My late father

[Will Enns]

About 23 years ago, I was an ardent, if uninformed, photographer. I read books and learned, after a fashion, to take pictures. I thought it would be nice to have a good portrait of my father reading his Bible, which was a favorite pastime of his.

Little did I know at that time I might now want to paint from those photos, which of course, cannot be reshot. So I must be content with what I have.

I used an incandescent bulb as the main light, which accounts for the yellow tones. I didn't mind them as I was using the lamp you see in some of the pictures as a prop.

As you can see, the original pictures were cropped too small, so I have added a border to re-compose the pictures as I might like to paint them. Of course, I will paint only the best one.

By an absolute fluke, I lit a few of the pictures with what I think can be called Rembrandt lighting. I consider myself very lucky in this respect.

Here are my questions:

1) Which of the poses do you find most appealing?

2) I would prefer to keep things in the traditional portrait format. This leaves me with large dark spaces above and below. What, if anything, should be done with this?

3) How might the composition be improved upon? I'm willing to look at options that might not be obvious or very conventional.

I would, of course, be happy for any additional comments you might offer, beyond answering my specific questions. I much appreciate the time anyone might take to offer advice on these.

First pose: