Grab Portraits Challenge: Fast Grab- Portaits: No lights, no reflectors.

[James Lemon]

Thank you James !

I think your portraits are better !

I could say the same about yours Antonio! I do however think that others appreciate our pictures in ways that we ourselves cannot.

Best, regards
James

 

[Antonio Correia]

 

[Asher Kelman]

Antonio,

This is way more interesting than a great portrait. It has 3 people. One looks on, one is oblivious and the matriarch on the right has knowledge, wisdom, pride and regrets written in her face.

Simply wonderful and can be of any community of folk, anywhere on the planet!

Asher

 

[Antonio Correia]

Hi there !...
I am definitely moving to color !

 

[Asher Kelman]

Antonio, what happened to the picture in post # 362

 

[Antonio Correia]

Asher, I don't know. Sometimes I make irreversible mistakes !

 

[Doug Kerr]

This shot does not quite qualify, as there was fill flash used.

Our amateur theater company has, for the third year in a row, presented a Murder Mystery Weekend at The Lodge Resort in Cloudcroft, N.M. Cloudcroft is a lovely small town at an elevation of about 9000 ft MSL, about a 20 minute drive from our house (yes, "straight up" - we are only at 4575 ft MSL). The Lodge itself is a fabulous Victorian style hotel, with a nice associated golf course and such.

Guests for the Murder Mystery Event (they come from all over the country) pay quite a handsome sum for two nights' lodging at the hotel, sumptuous meals that are integrated into the event, and of course participation in the event itself.

The event takes place in the evenings of Friday and Saturday, during which the story plays out, with one or several people murdered, and always with a detective of some sort trying to solve the crimes. There is no script. While there is an overall plan (including who dies and at whose hands), all the playing is improvisational. And even the players (except for the murderers) do not know who the murderers are. Often, even the victims do not know in advance.

Especially at the banquets that are integrated into the event, the guests interact with the players (who remain in character), asking questions in hope that they can themselves solve the mystery. After the story is finished, the guests are invited to turn in an analysis sheet in which they opine as to who the murderer(s) is/are, what the motive is, and so forth.

Then, Saturday morning, at a wonderful breakfast, is the denouement. The identity of the murderer(s) is revealed, along with the motive(s) and other secrets. Then prizes are awarded to the guests who had the best (and in fact, worst) analysis.

This session's theme is a takeoff on the famous novel and film(s), "Murder on the Orient Express". In in fact, during the period in which the "play" is set (the 1920s), there was in fact luxury passenger train service to Cloudcroft - a summer favorite (as today) of people from Texas and so forth seeking to avoid the oppressive heat "back home".

It is a fabulous event, and as you can imagine, is totally exhausting for the players. Elaborate preparations are required. Carla, who in this production plays a elderly and elegant Swedish lady, bought two lovely dresses to wear for her role on the two nights, got a special manicure, and so forth. And she provided many wardrobe items from her still-extensive collection for several of the other players.

In any event it is our practice when Carla is about to depart for one of her adventures (perhaps a meeting of her chapter of The Red Hat Society, or an important meeting of the board of a charity), to take a "grab" portrait. We have no real studio here in "our little desert house", but we have a pull-down background (yes, a window shade from Lowe's) in my office.

We shoot by the ambient light, a combination of a potent CFL (5000 K color temperature) in the ceiling and outdoor light from the window. And often I use fill flash (especially since in these shots Carla is often wearing one of her signature hats, usually with a serious brim, so there is a face shadowing problem). I just use the pop-up flash on the trusty Panasonic FZ1000 I use these days for this kind of work.

That all having been said, here she is, about to leave for The Lodge at Cloudcroft for the Friday session of the murder mystery. This is not one of her performance costumes, just the way she dresses to go to the "theater".

Douglas A. Kerr: Carla, about to go to the "theater" for a performance​

Carla asks your indulgence in that her smile is not as perky as usual. She had been rather ill for three days (but, "the show must go on"), and was very apprehensive about her drive "up the mountain" as it was raining very hard here in Alamogordo and there was serious snow reported in Cloudcroft. In fact, she reported that her trip home (at about 10:00 pm) was a bit of an adventure. ("But once I got below about 7500 feet, it wasn't really bad.") For a Cherokee.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Antonio Correia]

What a magnificent portrait Doug !
Was it shot in a studio ?
With a M43, perhaps ?...

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Antonio,

What a magnificent portrait Doug !

Thank you so much. The credit all belongs to the subject!

Was it shot in a studio ?

It was shot in my small office, against a pull-down background (actually, a large white vinyl window shade) in front of the closet doors!

With a M43, perhaps ?...

