Young painter

"Muito cá de casa" is hard to translate but I would say it is some kind of "People from us" and the idea/concept is to show the work of poets, writers, artists and so on which are important to the Portuguese and local communities.

Rita Melo - the young lady in this portrait - is an painter artist whose work with children is well known in Setubal. An exposition of her works along with those of the young people was held last Friday and I was there to make her photograph.

She belongs now to my collection of portraits among with many others who have been in a similar situation.

What do you think of this portrait ?

Hi, António,

That is a great shot and a very cute subject! Her expression is fabulous!

If I had any comment it would be that I would like to see the subject's right cheek (or left side) not in quite such deep shadow. The whole mood of the lighting is not one of extreme shadow, and in that case I think there is a little too much in that area.

But that is of course just personal preference.

Best regards,

Doug

Doug Kerr said:

Hi, António, That is a great shot and a very cute subject! Her expression is fabulous! If I had any comment it would be that I would like to see the subject's right cheek (or left side) not in quite such deep shadow. The whole mood of the lighting is not one of extreme shadow, and in that case I think there is a little too much in that area. But that is of course just personal preference. Best regards, Doug

Click to expand...

Thank you Doug for your excellent comment.

I must agree with you. I have hesitated about that area. I will try to light it a bit but just enough to avoid any noise.

Thank you again

I also think that she makes a very good subject, her direct gaze and expression feels very genuine.

besides a bit of lightening on the other cheek, there is a triangle of light that pulls my eye. I normally wouldn't mind, but I notice she has amazing bone structure and beautiful high cheekbones. The light pulls the cheek on that side down.

I pulled it into ps for a moment to show the difference, notice how the cheek on the shadow side now feels more equal to the other?

Antonio Correia said:

"Muito cá de casa" is hard to translate but I would say it is some kind of "People from us" and the idea/concept is to show the work of poets, writers, artists and so on which are important to the Portuguese and local communities.

Rita Melo - the young lady in this portrait - is an painter artist whose work with children is well known in Setubal. An exposition of her works along with those of the young people was held last Friday and I was there to make her photograph.

She belongs now to my collection of portraits among with many others who have been in a similar situation.

What do you think of this portrait ?

Click to expand...

Antonio,

Of course, she wonderfully engaging and so feminine and has a sense of dignity and even authority. This lighting, however, is not flattering to her as your usual subjects. There needs to be a major frontal light to remove unwanted texture in the skin yet have light gently roll off to dark areas on her right. This is a challenge but achievable by a close large diffuse source and a well placed angled high second light, upper right from camera.

As a great fan of your portraits, I still enjoy the picture as the lady is a sympathetic figure and worthy in herself.

Asher

Hi, Maggie,

Maggie Terlecki said:

I also think that she makes a very good subject, her direct gaze and expression feels very genuine.

besides a bit of lightening on the other cheek, there is a triangle of light that pulls my eye. I normally wouldn't mind, but I notice she has amazing bone structure and beautiful high cheekbones. The light pulls the cheek on that side down.

I pulled it into ps for a moment to show the difference, notice how the cheek on the shadow side now feels more equal to the other?

Click to expand...

I think that is a worthwhile change.

Thanks.

Best regards,

Doug

Thank you Maggie, Asher and again, Doug.
I have not seen that light on her face until you noticed it for me Maggie. Thank you.
I have cloned it with a bit of difficulty and I am not sure if - when and if printed at A3+ - the clone area will not be visible...
So, I have kept the previous version just in case
Thank you Asher for being so straight. You are right on your remarks but the fact is that I will not repeat the session.
These so called sessions are just 5 minutes without any special preparation. Usually people are in a hush and I do have no time for great adjustments.
However, as she works and lives here I will try to repeat the session. This is no doubt, a good idea.
-
No one said anything about what I do not like in this portrait: The excessive vignetting at the bottom left and the very tiny triangle of light at our right on the V formed by her arm. This, I have cloned without any problem.

There is also something I would like to say about this portrait and about all the other portraits I have been doing.
My portraits are not beautiful ones. They do not intend to show beauty but rather feeling, emotions trying to document the presence of people I have been with.
This is the reason I was not especially concerned about the triangle on her face. However, cloning it improves the image. No doubt.
-
Your points are very important and made me improve my photographic work. Thank you all

Antonio, instead of cloning where you may be worried it will leave a mark, I simply selected a bit of skin just above.. and bigger than needed, and did a CTRL + J, to copy that to a new layer. Now pull that over the triangle and adjust with levels the tone to match, then mask it all out with black and with a very soft brush set to white and low fill just bring in at the area. If needed the heal tool very softly to leave no trace at all.

and I do understand that these are not beauty shots; I only mentioned it because it pulled my eyes away from her. I do think that you achieved showing us something about who this person is. Her expression to me shows someone who is confident, yet very genuine but also probably has a bit of a wicked sense of humor. It's that little smirk on her face! Wonderful portrait.

Well, I am a bit late here, but:
-I agree with the bit about the underexposed side of the face. It is better with a bit more light.
-I do not agree with Asher about the light being not soft enough. On the contrary: this hard light shows that the lady has character. Just clone out the less flattering wrinkles.

Maggie Thank you for your words.
I will do as you say

She is not so photogenic as she looks to be. I have made some 20 photographs and I have chosen this one because it is indeed the one I like best.
Your concern about the triangle was very useful. As I told before I have not seen it. It is better now.
When we were starting she told me she is not photogenic and I said I would try my best.
-
In fact we find people who are very photogenic and others who are terribly difficult to capture. In this very project - as I told you before it is always in a hurry with others waiting - I do have met someone whom I photographed twice and with excellent posture. While others... You know...
This man here is an example of how easy it is to photograph someone who is photogenic.

Jerome Marot said:

Well, I am a bit late here, but:
-I agree with the bit about the underexposed side of the face. It is better with a bit more light.
-I do not agree with Asher about the light being not soft enough. On the contrary: this hard light shows that the lady has character. Just clone out the less flattering wrinkles.

Click to expand...

You are never a late to comment my threads Jerome ! Thank you for doing so.

I am not going - sorry - to clone the less flattering wrinkles. This is not a beauty portrait and... I wouldn't know how to do it in perfecting ! LOL So...

You know Jerome, I have already cloned some skin imperfections with success as they were very small. They were little "bubbles" LOL They were not "grains de beauté" because those, yes those, I would have left as part of the person...

Thank you Jerome !

Antonio Correia said:

I am not going - sorry - to clone the less flattering wrinkles. This is not a beauty portrait and... I wouldn't know how to do it in perfecting ! LOL So...

Click to expand...

It seems that we did not understand each other. I did not suggest that you try to make that person 20 years younger.

Jerome Marot said:

It seems that we did not understand each other. I did not suggest that you try to make that person 20 years younger.

Click to expand...

Excuse me Jerome if I misunderstood you...

Jerome Marot said:

Well, I am a bit late here, but:
-I agree with the bit about the underexposed side of the face. It is better with a bit more light.
-I do not agree with Asher about the light being not soft enough. On the contrary: this hard light shows that the lady has character. Just clone out the less flattering wrinkles.

Click to expand...

Jerome,

You're so right, Antonio has generally used harder light. So a soft image would be entirely out of character. I didn't mean to create an entirely different experience for the viewer. However, his current approach does require more post processing to address skin texture.

Nevertheless, one can fill up the tiny recesses of awkward skin texture with the frontal light, (hard or soft) and still light for global contrast of larger features using the second light. I refer mainly to hiding skin blemishes rather than getting an ephemeral experience of soft diffused light and limited DOF.

Asher