Sheila - rock on
 

I don't hire myself out as a photographer. However, when Sheila (full time biology student, part time waitress, part time Barnes and Noble clerk, full time punk rocker) suggested that she wanted to give her father a nice photo of herself for Christmas, well I'm a sucker for a girl trying to be good to her dad. I'm also a sucker for a willing model and a chance to practice my reference photo taking skills.

I don't see any of these becoming portraits in the near future, but you never know. I thought I would share a few.

These black and white photos were all taken with T-Max 400 speed black and white film in my Nikon n90 film camera. For the indoor shots, I used a tripod.

number 2

number 3

number 4

number 5

why did I think dad might prefer black and white?

Please feel free to comment and give any criticisms on how these might be improved or why any would not make good reference for a painting.

Personally I think the one outdoors under the light sconce, although a nice photo, would be a little tough. Sheila has a kind of oriental look about her and her eyes would be difficult in this shot. The other that might be tough is the close up head and shoulder shot outside. A nice composition I think but not enough value range in the face.

Mike

Mari,

Personally I think #1 would be my favorite to paint. I get a little more of that personal connection with it. There is more info there than I have shown. I darkened it up a bit to get a little more drama, ok for photo's when you don't need to see so much. Black and white seems to allow a little more wiggle room than color.

My favorite, as a photo, would be #3. I love this one. It does demonstrate the outdoor trap of including more stuff into the composition which diminishes the head size. I think a very skilled painter could make a wonderful painting of this. I think I could do this if I painted it as big as Sharon K.'s seven-footers.

The following photo demonstrates very well why I don't hire out as a photographer. I was trying to work on my two person composition (not a simple matter) with Sheila and her sister. I had remembered Michael F.'s suggestions regarding adding a third element (light shade) to create the illusion of "3" instead of two. I might have pulled it off had I had not fallen into the amateurish trap of letting my auto focus take a perfectly focused picture of the center of the frame, which unfortunately was 4 feet behind the subject.

My problem with Number 1 is that the light/shadow divide is exactly down the center of the face and that will become a more obvious compositional problem as you begin to paint.

I think that photo Number 2 would make the most interesting painting because of the way the shapes of light and dark interact.

All good painting begins with good abstraction as its solid foundation.

Photo No. Two!
 

Mike, I agree with Karin. The dark forms have a beautiful shape, highlighting the face. It is a really beautiful photo.

Sincerely,