Jahred- Actor Portraits

DanOstergren · May 6, 2019

Last week I moved into an artist collective in Los Angeles. I live with a few other photographers, videographers, music producers, musicians, actors, singers, painters, and illustrators (it's a very big house). Even in the last few days living in this house has made it so much easier to make friends and collaborate with others, and everyone is very supportive of each other and extremely willing to collaborate. Yesterday I was supposed to photograph someone that I don't live with, but that person cancelled at the last minute. I was pretty disappointed because I was looking forward to making some portraits today, but fortunately when I returned home my roommate Jahred (who is an actor and maybe should be a model) was happy to model for me. We walked down the sidewalk a block and a half from the house where this big flower bush grows and I took these portraits using natural light and a silver reflector.

Canon 5D (classic), Canon 85mm f/1.8 lens set to f/4, 1/400th sec, ISO 400.

Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens set to f/1.4, 1/2500th sec, ISO 400.

DanOstergren · May 10, 2019

dxqcanada · May 10, 2019

Hmm, interesting that you have not had a comment yet.

So my comment ... I think you cropped a bit too close in the first.
His skin look toooo smooth in the second, I think he would look better with texture.

Derrel · May 10, 2019

I prefer the B&W shot, for the greater context that it shows.

Derrel · May 10, 2019

dxqcanada said:
Hmm, interesting that you have not had a comment yet.>SNIP
.

126 views, no comments, until you bumped the thread? What? Are people afraid to comment on your work?

dxqcanada · May 10, 2019

Dan's work is intimidating !!! :watermelon:

DanOstergren · May 10, 2019

dxqcanada said:
Hmm, interesting that you have not had a comment yet.

So my comment ... I think you cropped a bit too close in the first.
His skin look toooo smooth in the second, I think he would look better with texture.

Thanks for the feedback. I agree about the crop, however to me it was a minor imperfection that was outweighed by how much I liked the expression and lighting compared to similar shots that were cropped a little better.

DanOstergren · May 10, 2019

Derrel said:
I prefer the B&W shot, for the greater context that it shows.

Thanks Derrel. I prefer the black and white as well.

DanOstergren · May 10, 2019

Derrel said:
dxqcanada said:

Hmm, interesting that you have not had a comment yet.>SNIP
.

Click to expand...

126 views, no comments, until you bumped the thread? What? Are people afraid to comment on your work?

To be honest I think it's because they're not photos of women.

DanOstergren · May 10, 2019

dxqcanada said:
Dan's work is intimidating !!!

‍¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Black_Square · May 10, 2019

Both great shots but I love faces so number 1 every day!

Jeff15 · May 11, 2019

Number two for me.....

DanOstergren · May 12, 2019

Black_Square said:
Both great shots but I love faces so number 1 every day!

Thank you!

DanOstergren · May 12, 2019

Jeff15 said:
Number two for me.....

Thanks Jeff, I think that's my favorite of the two as well, but it's honestly hard to decide.

smoke665 · May 12, 2019

Subject to the same comment on crop I prefer the first, though I'm not overly fond of the eyes. They lack the light, color and sparkle of a close up shot, though I suspect that part of this might be due to the reality that a large percentage of Asian and African populations have really dark brown, irises. I have some soon to be (hopefully) grandchildren with extremely dark skin, and equally dark irises. Up close to the eye I can see the color variations, but I've yet to bring out that real color in an image. I'm also somewhat put off by the major difference in skin texture between the face, neck and chest. IMO I also think the first might have worked better as a B&W.

The second I'm not overly fond of because of the landscape crop. To me the subject gets lost in a sea of distractions.