Thursday, August 13, 2009

Julie (178) - Mattie



6 comments:

cara said...

That top one is an example of the pros of this Aussie light - it's just great - the contrast is dramatic but you've still got all the detail - did you use a flash?

Joan Elizabeth said...

This is a head and shoulders with the difference. I like it.

Julie said...

No flash ... The three examples indicate me fiddling with the settings to get the detail to come out on the face.

It was taken from the front of a ferry. I was sitting beside Mattie's mother and he was giving us a running commentary about various sights, including Garden Island. What attracted him to me, is that the stuff he was sprouting about GI was all quite accurate. I think Mattie might have been about 6. He had a little brother, too.

The light in that top one is so intense that it gives that cropped feel to the outline and the background.

Ann said...

For some reason I find the top shot unsettling but I can't figure out why. Something to do with the posture or the expression perhaps.

Julie said...

Yes, I think I know what you mean.

No sure it is his posture, he was turning around a lot to give us the benefit of his knowledge. It could be the discolouration on his cheek. But think it is more likely to be the blowout around the outline. The contrast is just so extreme.

I had to do that otherwise I would have mainly got Mattie as a silhouette ... as you can see from the other two. And I wanted him and particularly his face to have detail. There was mainly sky as the background as I was sitting and he was kneeling at the pointy end! We were just coming out of Sydney Cove ready to turn left under the Bridge and head up the Parramatta River.

But I think the unsettling thing is the very same thing that is good about the image: the blow out of the background to enable detail in the face.

Ann said...

I think I know why its unsettling. To me he looks lost and lonely, and sad.