missed this post.
You are not making a ding-dong of yourself Katy, if I understand correctly what that is and I suppose I do
The reasons you pointed are indeed completely true and they are what distinguishes good portraits from bad or acceptable ones.
I do agree with your statements and I was even waiting for them.
The light on her face on our left side is not the best and she doesn't transmit any feeling or emotion. The portrait doesn't have soul.
I think that if any emotion or feeling would be present we would not be looking so attentively to the problem of the light on her face.
Even the background is fade, sad. Not spicy ! It is a poor picture and you were right telling so implicitly. Thank you.
I was expecting someone to do so and you did it. Fine.
One thing is sure: It is not easy to capture the soul of a person in a portrait.

[Katy Noelle]

Oh, well.....big phew!

No! It is not easy to capture a soul in a photo (of even inanimate objects that only reflect a person). I've read somewhere that, if we're tying to take a photo of someone, we owe it to them to not just click and run (scared and embarrassed or defeated) but we should wait....wait for it to come through. Well, we work on it....

[Davidd]

One thing is sure: It is not easy to capture the soul of a person in a portrait.

Well, this is true... But there's something about eyes which is worth noticing. Check out Alis' boy and Antonio's lady - the boy's pupil's are large, dilated. The lady's eyes are small, contracted. Just because of the light in the room. Of course, this ISN'T the whole story about 'soulful' portraits! But without consciously being aware of it, we tend to see small pupils as showing distance from us, and large pupils as conveying closeness, intimacy. I've experimented in the past (being given to experiments ) with deliberately increasing pupil size in Photoshop, and it does subtly alter the response to the person. Oddly enough, I understand that fashion photographers often cultivate the 'small pupil' look with their photos of models, to heighten the 'remote beauty' feel! Check out the other recent portraits here - the pupil sizes vary, with different effects.

Just a thought.

~ David

[Antonio Correia]

You are right David !

I have never thought about it before ! Good point.

A quick read

Thank you for the contribution

[Davidd]

Wow, Antonio, I didn't know there was so much theory behind it! I picked the idea up somewhere and tried it out, seems to have some scholarship behind it. I wonder whether the lady in your last pic would look more soulful if her pupils were bigger - might be fun to try it out... She's certainly very nice-looking and I like it as a portrait.

I better post something of my own rather than just writing. This is my daughter Naomi. Its not a posed portrait, I was taken by the fact that she was drinking pink champagne with pink nails! As you can see, she has large eyes and probably looks rather elegant and hard to approach here? Tough for me to say, as her dad... Not so, I might add, she's very friendly, just shows what the camera can do... Oh, and in this case her pupils are normal size!!

best wishes, David

[mammarazzi]

When I saw your excellent image yesterday Joanne Van Praag, I tried to do something similar. What do you think of my work ?
Not so good at your I know but...
Your turn now... Be as honest as I am please.

Wow....Ok Antonio, not easy as I do not feel that I am qualified in any way to make judgement.........if you are making a comparison....you have the eyes just right, looking into the lens and being very relaxed...I had the benefit of natural light to give a halo effect which I cannot see on your image and I think that mine is slightly sharper. Other than that I really cannot find fault as each image tells a story unique to that individual and moment in time....I am deeply flattered that you wanted to re-create anything of mine...I thank you most sincerely.

[Antonio Correia]

versus

No doubt that smaller iris is nicer and more expressive

[Antonio Correia]

...

Thank you David for your words and your image from Naomi, your daughter.
It is a very nice portrait ins pite of the normal size of the pupils
I think you have got her with no special care - I mean it's kind of snap shot, right ? - so, the background could be better or even her hand could be in a nicer posture.
Well done David
However, I authorized myself to ... even loosing lots of quality in the background white area...

[Antonio Correia]

Wow....Ok Antonio, not easy as I do not feel that I am qualified in any way to make judgement.........if you are making a comparison....you have the eyes just right, looking into the lens and being very relaxed...I had the benefit of natural light to give a halo effect which I cannot see on your image and I think that mine is slightly sharper. Other than that I really cannot find fault as each image tells a story unique to that individual and moment in time....I am deeply flattered that you wanted to re-create anything of mine...I thank you most sincerely.

Thank you for your kind words Joanne Van Praag.

[Antonio Correia]

Since I haven't posted one here in a while ...

Thank you Colin

Very well done as usual. But why did you cut her feet so close ? A little more up (the crop) wouldn't be better ?

[Antonio Correia]

Thanks Antonio, Your question is easy to answer ... "it wasn't cropped"
Is this any better?

Just fine

[speedneeder]

Is this any better?

Yes. Excellent!

[Alis]

I agree with Antonio. This is quite wonderful. I love the light! It reminds me of the beautiful portraits of my mother's family from the '40s. Do you know - his eyes are just always so beautiful!

Ali, how did you get this so beautifully soft?

Thanks, Katy, for the kind words.
The softness I guess is coming from the very shallow depth of field, the result of using the Canon 85mm f/1.2 L lens. I don't think I did anything else to blur the background.

Ali

[Alis]

Since I haven't posted one here in a while ...

Nice shot, as always, Colin!

You know what I am thinking? That is sort of unfortunate that the the top beam of the bridge overlaps the rim of her skirt. I think it would be nice to see the edge of her skirt.

Ali

[NoCard]

Madame Jaune.

Another "Street Portrait" . This lady was so irresistible to photograph, if only she knew!
I wonder what is on her mind?

[MajaMolly]

Hi Ali,

I guess that that would mean she needed to wear a shorter dress, and I don't think they make them much shorter than this!

I did try some with her sitting on the rail, but they didn't work.

This may have been a good time to take off the heels and go barefoot...

[Colin Southern]

This may have been a good time to take off the heels and go barefoot...

To be honest, I doubt I'd do it any different if I reshot it. Personally I don't think it makes a big difference one way or the other

[Nicola]

can you help me with this?
any suggestions? must I crop/clone the guy in the background? Must I put the horizon horizontally?
thanks to all!
Nicola