Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Julie (80/100) - Popping the cork


Margaret is one of the gals at the gig at Taronga. She is a friend but I still had to ask permission to use.

The purpose of posting is to discuss the positive use of shadow. The sun was setting; the angle extreme. The large shot is the final one with the two smaller ones leading up to it. I reckon the sun, the sunnies and the angle of the hat make this an okay portrait.

5 comments:

Ann said...

I don't know, I'm getting a real thing about seeing eyes (or at least glasses). Its definitely a portrait but I'm not sure if I like it. For shadow I prefer the third one.

Ann said...

I should say why I prefer the third one - I like the clean lines of shadow.

Julie said...

I agree that the third portrait has something to recommend it too. Both the first and third put heavy emphasis upon character: you get to know something about the person behind the photo.

I could have used a diffused flash for this one: except I was very close to her. But I judged that even a diffused flash would have flattened out the image: we would have replaced light with nuance.

I figured she had sunnies on and her eyes were going to be obscured anyway. When she pulled the hat down to shade the sun just that much more, I knew I was onto something.

Not sure about your clean lines of shadow in the third one: they appear about equal to me. You mean clean as opposed to dappled, yes?

Ann said...

Yes. There's a very strong right angle that I like.

bitingmidge said...

I really like the third one too. It is a really strong statement graphically I think.

I'm glad you didn't use the flash for it, I don't believe that chiaroscuro is a bad thing in portraiture. I'd like to be able to pull one of these off myself.

As for the eyes, well I have my own theory on that! I rather like painting portraits where the eyes can't be seen at all. When the Mona Lisa's eyes follow you around a room it's all so obvious and 16th century. In the 21st century, people wear sunglasses and you can't tell if they are looking at you, and if they are, exactly what part has taken their attention! Documenting that is valid too I think.

It's OK, I don't have my next holiday for a month or so!