My old man

ulrikft

I keep at my semi-spontanous portraits:

Antonio Correia

I like your portrait.

However, I would like better to see a not so confusing background and a better balance between the two sides of the face.

I am just curious: which lens ?

When I say that the background is a little confusing, distracting I don't mean that is change to an homogeneous one. I just mean not so distracting.
Well, just me...:D

ulrikft

Antonio Correia wrote:

I like your portrait.

However, I would like better to see a not so confusing background and a better balance between the two sides of the face.

I am just curious: which lens ?

When I say that the background is a little confusing, distracting I don't mean that is change to an homogeneous one. I just mean not so distracting.
Well, just me...:D

Hey!

Thanks for your comments! I can try to make a version where i diffuse the background a bit more in PS, darken it and make it more blurry!

It is my old trusty sigma 18-50 2.8 at f/2.8 and 50mm. I have to say that this lens is among my best buys..


again, thanks for your comment!

jeffreaux2

I like it. Nice and sharp...and full of texture. I think that setting a darker black point for the face/eyes would possibvly darken the BG and make it less daistracting as well....although I didn't find the BG to be a bg l

Great shot, thanks for sharing!

heatherfeather

I really like it too. His expression is what keeps me coming back. He looks either fearful or ominous... not sure which, but I like it!
The background is busy, but to me his expression and the sharpness of his eyes takes over the picture and I am not bothered.

Great work!

ulrikft

Thanks for the kind comments! both of you

DonRicklin

I like it too and agree with Antonio Correia about the the background.

Only, I take exception to him being called an 'old man', even if he is yours!

Don

ulrikft

LRmvcDonR wrote:

I like it too and agree with Antonio Correia about the the background.

Only, I take exception to him being called an 'old man', even if he is yours!

Don

He keeps telling me that he is 29 and have been for the last years.. :P Thanks for your comment!

CarnalSigh

1) I like the subject, the framing, and the focus. Nice and sharp but not over-done

2) I agree with Jeff about the black point. Needs some levels work, and a slight increase in the contrast for my taste. It kinda feels like a straight monotone shot without much b&w adjustment. If this were my shot, I think I'd have done some curves and levels and contrast adjustment to give his face/skin features some character. Even when I shoot and finish in monotone from RAW, I never leave it as-is.


3) The background is a bit busy. Perhaps some lens blur would solve it.

4) I'd like to see this same shot with him looking directly at the camera.

Great shot of your dad. The "Old Man" comment, at least from how I took it, is a term of endearment. Didn't offend me in the least. I never had a dad who I had enough respect and love for to want to photograph him. But if I did, a shot like this is probably what I'd take.

ulrikft

CarnalSigh wrote:

1) I like the subject, the framing, and the focus. Nice and sharp but not over-done

2) I agree with Jeff about the black point. Needs some levels work, and a slight increase in the contrast for my taste. It kinda feels like a straight monotone shot without much b&w adjustment. If this were my shot, I think I'd have done some curves and levels and contrast adjustment to give his face/skin features some character. Even when I shoot and finish in monotone from RAW, I never leave it as-is.


3) The background is a bit busy. Perhaps some lens blur would solve it.

4) I'd like to see this same shot with him looking directly at the camera.

Great shot of your dad. The "Old Man" comment, at least from how I took it, is a term of endearment. Didn't offend me in the least. I never had a dad who I had enough respect and love for to want to photograph him. But if I did, a shot like this is probably what I'd take.

Hey!

Thanks for your long and very constructive comment! I love you guys on this forum, I get lots of good input both photographically and pp-wise I have tried to pp this one a bit in the line of what you and some of the other guys have said. I ended up with something like this: (was this what you were after?)

Llywellyn

Woah! I was going to comment on the first image (which I really like--composition and the catchlights in his eyes are fantastic!), then i scrolled down and got hit with your updated version. Yowza. Very striking.

I'm not sure about the bright edges/lines that remain in the background--look like they're jutting out of his head. Maybe slightly less contrast in the background to even that out a little? I'd almost hate to darken the lines, too, and lose the background entirely.

CarnalSigh

1) I like how you darkened the background. However, it looks like some of it on the left side was removed and simply made black. That gives it a centered/cropped look, which wouldn't work for this pic since you shot it correctly in the first place, using the rule of thirds as a guide. That was the first thing that grabbed my eyes, so except for losing that whole left side into blackness, this darker way you've changed up the background looks much better IMO.

