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Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!
Mikala
- Thread starter Ben Jones
- Start date
John Angulat
pro member
A beautiful woman indeed, however I think she's been done an injustice by uber-retouching.
Overall it looks too artificial, too plastic.
Overall it looks too artificial, too plastic.
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Benji,
I must say you have a good choice of models! She's lovely and elegant. The pose is attractive for her. This polished finish is appreciated by a lot of folk as "glamorous". Here it's execution could be questioned as John has. Instead of this approach, I'd go for a more natural look and this picture may move from being web-glamorous to really fascinating. This lady has all the genetics to be great in her own right.
I'd be more meticulous in the exact placement so the dress becomes perfectly symmetrical to complete the motif of the hand framing from each side.
I hope she is nearby and you might share more of you images of her. This lady is a natural and gives us a slice of happiness from her smile. If you are going to have a gallery show, have her help introduce the pictures on your walls. No one will be bored or leave early!
Asher
Doug Kerr
Well-known member
Hi, Benji,
An exquisite image of an exquisite woman. Thanks so much.
I am myself entirely native American, having been born in Cincinnati. Is it that Mikala is partly of American Indian ancestry?
Best regards,
Doug
An exquisite image of an exquisite woman. Thanks so much.
I am myself entirely native American, having been born in Cincinnati. Is it that Mikala is partly of American Indian ancestry?
Best regards,
Doug
Ken Tanaka
pro member
A very pretty young lady.
The lighting and (apparently) highly worked skin tone and texture push this image well out of the realm or portraiture and suggest, instead, a perhaps inadvertent adventure into surreal expressionism. The hair fall has foreshortened her shoulders and thrown the proportions off. That, plus her leaning forward with her hands framing her face, presents a distorted figure that's unsettling.
I don't know if that's what you intended, but I doubt it. Look at work by Loretta Lux to see intentional slight figure distortions that are used to lend a similar unsettling nature to her more surreal images.
The lighting and (apparently) highly worked skin tone and texture push this image well out of the realm or portraiture and suggest, instead, a perhaps inadvertent adventure into surreal expressionism. The hair fall has foreshortened her shoulders and thrown the proportions off. That, plus her leaning forward with her hands framing her face, presents a distorted figure that's unsettling.
I don't know if that's what you intended, but I doubt it. Look at work by Loretta Lux to see intentional slight figure distortions that are used to lend a similar unsettling nature to her more surreal images.
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
OMG! You changed the focus! You shouldn't have done that, I was happy and just regretted the skin polishing! Now we're in a new place!
She's holding her head like a mask! The blurred shoulders gives the extra separation! This is unearthly!
Now what?
Asher
I spent no more than about twenty seconds retouching the two blemishes on her face, then an additional thirty seconds rescuing her face from those uber-sharp lenses that are foisted upon us portraitists.
I discovered years ago when women are given the choice between a soft and smooth image or an image that is sharp and hard, they pick the soft smooth one about 99% of the time, so I reluctantly force myself to take their $100.00 for an 8 x 10 and continue to retouch and soften their images.
Benji
I intended a portrait of Mikala. I don't see any distortion, foreshortening or "off proportions" in anything and I should know having photographed her numerous times over the past 12 years or so. How anyone can look at a photograph of the face of a total stranger and proclaim any of the above in beyond me.
Benji
Doug Kerr
Well-known member
Doug Kerr
Well-known member
When the "compatible color" format ("NTSC") was established for US broadcast TV transmission, various technical considerations led to changing the nominal frame rate from 30 fr/s to a little over 29.97 fr/s.
DAK
DAK
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Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Benj,
I agree that she will be perfectly delighted and so will 99.99% of her friends. This is a look a lot of women demand. You are right that lens makers for portraitists gave us sharp lenses by the turn of the 19th century. Look at pictures from 1910 and you will see how brilliantly detailed they are. However, by 1920 things changed. The development of a number of distinguished soft portrait lenses, with devices to soften the result, gave rise to a wonderful esthetic with the visual quality lenses of Pinkham & Smith by optical formula and others with even spinning devices so by the1930's Hollywood stars were seen as as if angels painted their skin!
