Portraits of Children Series by Charlotte Thompson

[Charlotte Thompson]

Kathy
thank you! I love love sepia I like working with it better than b and w as I am learning the art of tone especially in b and w

Rachel
Thank you! he is O so sueezeable-

Oli

Thank you so very much!

 

[Cedric MASSOULIER]

Hi,

I really love the first one, boy shows a fantastic energy ! Great.

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Cedric
appreciate your insights into my thread and yes this boy has a lot of energy**

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Spaghetti Boy

comments and crits are very welcome-

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hi Charlotte,

These are all very precious portraits and the boy's family (including you I presume) will have been delighted to see them. The fact that the camera likes him and his beautiful eyes help a lot of course.

Now I assume the sepia is intentional, so please tell us a bit more about the concept.

I personally like the 4th one the most, but I'd crop from the right just so in order to get rid of the triangle at the lower right corner.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Cem

first of all thank you so much for looking at this series and your interest-
my grandson- and yes while I practice portraits these 2 babies I shoot with are my little helpers- they are extremely beautiful children and easy to shoot- so I have good practice-I love portraits but I do try other photography as well-
I am in love and am having a love affair at this moment with sepia- but the color shots of this series were and are very nice in color too-
he was eating after a hard day of skateboarding I just happened to be there and the rag tied around his neck and no shirt and the way he was gulping down the food looked just like a hungry 8 year old boy- I stuck the lime in his mouth for fun*
I dont think I could crop out the 4th end to the right lest I get something strange cropped-dunno-
well if your're not bored by now I'll pin a nice medal on you-
thank you for your interest-

Charlotte-

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Portrait "after the baby bath"

learning the art of black and white and of course "that good shot" all crits as always welcomed-

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Parker-Caught

come on in and say what u need to say- I appreciate you*

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Charlotte,

Yes Parker's caught. Did you aggressively open up the shadows with the highlight shadow tool? There seems to be some chroma noise to be attended to in the recovered areas. I wonder if you have considered adding a curve to pull out some shading. This appears now to be too flat.

We need to use light here and I don't see it. So what were the settings? A simple white card might have reflected more light for you.

Asher

Asher

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Asher

the shot was caught late night under a small lamp dark light I use a d40105vrmacro lens with speedlight sb800
it was a quick catch-on my screen the color looks lighter I think different screens have different toneality-dunno
glad you came by appreciate that! I hope you are doing much better-my thoughts are with you*

Charlotte-

I'll do a black and white for you-

 

[Asher Kelman]

I'll do a black and white for you-

That's what I mean! I like the range of B&W tones to be used for the dynamics of the picture!

Asher

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Asher-

yes- I am learning the art of bandw- I knew you would like this better
thanks my friend!

Charlotte-

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Asher

BTW your version in band w is of course better than mine
you seem to bring more light in such a touch-that I haven't found yet!
but
trust me
I will!
appreciate you for always
and
thank you for being around my art-

Charlotte-

 

[Asher Kelman]

Getting passion and intent into the Black and White Photograph

Asher

BTW your version in band w is of course better than mine
you seem to bring more light in such a touch-that I haven't found yet!

Hi Charlotte,

It's our job to show light distributed over form such that meaning as we intend is conveyed in full. The impact on the viewer must be magnetic and exciting. This means we, ourselves need to have passion to express and engrave in our images and our imaginations must be challenged to go beyond normal casual expectations. This applies to BYW photography as much as to any art form.

It's unlikely that the way light reflects off your subject and transitions from bright to dark or even how different materials behave in the same light, will meet the demands of your full rich imagination when it's challenged. So we need to reach to a wide set of tools to make each part and subunit of the image serve our intent not the happenstance of the actual moment of releasing the shutter. If one controls everything beforehand, then, having such mastery, not further work might be needed. However, it's unlikely that even in expert hands, there will be no need to alter the tonalities as captured and processed by our standard procedures.

1. Converting an image to B&W can involve one or more of the following approoaches
   
   
2. Discard the color information, that is simple change the mode to grayscale. All the information on hues will be lost.
   
   
3. Assign color to different hues so that similarly bright colored features will not be blended in a B&W version and also one can change the brightness of an object by remapping colors to lighter or darker tones. This can help mask, differentiate or emphasize features and even change the mood and meaning.
   
