Colty and Esmeralda

[DanOstergren]

A portrait I shot last month of a leather focused fashion designer and his pet snake Esmeralda.

Shot in natural (window) light using a Canon 5D classic with a Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens attached, set to f/4.5, 1/160th sec, ISO 500.

 

[Amocholes]

Lovely!. Really brings out the detail in the snake,

 

[Derrel]

Very subtle.

 

[DanOstergren]

Lovely!. Really brings out the detail in the snake,

Thank you!

 

[DanOstergren]

Very subtle.

Thank you. I feel like I went slightly away from my usual direction by using more shadow than light.

 

[Studio7Four]

I like it - quite a bit - but I don't love it. That's only because the light is having two different effects here which I feel are working against each other rather than being complimentary.

On him, the light creates almost exclusively either flat shadow or blown highlight (the exception being that spot of light under his eye, which I love). That's not a criticism, I quite like the effect. However, on the snake, the light falling on its scales creates great contrast and detail. Either section (flat vs high contrast) works very well independently, I'm just not wrapping my mind around them working together in this one image. I keep getting drawn to the detail on the snake and treating him as more of a prop, a mannequin on which the snake is resting. And that's unfair to both of them and to you.

 

[DanOstergren]

I like it - quite a bit - but I don't love it. That's only because the light is having two different effects here which I feel are working against each other rather than being complimentary.

On him, the light creates almost exclusively either flat shadow or blown highlight (the exception being that spot of light under his eye, which I love). That's not a criticism, I quite like the effect. However, on the snake, the light falling on its scales creates great contrast and detail. Either section (flat vs high contrast) works very well independently, I'm just not wrapping my mind around them working together in this one image. I keep getting drawn to the detail on the snake and treating him as more of a prop, a mannequin on which the snake is resting. And that's unfair to both of them and to you.

Thanks for the feedback.