An old friend of mine - taught me a great deal about photography - gentle, wise and kind ... but clings tenaciously to his one vice - but then none of us are perfect are we and it is his right to choose !
Reprocessed from Canon 5D (classic) images with Minolta 24-70 2.8
C&C always welcome - on my photography not his habit !!
A couple of C&C's. To me, the 1st photo is the strongest because the face is not hidden by smoke. He's a great subject to photograph. Nice job!
In the second and third photos, the smoke obscures the face and isn't the face what you were trying to capture? I would have been tempted to move around to the front so the smoke is not directly between the camera and the subject. I would also be tempted to go color in #2 and #3 to see if color differentiated the face better from the smoke. In B&W the face and beard just blend too much with smoke. The POV you used is different, but to me it doesn't add to the last two photos.
Finally, you need to be careful using a wide angle for headshots due to the risk of distortion.
Thanks for your comments - appreciated.
Rejoining not to disagree but as conversation.
It was the smoke that I wanted as it is so characteristic of the man - we all pull his leg about it doing him harm although he does have a point that at 84 he is not doing so badly !
Colour only emphasized the poor background - which I couldn't avoid as they were just quick grab shots across a table surprising him.
I agree about wide angle distortion - but these were taken at 50 for the first and 65 for the second and third. However I should have concentrated on the aperture ring not the zoom ring and that might have made the background smoother.
All in all I like the character shown in them.
Thanks again for your comments - that is why I post to get the views of other photographers.
my only nit is that they seem too light. with just a few extra clicks and not a lot of time, I came up with this version of #2, which I think, tells a better story than the other two.
It is all a matter of taste - like most of 'art' - isn't it ? I had tried it darker but personally felt that the skin began to look too much like that of a coalminer. As always 'tis in the eye of the beholder but thanks for looking and commenting - a differing view is always more welcome than none at all !
