A portrait of true beauty

[dsiglin]

Looking at this portrait of my mother I see how even though age has lined her face it has just accented the kindness I remember. She is in her 60s now but in my mind she is 40, a much younger and less frail woman. Thanksgiving gave me the chance to try out my Minolta AF lenses on the camera they were meant for, instead of the usual NEX 5n. Next weekend I get to try a Mamiya RZ67 on both parents.

Tech notes: Superia 400 Minolta Dynax 5 with 50mm 1.7 AF
The image is a bit low resolution because I got this developed and scanned at Walgreens.

 

[robbins.photo]

Somehow I get the impression from this photograph that this is the sort of woman who never raises her voice, she just doesn't have too - a simple tsk tsk from her is all that is required.

 

[dsiglin]

Haha. You are right. Though she is the most patient, kind woman I know. Never speaks ill of anyone.

 

[DanOstergren29 5]

I find myself really wishing the depth of field was wide enough to get both eyes in sharp focus.

 

[dsiglin]

I'll keep that in mind next weekend, I'm going to try a few more inside window shots and then some outside shots.

Edited this to be warmer, here's a photo of the father as well. Wish I had more light filling in the eyes on him, alas.

 

[dsiglin]

Another month another go and portraits. This time I borrowed my friend's Mamiya RZ67 and got the film processed at Indie Film Lab. Very impressed with both the camera and Indie. Scans were 80mb when opened! Shot on Portra 400 you had to look real close to see the grain on most of the photos. Anyways, here's another, again with slightly missing the focus. The photo of father was spot on. At 32 years old maybe I'm getting too old for manual focus.

These portraits were more deliberate. I setup a space next to a big window in my house and used a reflector to fill in the other side. I did some light editing besides a B&W conversion on LR.

On my home monitor the highlights are there but looking at these on my work monitor they are blown.

 

[The_Traveler]

Both of these look very thin to me.
When the exposures are brought down to 'normal' the bright areas on the side of her face are disturbing

 

[dsiglin]

I lightened them up from the original. I did hand meter both these, well actually all the shots that day. But I like the feel the lighter exposure gives.

 

[dsiglin]

Just for you Traveler I brought the black levels back to normal. I agree it does give it more punch, but I like the softness of the lower contrast versions. Also you lose the detail on the right side of her hair.