Notes:
An attempt to balance the visual language of strength/leadership/heroism and femininity. Most female soldier portraits ignore femininity/attractiveness or else ignore any effort at conveying strength/leadership/heroism.
Shot at nearly 200mm to enable me to shoot *slightly* upward (leader, heroic) while avoiding being unflattering. Head/shoulders on classic feminine axis, but not in an overly pronounced manner. Subject leaning in slightly to elongate neck and also to convey leadership/dynamism. Smile is genuine but not the largest of which the subject is capable. Short lit loop/butterfly (not much of a nose shadow) but fairly low ratio with lots of white reflector, plus a high output silver reflector for rim light.
p.1 #6 · An Officer and a Lady (2nd version added)
Lighting done very nicely. Two things I would suggest. Her head is turned just a little too far toward her left shoulder for my taste. And her back shoulder could be turned just a little more toward the camera. Just a suggestion.
p.1 #7 · An Officer and a Lady (2nd version added)
Nice portrait. Sharp and great lighting. You did all the hard stuff well. I think you need to do some little things and this shot would look better. I agree with the comment about it being cropped too tightly. I think she is also turned too much to the side. I think if you had her positioned like in the shot of the male soldier you posted a few days ago she would look nicer. Her chest and femininity is sort of lost here. By the way you nailed it in that picture of the male soldier earlier. It reminded me of those old WWII soldier pictures.
p.1 #9 · An Officer and a Lady (2nd version added)
sibirdie wrote:
Nice portrait. Sharp and great lighting. You did all the hard stuff well. I think you need to do some little things and this shot would look better. I agree with the comment about it being cropped too tightly. I think she is also turned too much to the side. I think if you had her positioned like in the shot of the male soldier you posted a few days ago she would look nicer. Her chest and femininity is sort of lost here. By the way you nailed it in that picture of the male soldier earlier. It reminded me of those old WWII soldier pictures. ...Show more →
I disagree. I think a broader alignment would bode masculinity. The offset shoulder is a nice touch that makes this photo different, but for the right reasons.
Now what I cant wait for is when Evan starts doing wetplate. C'mon E, you have to!
p.1 #12 · An Officer and a Lady (2nd version added)
Thank you all for commenting.
I usually make it a policy never to disagree with any specific critiques, but I think in this case I thought it might be helpful to explain my reasoning regarding some of the issues mentioned. I take pains to say that this is not that the critiques offered are incorrect, and I appreciate gaining the perspective of everyone who offers their thoughts.. My purpose here is not to refute the critiques, which may be perfectly valid. My intent is to facilitate further discussion on the choices involved in crafting a portrait.
I actually shot some versions of the image that correspond to the critique offered and subsequently rejected them. The reason why I made the choices I did with regard to the extent of the crop and the body turn is that I felt it important to shoot slightly upward at the subject to reinforce her (slightly) in the hero/leader visual position (quite literally someone to look up to). This creates visual problems shooting a woman, as shooting upward is seldom a flattering angle for a lady, typically enlarging her body. This issue is compounded by the very "shouldery" nature of our Army jackets, which tends to make even the ladies look like linebackers. Therefore, I had to take three somewhat unorthodox steps to compensate for my decision to shoot up: shoot a longer-than-average focal length of almost 200mm, turn the subject a decent amount to narrow her in the frame, and even cropping in on the left shoulder (leaving a 4x6 crop) to narrow her visually. As noted in the original post, her head is then brought back across her body's directional turn keeping her in the more classic feminine axis: she would look more masculine if her head and body were in the same general direction.
Point being that there is very little precedent in traditional portraiture for combining femininity and strength/leadership/authority/heroism. Most of the traditional techniques force a photographer to choose, and combining aspects of each approach creates a unique set of challenges that requires some slightly unorthodox decisions. Using a looser crop and less body turn, in particular, was (in my view) incompatible with an upward camera angle.
p.1 #14 · An Officer and a Lady (2nd version added)
jeremy_clay wrote:
Evan getting crit on here is like Ramsey asking for my critique of his souffle.
Couldn't let this one slip by.....The minute we think we are above critiques from anyone is the minute we need to swallow our pride and get off our high horse.
Professional baseball player Mark McGwire credits a fan in the stands for helping him regain his swing and start hitting home runs at a record pace. Then again am I going to approach Mozart and tell him the Magic flute would sound better in D flat? Probably not......but you get my point.
BTW.....I have to agree a tad less shoulder turn works for me as well. Nice image as is though.
p.1 #16 · An Officer and a Lady (2nd version added)
Michaelparris wrote:
Professional baseball player Mark McGwire credits a fan in the stands for helping him regain his swing and start hitting home runs at a record pace. Then again am I going to approach Mozart and tell him the Magic flute would sound better in D flat? Probably not......but you get my point.
.
If you think it was a fan and not the 500mg bi-weekly injection of testosterone enanthate stacked with dianabol, that's your choice.
It's not about being above critique, but at times even knowing what you are offering as crit, and if it makes sense.
p.1 #17 · An Officer and a Lady (2nd version added)
I loved the very first such portraits you did when i saw them some weeks ago. I remember the different opinions about the DOF which were all very valid and all came down to a matter of taste i suppose. I see that you chose to somewhat tone down quite a bit the amount of Bokeh. I for one am a very big fan of very pronounced Bokeh effect in portraits as long as a fair level of control is present. I see less Bokeh here but the same level of control so it still works very well for me, but had you chosen to work with a little more Bokeh it would have been an equally successful portrait in my view Evan. Especially since you opted to put the name tag shoulder side away from the camera so trying to read the name isn't an issue anymore, out of focus or not.
Like the other portraits you've done in this style i love the light and all the control you demonstrate over it (masterfully done). I prefer the latest version simply because showing a bit more of the left shoulder (right side of the shot) makes the body width a little bigger thus making the head look more proportionate in my opinion. Cropping too much of the shoulder made the head look bigger/disproportionate.
I'd be happy to have half of your control over such techniques. Very well done in my book :-)
p.1 #18 · An Officer and a Lady (2nd version added)
jeremy_clay wrote:
If you think it was a fan and not the 500mg bi-weekly injection of testosterone enanthate stacked with dianabol, that's your choice.
It's not about being above critique, but at times even knowing what you are offering as crit, and if it makes sense.
