Wil's Portrait

[bluespade]

MY IMAGE(S):
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Critiques/upload_spool/01-13-2002/1099_will-color4sm.jpg


GENERAL INFORMATION:
Title: Wil's Portrait
Year Created: 2001
Medium: Photograph
Surface: Photo paper
Dimension: digital photo 1600x1200
Allow digital alterations?: Yes!

MY COMMENTS:
This is one of the first friends I photographed after renting some studio lights for a weekend last year. I had two lights and, in this shot, didn't want any face shadows.

MY QUESTIONS FOR THE GROUP:
Since this is a digital photo, I can manipulate it or draw on it. I want it to stay photo-appearing, but improve any flaws in it. If you were painting a (realism) portait like this, what kind of light relfections do you want on the eyes? I think I need to remove some and the "specular highlight" in his left eye near the nose. Are the eyes not visible enough overall?

I also feel that where his hair meets the top of his forhead the color is very "matted" looking. I didn't have a third light to use as a "hair light" which might have fixed this problem. Any ideas on what to "draw" in there to make that better?

Does that lack of shadows cause problems?

Other comments always welcome. Thanks.

[bluespade]

ok people, almost 60 people have looked, and nobody has advice? i thought my questions were pretty leading....

:confused: :confused: :confused:

[scottb]

Hi there, blue.

Yes, I see what you mean regarding the hair area. A third "hair" light, as you said, could have been positioned at an upward angle so that it would have illuminated just that area.

I took your image and tried to run it through Photoshop to sharpen edges and enhance the brightness. Unfortunately, I couldn't produce anything worthwhile. Perhaps the image is too small (resolution-wise) to pick up on individual areas in the hairline.

The eyes are definitely dark, again though, the image file itself is a bit on the small side, so its hard to tell what detail, if any, was lost during the scaling operation.

Working without shadows is a tough thing. You accomplished your goal of avoiding face shadows, but unfortunately, removing shadows all together tends to generate other problems as well. For example, the noseline tends to "disappear" into his left cheek, as there is no shadow to further define it.

I'll leave the rest to the photographers out there ... :)

Cheers.
Scott

[bruin70]

it would be better if you photographed it with one light source....{M}

[djstar]

Me, not you!
... and I am very confused about your goal.
WHY do you want no shadows?
Especially if you are going to do a digital?
If you are using it for photo reference for a painting, I am ALL with Milt. You are making more problems for yourself than solving them.

The shadows in a face give it the form. Stark flat light is exactly what you get from the flash on your camera. To light with two lights, I would have burned more INTO the eyes, if that is where your focus is. I don't see the clarity in there.
Highlights are the last minute or two of the drawing so black them out and pop them in when you are ready.

The hair edge is really not going to add or subtract from the picture in the finish.

Here is a digital 7 step posterization. http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/19-Jan-2002/poster.jpg
The shapes of the shadows are what give it character, and push the image as I tryed, it stayed relatively the same.
You may be wanting to render it with a digital paintbrush, which will be interesting, but what I see is a very descriptive but not terribly informative recreation of a face.
You are giving us NO hints about him.
So... what do you WANT to say, and we can work on that!
dj*