I intended a portrait of Mikala. I don't see any distortion, foreshortening or "off proportions" in anything and I should know having photographed her numerous times over the past 12 years or so. How anyone can look at a photograph of the face of a total stranger and proclaim any of the above in beyond me.
Benji
Benj,
I agree that she will be perfectly delighted and so will 99.99% of her friends. This is a look a lot of women demand. You are right that lens makers for portraitists gave us sharp lenses by the turn of the 19th century. Look at pictures from 1910 and you will see how brilliantly detailed they are. However, by 1920 things changed. The development of a number of distinguished soft portrait lenses, with devices to soften the result, gave rise to a wonderful esthetic with the visual quality lenses of Pinkham & Smith by optical formula and others with even spinning devices so by the1930's Hollywood stars were seen as as if angels painted their skin!
Unfortunately, the sharpness of the camera improved as DOF increased with the MF and even worse, (sharper) with 35mm photography. Special portrait lenses like the 135mm Canon soft portrait lens are really valuable here. I use the 50 1.2 and a lot of folk love the 85 1.2 for this.
What Ken is referring to is a solid body of work by famous established collected photographers, who have introduced subtle signals, by altering relationships, so tension is caused. Often we don't know why! In this case, in Mikel's portrait, the softness bilaterally in the shoulders, (below the mostly-hidden foreshortened neck, as she holds her head forward in her hands), allows someone used to work of the type Lux
et al has made famous, to look at the picture and then imagine the head disconnected from the body! Once Ken mentioned it, I was stuck there. The pose, holding the head from each side and the
asymmetrical dress between her wrists supports such an illusion. However, this is a rather elitists point of view. Unfortunately, I have to admit to having the same experience as Ken describes once he gave me the hint. I happen to know her work well and so was immediately trapped.
This reminds me of a very enthralling story which led to a punchline in ancient greek and had 2 of a group of 12 university students in stitches from laughter. The rest of us hadn't a clue what was so funny. The two that laughed were bible scholars from Oxford!
So don't worry about the face. Still, I'd love to see the original. I'm rather jealous of the artifacts you produced and the beauty of the lady!
I'm wondering whether one should return to using soft portrait filters to save having to add the photoshopping.
Asher