Portrait

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=Portrait=

//Willow//
__Tags__: daughter, child, girl, somber, pearls, beads, cape, portrait

__Critique Comments__: We had just arrived in our hotel for the DragonCon conference earlier this month (September 2009), and Willow was ready to go in her Bat Girl costume.

The single dominant light source came from a floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall window to the left, and I like the shadowing it creates on the right-hand side of her face. I think that a more intense shadowing might have made for a more compelling image, perhaps. I tried to manipulate this in //Gimp//, but was not improving the picture, as far as I could tell. I suppose that a smaller aperture may have improved the shot in that it could have heightened the shadowing on the face while still capturing the brightest spots of the image.

One thing that affects the composition of this shot is the fact that her father’s hand is right next to her right ear. Instead of cleaning out the hand with software, I chose to crop the shot, and the final result pleases me. Something about the tilt of her head combined with the gentle left-ward sloping of the velour couch works. The shot conforms to the rule of thirds, too.

The photograph makes for a good portrait in that it rejects the old style of stiffly posed people in photography studios or people with forced smiles on their faces. My preference is for photos that show people’s many shades, whether it’s their forced smiles, their forced somber poses (which this one was), or whatever state they may find themselves in.

In terms of color, I also feel like I lucked out, in that the blue of her eyes relate to the blue in her necklace. Similarly, the purple of the couch relates to the purple of her necklace. I was unsure as to the effect of the black string across her neck, which is a cape, but I find that all of the beads, the cape string, and the slightly tousled hair hint at her childish way. However, the look on her face would suggest something deeper and more universal, and whatever it is, it contrasts pleasantly to the notion of child.

Focus presents some issues if you look closely. You can tell that the left side of her face is slightly more focused than the right. I took the picture with the flash off, and the shutter speed was pretty low, and I was lucky to get some shots without blur (as some of the other shots in this series had).

I think the depth of field is appropriate. I like that Willow is in decent focus, while the couch and wall are blurry.

I feel the tags are appropriate, in that they describe the primary features of the subject.