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photo: The Smile

Streetshooter

Subscriber Member
Godfrey,
That image works really, really well...I could lecture on it for an hour...
Great vision....
Shooter
 

apicius9

New member
Godfrey,
That image works really, really well...I could lecture on it for an hour...
Great vision....
Shooter
I really also like this one, but as an amateur, I don't really know why. I was wondering if some of you could point out your thoughts about what exactly makes this a great shot, what are the points that make it stand out. Not to criticize, I just want to learn more about it. So, please do lecture a bit... I hope Godfrey doesn't mind and if the request is in appropriate please let me know. Thanks,

Stefan
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I really also like this one, but as an amateur, I don't really know why. I was wondering if some of you could point out your thoughts about what exactly makes this a great shot, what are the points that make it stand out. Not to criticize, I just want to learn more about it. So, please do lecture a bit... I hope Godfrey doesn't mind and if the request is in appropriate please let me know.
It's a lot more appropriate to discuss and evaluate a photo's appeal than to add a photo of some goonishly leering guy into another person's thread which features the lovely smile of a young lady, in my opinion.

Vivek, doing that was crude and impolite. Please edit it out, and I'll remove this portion of my response to Stefan.

Stefan,

For me to discuss what makes this a 'great shot' seems a little pretentious because it's my photograph, but I'll say what moved me when I started editing it, and some thoughts about where I might improve on it technically.

What I like about it is the connection made between her eyes, her posture, and the camera, and the quality of her smile: it exudes the persona I felt of a very likeable young woman. I also liked the quality of the light and shadows, and the overall feeling of softness which again brought out what I felt when we connected for that ever so brief moment.

I do wish I'd had the 40mm f/1.4 lens on the camera as this is a rather severe crop of the frame, which has cut into printability, and if I'd been using the faster lens wide open I've have gotten the exposure time down to about 1/25 second so there would be less camera motion blur.

But content takes priority over technical nits like these. I'm glad I had the good fortune to capture such a radiant face and expression at all.
 

Rawfa

Active member
The framing is just phenomenal but the excess of grain does bother me quite a bit. Maybe a BW white conversion would have made it just perfect :) . Just my 2 cents.
 
The framing is just phenomenal but the excess of grain does bother me quite a bit. Maybe a BW white conversion would have made it just perfect :) . Just my 2 cents.
Yep, when expressly pointed out, there´s noise, and it´s not purrfectly sharp... so what?

You meet a real, warm person here, in a very harmonious image, with lovely colours.

I forget which photographer said "whenever people comment on sharpness in one of my images, I start to wonder what´s wrong with it..."

Godfrey, there´s nothing wrong with this one....:clap:
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Yep, when expressly pointed out, there´s noise, and it´s not purrfectly sharp... so what?

You meet a real, warm person here, in a very harmonious image, with lovely colours.

I forget which photographer said "whenever people comment on sharpness in one of my images, I start to wonder what´s wrong with it..."

Godfrey, there´s nothing wrong with this one....
I have developed a pretty thick skin over the years. I'm quite satisfied with it just as is. ;-)

I did work a B&W rendering before I did the color one (I always start by looking at my photos with my home-brew monochrome preset...), but the noise became quite intense and lost all its charm.
 

Rawfa

Active member
Like it was said in one of my own thread regarding noise in my photo "As long as you're happy with it it's all that matters". When I take pictures it is because I have desire, a necessity I need to fulfill of expressing my self through non verbal ways...if others like it then great, if they don't great anyway.
 

Streetshooter

Subscriber Member
I really also like this one, but as an amateur, I don't really know why. I was wondering if some of you could point out your thoughts about what exactly makes this a great shot, what are the points that make it stand out. Not to criticize, I just want to learn more about it. So, please do lecture a bit... I hope Godfrey doesn't mind and if the request is in appropriate please let me know. Thanks,

Stefan
Stefan.....
Without taking an hour...her's about the eye travel and a few visual things....

Lets start with the shadow areas...because they start the whole thing rolling....

On the top there is a shadow that duplicates the shape of her hair AND the shape of her shoulder.....This immediately locks your eye travel into the image and there is almost no escape...

then you realize that the shape is repeated by her left brow and the right brow repeats the shape of the shadow behind her.....

and also the back of the chair, (green area)...bounces the eye travel back...up and down...

I love the highlight in her right eye (right of image)..and on the left side...ear... it creates the L/R movement for eye travel....

after you eye finishes the travel...it ends on the bracelet on the lower right...and that starts the whole thing over because it repeats that shape again...and again...and again...

Barthe rights about the Studium and the Punctum in an image..meaning...

The Studium is the general landscape of the image...the Punctum is the Punch of the image....

Here we have a great landscape in the portrait...the Punch is that she appears to be disconnected as if she were pasted on the background....

All these things add to a very enjoyable feast for the eye/mind......

Shooter
 

Streetshooter

Subscriber Member
Stefan,
Not to interrupt the above post about seeing....

The process of eye travel happen very fast...the brain is faster than a computer....but remember.....we were talking about viewing an image....a captured image.....

the thing to try to do is....let the brain work when you are making images...the eye travel starts out there......

Shooter
 

woodmancy

Subscriber Member
To me, the picture has a lot of "painterly", "old-masterly" feel about it, which would not come through with hair-splitting sharpness and no noise . The composition with the model dead center is really interesting.

Keith
 
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