Portraits of the Professor as a Young Man

[dsiglin]

Recently had dinner at a friends house and since he owed me for introducing him to his newly wedded wife I convinced him to pose for me. He just landed a job teaching college level history courses and knowing his great love for all things antique we went about shooting something that borrowed heavily from classic portraiture but could best be described as "mock heroic" with overly dramatic pose and lighting. Very tongue-in-cheek.

Lighting this I used a speed light set high left shot through a white umbrella while I held a large reflector bottom right and activated the camera via remote. Lens used was Canon FD 50mm 1.4. This was shot in his backyard against a stand of fir trees. No doubt the neighbors were wondering just what the crap was going on outside. Anyways, enjoy, C&C definitely welcome. I'm including at the end one of the photos unedited from raw.

 

[Braineack]

I'm not quite sure I'm a fan of the washed out processing of the first 4, but then the flash looks a bit hot in #5. If you could do some highlight recovery on #5 I think I'd prefer it.

 

[The_Traveler]

 

[dsiglin]

Braineack - It's true I probably have a not healthy love of soft blacks. For this set I had in mind slightly faded tintypes but also painters like Turner and Sargent whose blacks often were not true black and more muted darkened colors. I haven't had time yet but I was going to play around with adding some sort of texture to the color photos to complete the "painterly" style.

The Traveler, you just gave me an idea, I'll post it when I get a chance to work on it.
*EDIT*

Behold, tintype:

 

[fotofinish]

I like this - great antique effect. I also like it as #4 above.

Braineack - It's true I probably have a not healthy love of soft blacks. For this set I had in mind slightly faded tintypes but also painters like Turner and Sargent whose blacks often were not true black and more muted darkened colors. I haven't had time yet but I was going to play around with adding some sort of texture to the color photos to complete the "painterly" style.

The Traveler, you just gave me an idea, I'll post it when I get a chance to work on it.
*EDIT*

Behold, tintype:

View attachment 58136

 

[The_Traveler]

This would be a totally great gift for your friend.

 

[dsiglin]

Especially if I made an actual tintype of it. I think I've read where you can make a contact print onto a tintype, not sure if I'm remembering that correctly.

Braineack, just for you, here's a version without the low contrast.