Jr Achievement portrait

Christy Talbott · 04-19-2007, 10:40 PM

For the past six years I've been doing portraits for Jr. Acheivement of Central VA's yearly laureates. I do these for free as a donation to Jr. Achievement, and they give the portraits to the honorees as gifts. They will need to be done by May 10th, I believe (better check!).

Here's the first of the guys. These were the three best photos I took of him. If I go with the last one, I wouldn't have him hunching as he is in this photo. I'm not sure which pose I want to choose and am curious as to which photo you all would be partial to.

Thanks so much in advance

,
Christy

Julie Deane · 04-21-2007, 03:45 PM

I vote for no. 3. When you paint, I'd de-emphasize the forehead wrinkle though, as much as possible. Such a difference if you put your hand over it!

Mischa Milosevic · 04-21-2007, 05:03 PM

This is a toughy, #2 pose with #1 color and values. One more thing Photo distortion problem. You can fix this by making his eyes a touch bigger and his nose a touch smaller.

All the best

Christy Talbott · 04-22-2007, 11:50 AM

Thank you for your thoughts Julie and Mischa. I completely agree Julie on smoothing those frown wrinkles on his forehead. And I like the tones and color better in #1 as well Mischa. But I STILL don't know which one I'm going to go with!

Ah well, I'll figure it out soon enough! Thanks again.

Christy

Mike McCarty · 04-22-2007, 01:34 PM

Christy,

Do these shots represent the full composition of the photo, or did you crop them for display here? If they are full I would suggest that in the future you widen out at least another 25% to give yourself more information and more compositional choices.

Also, be careful of your angle to the subject. In each of these shots it appears that your camera is positioned above the subjects head (you standing, subject sitting?). I think you'll have a more pleasing composition if you position your camera level with, or slightly below the subjects eyes.

Here's a trick I learned from Chris Saper many, many years ago (3 or 4 maybe) - to keep your subject from squinting in bright light have them close their eyes for 15-20 seconds (while in pose) then have them open their eyes and quickly snap the picture.

I think I would go with #2. I think it shows less of the effects of the down angle. Not a good angle for men that are follicularly challenged.

Christy Talbott · 04-22-2007, 02:20 PM

Hi Mike,

Yes these are the full shots. I really only want to do a head study this time. That's a very good point you make about the angle I was viewing him from; I was looking down at him a bit. I kind of like that angle when photographing little children. But I think you're right; not the best angle for a portrait of a man.

Thanks so much for your thoughts, Mike.

Christy