Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Julie (40/100) - Is a hand a portrait?



May I introduce David? He is in my drawing class on Monday evenings in Bondi. I asked his permission first and then I asked Belinda's permission - double whammy! Here are some others:



Which would you have chosen? How would you have cropped it? Would you plump for B&W? Roll up! Roll up! One'n'all - put yer money where yer mouth is! BTW, all these are the original image. I was on P with an ISO of 800, AWB of fluorescent and F5.0. Does all that make sense together? So still no flash (but I do have two iced-coffee containers) and I have learnt since the Fengshui lecture to reduce the ISO from 1600 to 800 because of the danger of shake no matter how close I am. At least David was fairly static with just a sway of the head as his looked from model to easel. Also, please note, that I learnt from the portrait of Belinda last Monday, that I really need to include what the artist is working on to satisfy the viewer's curiosity.

4 comments:

bitingmidge said...

No doubt this is the best of them!

I wouldn't have cropped it differently, but would have liked to have seen the shot taken from a tiny bit lower angle so that his whole right hand was visible below his chin.

Definitely not one for B&W.

In theory, 1600 iso would have given you a faster shutter speed, and therefore less shake but in that light it would be pretty marginal, and you would probably have had quite a lot of noise to contend with.

Julie said...

Yes, I can see (now) that would be good. But wouldn't it also increase the amount of blurred shirt that obliterates the drawing?

Can you think of anyway that I could have shown more of David himself while he was still working AND show the work in progress at the same time?

Ann said...

Definitely a portrait and the best of them. I don't know why, but I find the half of the left hand distracting, however, I don't know what I'd do about it. Though on second thoughts it balances the shot.

Julie said...

Yes, I think the shot would be the poorer without that finger down there - which he is using as a balance in his own way too.

Note all the shadows from the harsh overhead fluorescents. They caused trouble with the apples and capsicums that we were drawing too. I tried flash for one shot with David but that was such an intrusion and just seemed to make the shadows worse to my fevered brain.