Unfortunately, the sharpness of the camera improved as DOF increased with the MF and even worse, (sharper) with 35mm photography. Special portrait lenses like the 135mm Canon soft portrait lens are really valuable here. I use the 50 1.2 and a lot of folk love the 85 1.2 for this.
What Ken is referring to is a solid body of work by famous established collected photographers, who have introduced subtle signals, by altering relationships, so tension is caused. Often we don't know why! In this case, in Mikel's portrait, the softness bilaterally in the shoulders, (below the mostly-hidden foreshortened neck, as she holds her head forward in her hands), allows someone used to work of the type Lux et al has made famous, to look at the picture and then imagine the head disconnected from the body! Once Ken mentioned it, I was stuck there. The pose, holding the head from each side and the asymmetrical dress between her wrists supports such an illusion. However, this is a rather elitists point of view. Unfortunately, I have to admit to having the same experience as Ken describes once he gave me the hint. I happen to know her work well and so was immediately trapped.
This reminds me of a very enthralling story which led to a punchline in ancient greek and had 2 of a group of 12 university students in stitches from laughter. The rest of us hadn't a clue what was so funny. The two that laughed were bible scholars from Oxford!
So don't worry about the face. Still, I'd love to see the original. I'm rather jealous of the artifacts you produced and the beauty of the lady!
I'm wondering whether one should return to using soft portrait filters to save having to add the photoshopping.
Asher
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Clayton Lofgren
New member
I'm with Ken on this one. Her face seems way out of proportion to me.
Bernhard Rees
New member
I have been looking at the portrait of Mikala several times to find out about my feelings on this particular picture. It is on the one side quite a formal picture of this young lady, on the other side it must have been her own idea to have this specific look captured in a picture of hers. And it works in this exact way to me!
So, mission accomplished? Yes and no! Major issue for me is the softness of her overall skin. Even if we are so much focused on the perfect look of a person's skin for any reason, the result here is much too much for my eyes. Maybe there are substantial differences in certain 'rules' a picture has to comply with in the US compared to Germany where I live. Or maybe expectations by the customers are so much different. Anyways, I have no clue why a customers might be asking for this type of skin retouching.
The impact common fashion magazines brought to us in their picture style in the previous years seems to be affecting our idea on how a picture of a person should look like in a very strange way. It is like the saying 'the spirits I have summoned' which comes right into my mind!
Bernhard
So, mission accomplished? Yes and no! Major issue for me is the softness of her overall skin. Even if we are so much focused on the perfect look of a person's skin for any reason, the result here is much too much for my eyes. Maybe there are substantial differences in certain 'rules' a picture has to comply with in the US compared to Germany where I live. Or maybe expectations by the customers are so much different. Anyways, I have no clue why a customers might be asking for this type of skin retouching.
The impact common fashion magazines brought to us in their picture style in the previous years seems to be affecting our idea on how a picture of a person should look like in a very strange way. It is like the saying 'the spirits I have summoned' which comes right into my mind!
Bernhard
The late great master photographer Dean Collins used to say, "Beauty is in the eyes of the checkbook holder."
Mikala called me on the telephone today and told me that she saw her portrait (the one above) on my Facebook page, as did her father and they both were really excited about seeing the rest of them (they have not seen them yet.) The preview magazine arrives tomorrow, so the saga continues!
Benji
Mikala called me on the telephone today and told me that she saw her portrait (the one above) on my Facebook page, as did her father and they both were really excited about seeing the rest of them (they have not seen them yet.) The preview magazine arrives tomorrow, so the saga continues!
Benji
Bart_van_der_Wolf
pro member
Hi Bernhard,
I agree, and find it an interesting topic. How much of this 'over'-processing (IMHO) of skin is fashion/culture/taste/... I see it quite often, and I still don't like it (it kills personality), so it can't be something everyone grows accustomed to, I don't and I see more remarks about it from different parts of the globe. Intriguing ...
Cheers,
Bart