A Pretty Subject!
 

I thought my next piece needed to be of a young woman. This is my niece and a few sample shots with my new camera. She will be fun to do! Graphite on Stonehenge...

Choice No 2

Choice no 3

And No 5

Good Subject
 

Hi Pat,

She's very pretty, and not camera/posing shy. She'll make a good subject for you. I prefer #1 or #3 if you're going to go with one of these.

All of them show a certain amount of distortion. It looks as though these were shot with a short focal length lens (less than 50 mm). You can tell this by the way the straight verticals in the background appear to be curved. The distortion is most prominent in #2, resulting in a convex "funhouse mirror" effect that makes the distance between her eyes and the bottom of her chin occupy more area than they would with your naked eye. It's too bad, because I really like her expression in that one, but I'm sure she's a lot prettier than it appears in that shot.

I dont know what camera you're using, but if you have a 70-80 mm lens you could reduce the distortion considerably.

Cheers & Happy New Year.

John

Oops!
 

Sorry, Pat, I meant to say I prefer #1 or #5, the last one, not #3!

John

Thanks for the insight. Yes, I see I was too close. I am using a Minolta DiMage 100. The focal lens length is only 7.8 - 23.4 mm range. Would I have been better off to sit further away from her?

I too prefer the first shot and am eager to get home tonight and begin. Will post my progress in drawings critique. I completed a couple sketches of her live yesterday. Feeling real good about this one.

Patricia,

I agree with John's analysis. This lens is much too short for portrait work. If this is a digital camera, and if my memory serves me correctly, to get the equivalent focal length that we were used to with film cameras you would multiply your numbers by 1.6%. This brings your 23.4 up to 37.4. This is still not adequate and is causing a distortion that you would not want to replicate.

Would I get less distortion if I stood further back from the subject? I am bummed. I guess I should not retire my 35mm just yet then. I am a terrible photographer and liked the ability to see my shot before leaving the subject.

As to whether you would get less distortion by moving back ... I don't know, I'm not a technical wizard, but I doubt it.

As far as seeing the shot before you leave the subject ... The shot is always there through the viewfinder. I know the instant gratification must be addictive but people have been taking good photographs for a very long time without this ability.

At any rate, your problem lies with your lens whether digital or film. Try and stay between 50 and 80mm and you will have much better results. I occasionally use a Mamiya 645 medium format film camera which has a fixed focal length portrait lens, it is 80mm.

Pat,

The further back you stand, the less distortion you get. Distortion is the function of distance and not focal length. A wide angle lens and a telephoto lens will give identical distortion as long as the subject to camera distance remains the same.

If you stand several feet in front of someone who is holding their palm out towards you, (like a traffic cop) you'll see the size of their hand is much larger than the size of their head. If you move twenty feet back you'll see the size relationship is much more normal looking, therefore less distorted.

The advantage of the longer lens is that when you stand farther away the subject will occupy a larger portion of the image giving more detail and better resolution.

Your photo also suffers from overexposure in the lights. The tones are blown out to white. There is far too great a contrast between the lights and the shadows. Move her farther away from the light source (the window). You may have to give your photo a little more exposure.

Good luck!

In addition to the comments posted above regarding lens/distance distortion I would also add that pose number one (which you said was your favorite) doesn't flatter her as much as it could, in my opinion.

Her hair is lovely but it is hidden in that shot. Also, her hand, pressing against her cheek like that, is distorting her face.

Here's an illustration of what Marvin was describing. It's a matter of perspective.

Sweet

Hi Pat,

I was just reflecting on what Marvin and Michele had to say, and a thought occurred to me. You might try taking the shot from a greater distance to minimize the distortion due to the optics of the camera. Then zoom in to the portion of the image you want with a digital zoom. I don't have any experience with digital cameras, but I notice that they usually specify a digital zoom and an optical zoom. The distortions are all produced in the optics. With any luck, you should be able to find a combination of "distance from the subject" and "digital zoom" that will allow you minimize the optical distortion, but will still leave you enough resolution to get a satisfactory shot to use for your painting.

Just a thought, but it might be worth doing a little experimenting.

Regards

John

Digital zoom doesn't give you anything more than just cropping in on a section of an image and making it look bigger, unfortunately. It doesn't give you any more detail or pixel data in the area you want to concentrate on, like optical zoom would.

Optical zoom will actually give you the full number of pixels in the frame that you've set your camera for, just on the area you've zoomed in to. Digital zoom will give you only some portion of that total pixel data.

For example, if you use digital zoom to close in on an area that is in the upper one quarter of the normal frame, you will only end up with one quarter of the pixels in your image that you would have had if you had used optical zoom.

I never use digital zoom. If I just want to crop in on an image and print it large, I do that later in Photoshop.

A digital zoom is essentially usless since it only serves to enlarge the pixels. An optical zoom on the other hand would suffice to enlarge the image.

Marvin, you and I must have hit "submit reply" at exactly the same second.

Great minds etc.

I'm back to my niece's house to have her sit for me again. Draw from life, draw from life, draw from life.....my mantra. I'll try the camera shots again, this time moving her further from the window and positioning myself further from her for less distortion. Marvin, you reminded me of the lessons I struggled with in photography class two years ago. I pulled out the old textbook. I may not get the detail I would like with the limited optical zoom lens, but I should be able to avoid distortion and gather enough info for reference.

This has been a very good learning experience. Seems the more I learn the more I learn I need to know!!!!!! Geesh!!

Soon, you will see some of my efforts, as I am working on this project all day today and tomorrow. Nothing else I would rather do - I love being in my studio...

Night