Jahred- Actor Portraits

[DanOstergren]

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.

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[pixmedic]

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?

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

I feel ya bro...
my ferret pictures rarely garner much attention due to the obvious mustelid bias. dogs and cats are the obvious favorites.

 

[jcdeboever]

I missed it. I can't offer any suggestions, just at a boys. At a boy there bud! Love the skin tones in both. The color one is a very intimate looking image. Wonderful color and clarity. I always admire your work and fascinated by the comments of critique. I never see a thing wrong.

 

[DanOstergren]

I missed it. I can't offer any suggestions, just at a boys. At a boy there bud! Love the skin tones in both. The color one is a very intimate looking image. Wonderful color and clarity. I always admire your work and fascinated by the comments of critique. I never see a thing wrong.

Thanks man! That means a lot!

 

[Amocholes]

I really like the b&w as well

 

[DanOstergren]

I really like the b&w as well

Thank you.

 

[JonFZ300]

I'll agree that your work is probably intimidating for people to comment on. It's obvious you're a pro and I'm just some dude on the internet. I think a lot of people feel they are not qualified to comment on the work of professionals like yourself when the quality is this consistently high. You're the only one here that posts consistently high quality and highly technical work and asks for critique on a regular basis. I could be way off in that assessment of others but that's how I feel about it. I'm kind of scared to comment because it looks like you know exactly what you want and how to get it and my comment will get a "Thanks but that's what I was trying to do" type of answer. You seem cordial enough though. The last one with the black guy was an interesting discussion because the subject was more interpretation and not the technicalities of photography.

Having said all that, I think the first one is too warm and cropped too tight and in the B&W one his skin is too smooth as mentioned above.

 

[DanOstergren]

I'll agree that your work is probably intimidating for people to comment on. It's obvious you're a pro and I'm just some dude on the internet. I think a lot of people feel they are not qualified to comment on the work of professionals like yourself when the quality is this consistently high. You're the only one here that posts consistently high quality and highly technical work and asks for critique on a regular basis. I could be way off in that assessment of others but that's how I feel about it. I'm kind of scared to comment because it looks like you know exactly what you want and how to get it and my comment will get a "Thanks but that's what I was trying to do" type of answer. You seem cordial enough though. The last one with the black guy was an interesting discussion because the subject was more interpretation and not the technicalities of photography.

Having said all that, I think the first one is too warm and cropped too tight and in the B&W one his skin is too smooth as mentioned above.

Thanks Jon. I'm open to hearing all criticism regardless of how qualified someone might feel they are to give said criticism. If something looks bad it doesn't take an art major to point it out.

I appreciate the feedback.

 

[mrca]

I like the lighting ratio but if the reflector is the catch light lower right on eye, I would raise it above the eyes to get more shape and form. Y ou are properly getting it with dark skin, with highlights, not shadows. I find the bright white flowers distracting and think more attention would have been drawn to the subject if you found an area of greenery with some light filtering through creating patches of color. Also, I'm not sure why a shirtless man is posing in front of flowers? Good camera height on the first headshot. I'd crop down into the forehead, that would help with the too tight crop at the top. I'll bet that in b&w will be killer. You nailed the focus on the eyes on this extremely shallow dof "eyes in, ears out" shot. I'm guessing you were in 3 or 4 feet and backing up to 7 or 8 feet would help with compression. The nose seems to have a hint of being larger than normal from being too close. With my ample, multi broken probiscus, I am sensitive to compression.

 

[DanOstergren]

I like the lighting ratio but if the reflector is the catch light lower right on eye, I would raise it above the eyes to get more shape and form. Y ou are properly getting it with dark skin, with highlights, not shadows. I find the bright white flowers distracting and think more attention would have been drawn to the subject if you found an area of greenery with some light filtering through creating patches of color. Also, I'm not sure why a shirtless man is posing in front of flowers? Good camera height on the first headshot. I'd crop down into the forehead, that would help with the too tight crop at the top. I'll bet that in b&w will be killer. You nailed the focus on the eyes on this extremely shallow dof "eyes in, ears out" shot. I'm guessing you were in 3 or 4 feet and backing up to 7 or 8 feet would help with compression. The nose seems to have a hint of being larger than normal from being too close. With my ample, multi broken probiscus, I am sensitive to compression.

Thanks.

To answer your question "I'm not sure why a shirtless man is posing in front of flowers?": because I think it's beautiful.

 

[smoke665]

To answer your question "I'm not sure why a shirtless man is posing in front of flowers?": because I think it's beautiful.

The nice thing about posting on TPF is the variety of opinions that come when you ask for C&C. However I think it's important to remember that once you get past technical aspects, it becomes highly subjective. What we like/don't like is tempered by our own personal tastes, experiences, expectations, and may be very different from someone else. Doesn't make them wrong or right, just different. It's up to the person doing the posting to determine the validity of the subjective comments, how it relates to their own opinion, and if adjustments in thinking need to occur.

That said I think the poster was trying to say something similar to what I pointed out earlier with his comment "I find the bright white flowers distracting and think more attention would have been drawn to the subject if you found an area of greenery with some light filtering through creating patches of color" In the first shot the close crop and shallow DOF caused the flowers to blur into the back ground and not compete with the subject, but on the second they are a distraction, especially on the left side.

 

[DanOstergren]

To answer your question "I'm not sure why a shirtless man is posing in front of flowers?": because I think it's beautiful.

The nice thing about posting on TPF is the variety of opinions that come when you ask for C&C. However I think it's important to remember that once you get past technical aspects, it becomes highly subjective. What we like/don't like is tempered by our own personal tastes, experiences, expectations, and may be very different from someone else. Doesn't make them wrong or right, just different. It's up to the person doing the posting to determine the validity of the subjective comments, how it relates to their own opinion, and if adjustments in thinking need to occur.

That said I think the poster was trying to say something similar to what I pointed out earlier with his comment "I find the bright white flowers distracting and think more attention would have been drawn to the subject if you found an area of greenery with some light filtering through creating patches of color" In the first shot the close crop and shallow DOF caused the flowers to blur into the back ground and not compete with the subject, but on the second they are a distraction, especially on the left side.

I don't see how "I'm not sure why a shirtless man is posing in front of flowers" is in any way related to the feedback in saying "I find the bright white flowers distracting and think more attention would have been drawn to the subject if you found an area of greenery with some light filtering through creating patches of color". They're both completely different and unrelated statements, one of which very clearly points out an expected gender role and one that actually presents technical feedback.

For the record, I never disagreed with any feedback given. I thanked both of you for your feedback and answered what was presented as a question. I never said that anyone was right or wrong, nor did I invalidate anything he, you or anyone else said. If somebody doesn't like the idea of a man posing in front of flowers, good for them. It's no different than posing a woman in front of something typically seen as masculine, and I don't see anything wrong with doing that either. I only explained why I did it.

 

[stapo49]

You are obviously very good at what you do. I don't know a lot about portrait photography so I don't comment that much as appears to be very technical what with reflectors and catch lights etc.

So for what it's worth I think you have done a great job, especially like the first one, capturing the image of an obviously great looking guy. Good stuff!

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

 

[DanOstergren]

You are obviously very good at what you do. I don't know a lot about portrait photography so I don't comment that much as appears to be very technical what with reflectors and catch lights etc.

So for what it's worth I think you have done a great job, especially like the first one, capturing the image of an obviously great looking guy. Good stuff!

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

Thank you so much!