It was shot with a Panasonic FZ1000, a very nice "superzoom" camera (non-interchangeable lens) with a so-called "one inch" size sensor (that is dimensioned under the same convention as for the four-thirds system, so its linear dimensions are 3/4 those of a four-thirds camera.)

The fill flash used was from the built-in flash on that camera.

By the way, there was almost no post-processing on the shot, other for a little bit of cropping and slight "exposure correction" and "fill light", and of course downsizing for presentation on the forum. All that was done in Silkypix Developer Studio, the "full" version of what is provided, in a "lite" version, with that camera.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Antonio Correia]

Hi, Antonio,



Thank you so much. The credit all belongs to the subject!



It was shot in my small office, against a pull-down background (actually, a large white vinyl window shade) in front of the closet doors!



It was shot with a Panasonic FZ1000, a very nice "superzoom" camera (non-interchangeable lens) with a so-called "one inch" size sensor (that is dimensioned under the same convention as for the four-thirds system, so its linear dimensions are 3/4 those of a four-thirds camera.)

The fill flash used was from the built-in flash on that camera.

By the way, there was almost no post-processing on the shot, other for a little bit of cropping and slight "exposure correction" and "fill light", and of course downsizing for presentation on the forum. All that was done in Silkypix Developer Studio, the "full" version of what is provided, in a "lite" version, with that camera.

Best regards,

Doug

Excellent camera choice. Very portable 20Mb camera; easy to hold and 5 stabilisation axis !
I am shooting now with an Olympus OM-D EM5 mark II and I am liking it. However, the grip is not very good.
Cheers !

 

[Doug Kerr]

I another thread, you saw a picture of my favorite actress from our amateur theater company (after Carla), Keddy, as the Princess Advilromanoff in our production of a murder mystery at a nearby resort hotel.

Here we see Keddy, by ambient light, at a makeup table at the Rohovec Theater at New Mexico State University-Alamogordo during a 2015 production:

Douglas A. Kerr: Keddy at the makeup table​

The production was of Eve Ensler's "A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer", a follow-on to her seminal "The Vagina Monologues". In the same style as for the earlier show, this consists of the reading, by a dozen or so players, of true monologues relating to sexual abuse, domestic violence, and family dysfunction written by actual people (most of them "writers").

Keddy's monologue was that of a girl who has been "introduced" to bondage by her partner and her subsequent descent into darkness. Keddy's reading was dramatic and heart-breaking.

The director, incidentally, insisted that we not read our monologues from memory, but read them from paper, in order to emphasize that we were reading the words of others.

The setting for the show was a coffee house, where the various players came in and sat at tables. Then, one after another, they would rise and come downstage to the apron and read their monologue.

Here we see Carla and myself at our table during dress rehearsal, shot by a colleague, by the existing stage lighting:

Carla and Doug at the coffee house​

I note that at this rehearsal I had neglected to remove my Bluetooth earpiece!

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Antonio Correia]

...I note that at this rehearsal I had neglected to remove my Bluetooth earpiece!... Doug

The portrait is very well done ! The photographer is great indeed and so is the camera.
I noticed at once your earpiece LOL LOL
Regards !

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Antonio,

The portrait is very well done ! The photographer is great indeed and so is the camera.

Thanks for all that.

Both these shots were taken with Carla's Canon Powershot G16, a very admirable and very compact camera (with a fairly wee sensor). Since I was in the show, I didn't expect to have much opportunity to shoot, so I did not bring along my "big gun", the Panasonic FZ1000.

The shot of Keddy at the makeup table was at ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/312 sec. And in the image I posted, I had flipped the image left-to-right for some reason I can no longer remember!

I noticed at once your earpiece

Very alert!

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Asher Kelman]

Superb subjects and portraits, Doug,

..... and it shows that it's the light and the photographer not the fancy camera that counts here!

Take more pics of her tattoos! Made in " Terlecki Blue"!

Asher

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Asher,

Superb subjects and portraits, Doug,

Thanks so much.

..... and it shows that it's the light and the photographer not the fancy camera that counts here!

Take more pics of her tattoos! Made in " Terlecki Blue"!

Here is a shot from a rehearsal of a production in late summer of 2016:

Douglas A. Kerr: Keddy rehearsing for "My Civic Duty" 1​

And another in that same context, contralateral:

Douglas A. Kerr: Keddy rehearsing for "My Civic Duty" 2​

Perhaps I can have her come by the studio for a sitting.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Doug Kerr]

Following my recent motif, here is another portrait done by the ambient light of the makeup room at the Rohovec Theater at NMSU-A.

