Old Man

[BobGilbody]

I don't normally take photos of people.
I would be interested to know your thoughts on this attempt.

Untitled by Bob Gilbody, on Flickr

Bit more PP

Untitled by Bob Gilbody, on Flickr

It was taken in natural light.

Looks better to me cropped.

Untitled by Bob Gilbody, on Flickr


B&W version.

Untitled by Bob Gilbody, on Flickr

[Donald]

I'll let the portrait shooters comment on the technical aspects of the image, Bob, but it looks good to me. That lower angle gives him a certain standing/gravitas.

[BobGilbody]

Thanks for your post Donald. The old man is me. I found out how to remote shoot with the 5Ds. Tried to do a 'Karsh' with the photo. Just sat at the computer and opened the curtains.

[billtils]

Bob, I very much doubt that I'm in Donald's "portrait shooters" category but I rather like this. BTW the links in the "old man" and "untitled" text don't do anything but clicking on your name took me straight to the correct place in your flickr Photostream.

[DanK]

1. I like it. quite striking.
2. I'm not a portrait photographer, so take any suggestions with a big grain of salt.

With #2 in mind: it depends on the effect you want, of course, but if it were mine, I'd give it a little more tonal range. Look at the histogram. One could do this lots of ways, but even just dropping the white point a bit seems to me to be a plus. I suspect that in the end, I would do a little global expansion of that sort and would then turn to dodging and burning for anything more.

But again, I like it.

[Manfred M]

Good, strong portrait here Bob. I am a portrait photographer (something I have formally studied part-time at a local college with a photography program as well as at a local bricks & mortar photography school).

I do like the image and you have used classic loop lighting, which we used in a lot of portraits. The lighting is quite dramatic and if I had taken this shot, I probably would have put a silver reflector on the camera right side, just out of frame, to push a touch of fill light into that part of the shot. I would open up the textures a bit in post (shadows slider in Lightroom / Camera Raw, pushed to the right). I agree with Dan about the tonal range and I would tweak the white point just a touch to the left.

I generally don't shoot from the camera quite that low (I tend to not like looking up into the subject's nose). but the deeps shadows hide that in this shot. There is something strange happening with the light and shadow on your nose; it almost looks like a hard edge has been painted on. I would burn down some of the hot spots and open up some of the deep shadows; I do a lot of dodging and burning on any image to calm those areas.

Here's a very quick retouch showing what I would do.

[pschlute]

A very strong image in my (non-portrait shooter) eyes. I can see the Karsh influence immediately.

Very useful to read the comments from Dan and Manfred too.

[BobGilbody]

Hello Bill,
The only way I know to post photos here is to first post them on flickr. Once I have done that I often remove the photo from flickr.
Glad you liked the photo.

Bob

[BobGilbody]

Hello Dan,
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check out what you suggest.

Bob

[BobGilbody]

Hello Manfred,
Thanks for your post. I appreciate you taking the time to touch up the image. The nose does look a bit strange. I think I might have a touch of 'rosacea' or even 'rhinophyma'. What you did has improved the image. I checked out 'loop lighting'. Interesting stuff.
I like looking at images. I did a search for Albrecht Dürer and Domenico Ghirlandaio. I might do more human portraits, it's less physically demanding than trying to photograph small birds in flight.

Bob

[BobGilbody]

Hello Peter,
Thanks for your post. Glad you liked the image.

Bob

[Manfred M]

Hello Manfred,
Thanks for your post. I appreciate you taking the time to touch up the image. The nose does look a bit strange. I think I might have a touch of 'rosacea' or even 'rhinophyma'. What you did has improved the image. I checked out 'loop lighting'. Interesting stuff.
I like looking at images. I did a search for Albrecht Dürer and Domenico Ghirlandaio. I might do more human portraits, it's less physically demanding than trying to photograph small birds in flight.

Bob

Thank you - if you like portraiture, then let me direct you to a few of my favourite photographers. If you ever get a chance to look at some of August Sander's work in Germany between the two world wars, his photography was astounding. Richard Avedon did some amazing work; if you can get your hands on his book "in the American West", full of amazing portraits. I love some of Irving Penn's work, especially some of the work he did for Vogue magazine is stunning as well.

I was lucky enough to spend a few hours at an exhibition of over 100 of Karsh's images when I visited Halifax, Canada in September.

[BobGilbody]

Hello Manfred,

Thanks for the intro to August Sander. I enjoyed looking at his images.
Richard Avedon and Irving Penn don't have any effect on me. Not saying they are not good I just don't find their images work for me.

Bob

[Manfred M]

If you like Sander's work, have a look at the work of Alfred Eisenstaedt, Brassai (real name Gyula Halász) and Dorothea Lange. These might be more to your taste. Brassai's work is one something that first attracted me to photography when I was young.

[BobGilbody]

I appreciate you taking the time to introduce me to these photographers Manfred. I was already aware of Dorothea Lange. Alfred Eisenstaedt does not do much for me. Brassai I liked very much.
From memory it was Adams that said there are three people in a photograph, the person photographed, the photographer and the person viewing the photograph.
The following photographs were taken at Reefton on the West Coast of NZ. I was working there thirty years ago.
I trained in the UK then managed coal mines in Australia, NZ, and Indonesia. My gt. gt. grandfather was killed in a mining accident, my gt. grandfather was a coal filler, my grandfather was an assistant manager, my father was a mine manager. I first went underground in 1956 when I was five years old. My father took me. Sometimes you can be too close to something. In order to succeed at something it helps not to be too close. I'm too old to give a toss so I tend to blurt things out.
Anyway, that is why the following photographs are different for me than anyone else.

IMG_0003 (7) by Bob Gilbody, on Flickr

IMG_0001 (10) by Bob Gilbody, on Flickr

IMG_0001 (6) by Bob Gilbody, on Flickr

IMG (5) by Bob Gilbody, on Flickr

The photos were taken with a Pentax 645. I scanned the prints [ done at a shop ] about twenty years after the event so there are imperfections.

[selig1656]

Well captured, the eyes speak volumes and the black and white is striking.

[BobGilbody]

Glad you liked the photos Raymond. I must have scanned the negatives because the last one is the wrong way around.

Bob

[royent]

I can't get any of the photos to show
Roy

[BobGilbody]

No point telling me Roy computers are somewhat of a mystery to me.

Bob

[royent]

Your photo of the Parrot in the October competition showed without any problem
Roy