2) As for his face/skin....much better. It now has character and brings out an interesting aspect to his personality that the original photo lacked. It tells me that he's seen a lot, worked hard in his life, and earned every wrinkle on his face. Now...back off on the contrast just a tad and I'd frame it. We always have to be careful not to go to extremes with any adjustment we make to a photo. Take it in stages as you adjust. Look at something else for a couple minutes, then go back and look at it again. Sometimes if we sit and stare at a photo we're working on for too long, it's difficult to give it an objective eyeball and make a wise determination about whether the change was too much, too little, or just right.

3) The eyes look great. Not sure if you hsve them special att, but I really like how they look now.

Richard

Much better.

Regards,

ulrikft

Thanks for your comments all of you! I'll try to incorporate them and make a blazing final version..

ulrikft

Tried to retain but dampen the detail in the background, emphasize the natural lines in his face.

(And for the record: "my old man" is a very, very positive remark, no negative connotations implied.. )

DonRicklin

I certainly did not mean any real negative ones, myself. Witness the !

I was just goofing on ya because of My age. See my Avatar and Profile images. LRmvcDonR

Don

ulrikft

LRmvcDonR wrote:

I certainly did not mean any real negative ones, myself. Witness the !

I was just goofing on ya because of My age. See my Avatar and Profile images. LRmvcDonR

Don

Hey!
I didn't think you did, I was just clearifying Age is a mark of honor where I'm from..!

DonRicklin

Don

i_worship_the_King

Wow, this photo has progressed from good to amazing just over the course of this thread. I love your B&W conversion, very very well executed.

jeffreaux2

This is exactly what I was thinking....3rd version. Now he is still in his envioronment...background is still there, but carries less weight in the image....and WOW look how the contrast has made changes in his face. Now that has character!!

CarnalSigh

Frame it

ulrikft

Thanks a lot for your comments! Glad you liked it!

CTUphoto

Good stuff...
Okay, my one comment for the day, and then I'm off to bed. I really liked the latter versions, for all the reasons others have already commented on. I'll say in general, the catch lights in the eyes were a little distracting for me. Someone early on suggested having him look at the camera. I think that would have allowed the catch lights to not sit right in the darkest part of his eyes (pupils). I think that off set effect gives depth to the eyes that's lost when the lights are dead-center as they are in your shot. All that said, I still really-really like the shot. Good work.

urbanaries

Incredible photo.

NeilL

Hi ulrikft

I really do NOT like the later versions! I much, much prefer the first, but that is not to say that it couldn't be improved. However, the later versions are so sterile and stark! They make me think of an abattoirs! Or they look like a cops and robbers movie capture, or someone on death row a la tabloids, so condemning! He is caught in the glare of the searchlights! He is going to be shot! Is everyone letting their primal envy show?!

It's just my developing bias showing, I know, but I really am coming to intensely dislike portraits that isolate the subjects into a nothingness place, all meaningless , or blurred, insipid, anonymous, without a role, without a voice. I am reminded of the old nostrum "Children should be seen but not heard"! - "A background should be as characterless as intolerance and ruthlessness can make it".

No! Speaking personally, I am nothing removed from my milieu of the things I live among. Our relationship is symbiotic, there is mutual dependence and benefit, and there is antagonism and tension. Take my things away and I am without a skin, I gape senselessly as a fish out of water. I am without a stage to act my drama. I am a cutout without dimensions.

I love your background. I love how the subject carries it on his shoulders and yet leans into it for support. I love how like his face it has its highlights and shadows. How his roundnesses contrast with its rectilinearities. How he comes out of it and returns into it. He and it are one cloth. The picture behind tells some of his story. What? we wonder.

To stamp the background out of existence, or to make it merely a setting, is to avoid confronting its challenge for a photographer. It is sometimes, maybe usually, hard to get the background on your side. I believe you have to dialogue with it as much as with the subject. Not guillotine it in postprocessing!

I would like to see your B&W have more modeling, more tonal variation, definition and more richness. The background, if left alone, will come onside, I believe.

Thanks.

Neil

ulrikft

Thank you for your long comment! I have to admit that I'm confused now, but I can try to make another final version to see if I can make one that you like

Art Scott

ulrikft wrote:

Hey!

Thanks for your long and very constructive comment! I love you guys on this forum, I get lots of good input both photographically and pp-wise I have tried to pp this one a bit in the line of what you and some of the other guys have said. I ended up with something like this: (was this what you were after?)

They are both good.....but this one is fantastic!!!!thumbbow

Arvan

the last one is amazing! i just love it!!!!!!..

Put a nice frame on it and give it to your old man! this is such a wallhanger !