Douglas A. Kerr: Kristina at the makeup mirror​

This was Kristina's first outing "on the boards", and she proved to be a natural. She is preparing here for her role in "102 Stories", one of the five very short plays, all written my members of the Theater Guild, presented as an anthology by our theater company in late summer of 2015.

"102 stories" was in fact written by Carla. It tells the story of a troubled trip by a group of "interesting" tourists in a series of three elevators down from the 102nd floor observation deck of the Empire State Building in New York, N.Y. (Yes, we have drawings here of all the elevators.)

In fact, in this shot, we see Kristina in her role as the operator of one of the elevators. It has just come to an unexpected abrupt stop owing to malfunction of the traction equipment. She tries to keep her balance.

Douglas A. Kerr: An unexpected stop​

Many fascinating stories play out during the trip.

Now more to the portrait theme of this thread, here is Rachel, as one of the passengers on the elevator, having regained her classic composure after its unexpected stop:

Douglas A. Kerr: Rachel as a passenger on the elevator​

This was a brilliant play (disclosure: I am sleeping with the playwright), brilliantly played by a skilled and clever cast. It was a big hit with the audiences.

These photos were all shot with my trusty Panasonic FZ1000 shortly after I acquired it (it did not yet have 1000 shots on the odometer).

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Antonio Correia]

Available light. Behind me a plastic where the Sun was spotting. Behind her, another plastic. On the left side open area. On the right, a neutral wall.
Work done in LR and CC Leica lens (42.5) on Oly body (5 Mark II)

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Antonio,

Available light. Behind me a plastic where the Sun was spotting. Behind her, another plastic. On the left side open area. On the right, a neutral wall.
Work done in LR and CC Leica lens (42.5) on Oly body (5 Mark II)

What a charming portrait! The lighting "setup" worked superbly.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Antonio Correia]

Thank you Doug. This "setup" - which has been there all the time - is the same as the other lady before and this one. They changed places. I hope to be able to post more - another lady - in the same place.
This lady here is 86 years old.

 

[Antonio Correia]

Olympus 5 Mk II + Nocticron 42.5mm

Natural light. Oly 5 Mk II + Nocticron 42.5mm
@ 42,5mm 1/100 f/1.6 ISO 200

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi, Asher,



Thanks so much.



Here is a shot from a rehearsal of a production in late summer of 2016:

Douglas A. Kerr: Keddy rehearsing for "My Civic Duty" 1​

And another in that same context, contralateral:

Douglas A. Kerr: Keddy rehearsing for "My Civic Duty" 2​

Perhaps I can have her come by the studio for a sitting.

Best regards,

Doug

Your documentation really works for me as it’s informal and you obviously don’t interfere with the folk in taking the pictures and I like Keddy very much! She seems really personable!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Thank you Doug. This "setup" - which has been there all the time - is the same as the other lady before and this one. They changed places. I hope to be able to post more - another lady - in the same place.
This lady here is 86 years old.

This is Antonio Correia “classic”. It could be in B&W, but it still shows your fingerprints as you set these well balanced poses and excellent lighting.

Asher

 

[Antonio Correia]

Antonio Correia is making a change to color.

I am going to make a polemic statement:

Black and white photography is easier than coloured one.
Most of the time when people are portrayed.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Antonio Correia is making a change to color.

I am going to make a polemic statement:

Black and white photography is easier than coloured one.
Most of the time when people are portrayed.

Color becomes very hard when man made colors come into play. Natural colors are the result of selections which either are attractive or camouflage to fit in to landscape.

Our fabricated umbrellas, shoes and scarfs can be much harder to fit in some harmony with each
Other.

Some of our colors seduce, others scream! monochrome removes all that emotional wildc distraction!

So it “seems” easier. But actually then we reveal the underlying architecture of the composition and many pictures without the screaming flamboyant colors simply are flat and dead.

B&W does indeed rescue many a poor color picture, by removing competing garish colors, but it cannot make , for example, your distinctive B&W portraits, as they succeed because of the “craft” in you finding particular subjects who are interesting, engaging and then getting poses from the right angle with the appealing lighting that works!

 

[Antonio Correia]

Always nice words to my simple portraits...
Thank you Asher !

 

[Antonio Correia]

 

[James Lemon]

From the three presented I like the bokeh and the colors in the first a nice portrait indeed !

 

[Antonio Correia]

Thank you for your comment James.
In the future I have to be aware of the distance from the subject to the background so I can get a nice bokeh.
All shot with Panny GX7 + Oly 12-40 f/2.8
The first one @36 (72mm) f/2.8 1/400 ISO 200 | 0EV

 

[Antonio Correia]

 

[Asher Kelman]

Antonio,

Any idea of what the ethnic/genetic origins of these interesting and good looking men? What conquistadors have looked like them?

Asher