Ashley

[Manfred M]

This is the one and only time I worked with model Ashley. This was almost three years ago, when I first looked at getting back into serious portraiture. This was the first location shoot I did with a studio light. It was a "creepy dolls" themed shoot.

A bit of colour grading to cool things down a bit and make the whole shot look a bit "off".

[Jim A]

Certainly very striking and different, Manfred - I like this image! There seems to be a line a short distance from the bottom, indeed a few lines. Did you crop and then decide you had taken too much off, perhaps?

[selig1656]

Love the capture of her expression and the tenacity you captured in her, the bottom right seems a tad off.

[Rufus]

A great expression, and I like that the red material boldly defines the edge at the top of the hat. The red inside the mouth emphasises the overall nature of the subject.

When I first looked at this image my immediate thought was that the camera left hand looks like it belongs to someone else, rather than the model. Having "seen" this it recurs in my mind each time I have looked at it!

[Manfred M]

Thanks Jim & Raymond - those artifacts are not in the original. Something must have happened either when I saved it as a JPEG or when I uploaded the file. The original does not have that artifact.




I re-saved the file as a JPEG and uploaded and this version seems clean. I have no idea why this happened; it's part of the image I didn't touch in post.

[Manfred M]

When I first looked at this image my immediate thought was that the camera left hand looks like it belongs to someone else

Agreed. A mistake I don't make very often anymore these days. It's a common newbie mistake. I shouldn't have cut off some of her fingers either.

In general it is not good practice to cut the image in a way that the flow oi body parts is interrupted. The viewer should never notice what you did, but rather should be able to follow the flow of the arm from the body.

If you look at the other arm, even though I have cut off the elbow, there is enough continuity for the viewer to see it is connected to Ashley's body.

Regardless, I love the expression she put on during the shot.

[FootLoose]

- those artifacts are not in the original. Something must have happened either when I saved it as a JPEG or when I uploaded the file.

I assumed it was intentional and was going to suggest you add another similar vertical strip on the l/h side to take attention from her plastic-looking right hand.

[Manfred M]

I assumed it was intentional and was going to suggest you add another similar vertical strip on the l/h side to take attention from her plastic-looking right hand.

The plastic looking hand, as you put it, was intentional on the model's part. The title of the shoot was "Creepy Dolls", and the costumes and makeup attempted to give an unreal and slightly strange look. Apparently it worked.

We did the shoot in a children's playground at golden hour and just past sunset.

[FootLoose]

The plastic looking hand, as you put it, was intentional on the model's part.

But, you agreed with David above that it looks odd? "Agreed. A mistake I don't make very often anymore these days. It's a common newbie mistake"

[Manfred M]

But, you agreed with David above that it looks odd? "Agreed. A mistake I don't make very often anymore these days. It's a common newbie mistake"

It's a three year old shot that I was playing around with in post. When I took that particular image, that was some of the first "traditional" portraiture work I had attempted since I had done a one semester long studio lighting course in 2011. I had the theoretical knowledge and needed to improve my execution. As I said to David, newbie mistake, as I was truly a newbie at portraiture at the time I took the shot. The cut off fingers and lack of anchoring it to the body somehow are things I usually don't do anymore. I also don't love the lighting; I used a small beauty dish during the shoot and really should have used a much larger modifier.

Three years later, I've got thousands of portraits under my belt and I have developed techniques that work very well for me. My lighting work has gotten a lot stronger, I get the models to deliver the poses and expressions I am looking for and I've developed a style I am happy with. What drew me to this image in reprocessing it is that it is one of the earliest examples of the style I am working with now; something a lot more texture and grit.

While I don't see you posting a lot on CiC anymore, I have noticed that you are continuing to put some of your really interesting abstracts on your Flickr site.

[FootLoose]

Manfred, my earlier comment was not intended to be negative in any way. The transparent strip that I noticed in your op is something that I see occasionally and I think it is effective. Generally it is an L-shape and I see it as a framing device which focuses attention on the subject, much as a vignette does.

The last time I posted an image here it was vandalised so I decided I wouldn't bother any more. That said, I had been thinking about posting the current series here when it is complete because it was inspired by a brief exchange here about lighthouses with Brian - although he doesn't appear to frequent this site any more. It is about as close as I get to anything in the way of realism theses days, and that is the preferred genre of this forum by far.

[Manfred M]

Manfred, my earlier comment was not intended to be negative in any way. The transparent strip that I noticed in your op is something that I see occasionally and I think it is effective. Generally it is an L-shape and I see it as a framing device which focuses attention on the subject, much as a vignette does.

Now if I could only figure out how it got there. It is / was something random that cropped up somewhere in the workflow. I generally don't use them as I use other techniques to delineate the edge of my work from the frame. I can see how it helps in an abstract.

The last time I posted an image here it was vandalised so I decided I wouldn't bother any more.

I'm not sure why people seem to think that they have the right to vandalize someone else's work just because they don't understand it. I've had someone come up to me and tell me that "I dislike your work, but you do it very well".

The issue, I suspect, is that most people have a comfort zone and area of expertise, but once one is outside of that, the person's personal prejudices and experience prevent them from seeing and evaluating what has been presented by the photographer. Take the genre out and all of a sudden, just looking a what the photographer has assembled becomes much more clear. Very few people seem to realize that all photography is abstraction. What else can taking a three-dimensional subject in a dynamic world, freezing it in time and making a two-dimensional representation be?

That said, I had been thinking about posting the current series here when it is complete because it was inspired by a brief exchange here about lighthouses with Brian - although he doesn't appear to frequent this site any more.

Please do. I personally feel that people need to be exposed to many genres to open their minds and try new ideas. I find unless one tries getting out of one's comfort zone (which can mean working in a different genre), one's work does not improve. In fact, one argument I have with the fine art community is the premise that one has to specialize and become known as a specialist in that genre to be successful. In reality, that generally seems to be "more of the same"...

It is about as close as I get to anything in the way of realism theses days, and that is the preferred genre of this forum by far.

It's not just this forum, but in many other places as well. Realism (also known in the currently fashionable "post-photographic" genre), millions of Instagram users, etc. all seem to be driving in that direction. I have dabbled in abstract photography, but have never been satisfied with my results. One of these days I am going to hit an abstract phase again (I did so in early 2019) and I'll see where that takes me. Like all the other genres, abstract has so many sub-genres, it takes some time to figure out a good fit.

[FootLoose]

I personally feel that people need to be exposed to many genres to open their minds and try new ideas.

I certainly agree with you about that. And not just different genres of photography but all art - painting, sculpture, literature etc. It all feeds the imagination and can inspire creative ways of viewing a subject.