Rembrandt's Light

[zebra]

[Manfred M]

Yes, definitely Rembrandt lighting taken from the short side. There are times that I'm not so sure that Rembrandt did the world any favours by painting under those light conditions...

First of all, nice pose and finish to the image. The hat, the skin tones, the lip colour and the fabric wrapped around the model all play together very nicely. You have sculpted the nose and cheek bones quite nicely. Unfortunately, the image is quite small, but I would be tempted to say that the skin is looking "too perfect".

There are three areas that I would find some fault with:

1. This is a portrait and in that photographic genre, it is generally all about the model's face. When there is so much light coloured skin showing, it distracts the viewer and the camera left shoulder and exposed chest are what our eyes are drawn to. A different choice of clothing or re-positioning it so it is less distracting would have improved this shot.

2. The model fades into the background just a bit too muhc on the camera left side. Rim lighting on that side of the model would have been appropriate.

3. The camera right eyebrow is simply too harsh and overdone looking. At first glance it looks like a caterpillar sitting above the eye.

[Shadowman]

Nicely composed and captured, nice transitional tones.

[zebra]

I'm thankful to you both for your remarks.

[mugge]

I love the lighting but I am in agreement with Manfred that the skin tone is just 'too perfect.' I think this picture need to be looked at again very critically because it is good as it. It should be turned into a mavelous picture with some attention to real skin texture and more natural eyebrows. This can be done I am sure.
Cheers Ole