Another image of singer/songwriter Eric Bogle

[Wandjina]

I posted an image of Eric back in June of this year.
Eric Bogle - Somewhere in America
I subsequently put it in one of my camera club's competitions. The judge recognised the name and face and commented that he would have liked to have seen "something musical" incorporated in the image to tell something about this fellow.

With that in mind, I started afresh with a different image that I had taken during our photoshoot and this is the result.

[Donald]

Superb image.

[davidedric]

Yes, great image.

Just yesterday I was listening to "If wishes were fishes", not really a good idea for a fellow old 'un

[Martin A]

I love this one! I feel I know a bit about him from the image alone. Very nice portrait, Martin.

[ST1]

Both very good images Martin, well done


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[billtils]

Love it!

[DanK]

Superb.

[Manfred M]

A well done and well conceived image. I find your choice of lighting a little bit flat, but it does work well with the background.

[mugge]

Just great!

[DanK]

I'm no expert on lighting, but I don't find the lighting flat. In fact, I was thinking of asking you how you lit this. You've got shadows where I would want them--bringing out the shapes and textures of the face--but not unwanted shadows, and you have no reflections on his glasses.

[Manfred M]

I'm no expert on lighting, but I don't find the lighting flat. In fact, I was thinking of asking you how you lit this. You've got shadows where I would want them--bringing out the shapes and textures of the face--but not unwanted shadows, and you have no reflections on his glasses.

Most lighting in portraiture is designed to cast interesting shadows to add a level of drama to the image. This image does not employ any of those techniques, hence the comment of the lighting being flat. It's almost reminiscent of lighting used for photo ID.

I'm certainly not suggesting flat lighting is a bad approach; head shot lighting tends to be quite flat, as the whole purpose of that genre is to show what the subject looks like without any "artistic" flare. It also does not imply that the shot has low contrast; another time the word "flat" is used to describe the way a subject is lit.

In portraiture we often light the face from two different directions. If the left side of the face is lit the same as the right side, we refer to this as a 1:1 lighting ratio (which is essentially what this image does). It's pretty typical to use at least a 2:1 ratio, where one side of the face is 1 stop darker than the other. 3:1 and 4:1 (sometimes even more) are also used, especially for men or athletes of either gender, to add drama to the face.

[DanK]

We'll have to disagree about this one. It doesn't look at all like an ID photo to me. On the contrary, the image has beautiful textures and enough shadows, e.g., on the sides of the nose and on the neck, to give the image depth and interest. And Martin has captured a very inviting expression. All in all, I think this is an engaging and visually interesting image.

[Wandjina]

I was thinking of asking you how you lit this. You've got shadows where I would want them--bringing out the shapes and textures of the face--but not unwanted shadows, and you have no reflections on his glasses.

The image of Eric's face was lifted from this photo. Because of the guitar strap on his right shoulder I cut, reversed and pasted his left shoulder over it, hence the two button holes and no button at neck level.
Lighting was done with two 3' octoboxes on either side and set more or less at 45 degrees to the trio. The one on camera left was feathered to almost miss Eric but set to soften any shadows falling on the other two members of the group.
The catch light in Emma's eyes picks this light up, while the catch light in Eric and Pete's eyes are from the octobox on camera right.

[lovelife65]

Beautiful Portrait. I looked Eric up after your first post, and have discovered a new love.
Wonderful musician. I listed to him in a library on youtube when I have to resort to treadmill runs.
Thank you so much for posting this. Wonderful.

[DanK]

Thanks for posting how you lit the scene. I don’t know much about studio lighting, so examples like this help.


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[escape]

The image of Eric's face was lifted from this photo. Because of the guitar strap on his right shoulder I cut, reversed and pasted his left shoulder over it, hence the two button holes and no button at neck level.

Very nicely done.

[Manfred M]

The image of Eric's face was lifted from this photo. Because of the guitar strap on his right shoulder I cut, reversed and pasted his left shoulder over it, hence the two button holes and no button at neck level.
Lighting was done with two 3' octoboxes on either side and set more or less at 45 degrees to the trio. The one on camera left was feathered to almost miss Eric but set to soften any shadows falling on the other two members of the group.
The catch light in Emma's eyes picks this light up, while the catch light in Eric and Pete's eyes are from the octobox on camera right.

Seeing the image, in this group context, explains a lot. The lighting that you used is much more typical in a group shot where most of us don't have either the space nor the equipment needed to light the group's members individually.