   
4. Work globally on the entire image or on selected portions.

So experiment with different global and local approaches. Would any of these changes bring out feelings you wish to evoke. Is part of an effect needed? If you have all the changes on separate layers, then each separate feature or idea can be parsimoniously added to the picture by altering the percent opacity of that layer.

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Asher

yes with all of this study you have sent I totally agree- I do understand you must be present with your art-alot may be study then choice then voice-

charlotte-

 

[Kasandra Rossiter]

I am new here, and really a novice with photography, but i have been looking around the forum at your posts and i truely LOVE your work. this little girl is so adorable, these shots make you want to pick her up and hug her to death!

i really love how you can see the ceiling fan reflection in her eyes in the second shot. you are really blessed to have someone so photogenic to work with... i hope to see more of her!!

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Baby Cakes

two shots but facial expression seconds in the change- working on Black and White-

 

[Rod Witten]

Actually IMO, the last BW version looks too harsh. In the original color photo, the subject's eyes and expression convey a harmony of thought. While the last BW looks very good, I no longer sense the eyes and expression are synchronized in a common thought.

 

[doug anderson]

Charlotte: I like the first one better. Lovely. I think there's a little too much white on the shirt, and it seem to reflect back through the lower half of the photograph. I'd tone down the highlight a bit.

I like the second one, too, but now as much.



D

 

[Kathy Rappaport]

Eyes

I agree with Doug. I think that you need to clean up the whites of her eyes - was she crying before you shot the photos? Lots of red.

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Doug and Kathy
first thank you both for the input- Kathy I did wonder about the eyes too-she was tired no nap time that afternoon-
Doug- I redid the posts and tried to clean the eyes up-

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Rod

thank you for you insight into this study- I do as well like the original because of expression and eye color
I am also learning the aspects of black and white when it comes into play with a certain shot-
a certain expression-

Charlotte-

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Kasandra
welcome here
and thank you so very much! I am learning as well and I have a passion for expression
compostion-
she is a darling I know I am her grandmother and I squeeze and hug her alot- I am lucky to have her to study with-she is an excelllent beauty full of expression
thank you again*

Charlotte-

 

[oli murugavel]

I love those eyes very much....! Awesome

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Oli-

thank you! yes she does have those kind of eyes you dream about photograhing-I am very lucky to be around her so very much-

Charlotte-

 

[doug anderson]

Beautiful shots, particular the first. Intense. The photograph reveals something about child as person, rather than simply child as child.

D

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Peyton Portrait

a portrait in color this time- she is thinking about Halloween- does the color work would it be better in black and white- taken in low evening light-

 

[Asher Kelman]

Straddling Innocence and Adult Attitude in Child Photography

Charlotte,

First this has a positive interesting impact immediately! One of your best! By cropping so tightly, (even cropping off the top of her head), you have made this much more personal and she really is so close to us, almost an adult distance of intimacy. She straddles between precious vulnerable innocence with sweetness and then some essence of a personal will. So this is provocative and seems to me that you use her in an way that Loretta Lux used her child subjects by distortions but employing, in her case, (I guess, for I don't know), a much wider lens.

Could you also show this uncropped?

Thanks,

Asher

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Asher

I am a soul taker" and you see that- the picture/shot took little or no crop
here is the original- and yes yes she has an adult persona as well as a child I am so glad you see it too- I see the woman and child the same- I am not familiar with Loretta Lux but to be sure I will look her up- I am learning the art of cropping from a dear talented artist- it is amazing how it brings out what needs to be seen-what you feel should be seen in the art- well here is the uncrop-

 

[Jim Galli]

Charlotte, the colors in this are wonderful. The pastel background works together with the colors in the print top and her perfect baby complexion. My only complaint, and it's very minor, is that modern digital cameras are tweaked to make anything red, redder. Even in "portrait mode" this is true. I very slightly turned down the pinks here to see if I liked it any better. The key to good photo shop work is for your looker to never question that you went there at all.