The expressive face in the finest pictures you have.

[Asher Kelman]

Challenge Initiated November 2008

We sometimes say that the great photographer can capture the essence of a person. That is a tough order. More often a finely executed photograph can show expression that is impressive and discloses much more than just the striking shape, shading and textures and even beauty.

Do you have photographs showing such a glimpse of the persons mind. Use the widest latitude but show your best pictures with feelings, emotions and genuine glimpses of character.



Asher

"Theme" threads are for visual impact not extensive C&C or discussion. Brief comments only! Best reply is with another picture!

 

[Rene F Granaada]

From my tattoo series

This a photo I shot at a friend's tattoo parlor in Amsterdam after people got tattooed.
I would appreciate all your critique and suggestions here only.

René-Frank

 

[Asher Kelman]

René-Frank,

Thanks for starting this off. Interesting fellow. To me, at least, his face shows a lot of kindness.

Asher

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Euphoria

This shot was taken by my late husband-he was a wonderful photograher
I was out in pasture full of buttercups
The horse was my favorite show horse- Alia Bint Saheb- Pure Arabian- she was yawning
I was in heaven- I think he captured my love and joy of both of them- The picture is faded with age but I think it suits for expression-

 

[Daniel Buck]

I don't have a huge selection to choose from since i have only recently started shooting portraits (my normal urge is to swing the camera away from people, haha!) But this one I feel really captures the person as they are:

 

[Asher Kelman]

Charlotte,

Your talented man selected well in horses and a wife! A picture beauty and joy.


Daniel,

That's a warm and confident fellow. Great expression and soft focus portrait lens. You must do more!

 

[Rachel Foster]

Risking it with this one...it's a photo from this time last year, but I'm experimenting with cropping. I think the very severe crop focuses attention more on the parts of Steven's face I find compelling...the eyes.


f/4.5, iso 200, .5 shutter speed, 31 mm. (I was shooting P mode in those days). Of course, it could be sharper, but .... this is my offering.

 

[Kathy Rappaport]

Cropped

Well, I love those close cropped photos. My Bat Mitzvah client however told me today how much she hates that...nice, Rachel.

 

[Jim Galli]

nicolas​

My friend Nick Walker sits on the running board of a 1927 La Salle.

Done with the Eastman 7X11 inch camera and the 18" Verito wide open.

 

[leonardobarreto.com]

He was standing, alone in a deserted beach at the most remote corner of the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. The Contras had attacked and raced the city of San Juan Del Norte including the small catholic church.

I have always liked this image because it represents the way I felt covering the conflict there for a local newspaper and seeing so much suffering and destruction.

So, the sitter was an expressive wooden figure...

 

[DLibrach]

I was fortunate enough to spend some time in Nicaragua last year. My wife was down there working on her PhD research and I managed to tag along for a few weeks to document the coffee harvesting.

This image was taken at one of the plantations near the end of the day. She is patiently waiting to see how much her cache of the day will earn her (workers fill up bags of fresh beans and are paid based off of volume). I tried my best to capture the moment. They are very proud people with an equally beautiful culture.

CC appreciated.

Cheers,
Dave

If anyone is interested in seeing more like this, just let me know and I'll post a link to the gallery (maybe in a new thread?).

 

[Asher Kelman]

I tried my best to capture the moment. They are very proud people with an equally beautiful culture.
If anyone is interested in seeing more like this, just let me know and I'll post a link to the gallery (maybe in a new thread?).

D,

What a poignant moment you have recorded with such sensitivity. This is an utterly factive* picture of significance for your work. It rises much above the ordinary good picture.

A window: This is so important as a window to a people's culture that has had to re-fashion itself as an appendage to an invading society's needs and values.

So I'd start a new thread for this important work here, a place devoted to understanding what's behind great pictures where they show a pathway back through history, the real story and implications of what we see.

Next for C&C that would be extensive, this should also be in the Portraits forum. In this this current thread in "Themes", isn't for extensive C&C. "Themes" presents distinguished photographs fast with brief comment only.

Your photograph, however, demands much more C&C to do it justice. So this picture should also be in Portaits in Natural Light .

Asher

* The terms Factive, Fictive (and yes, Faictive too), are explained here.

 

[Jim Galli]

I was fortunate enough to spend some time in Nicaragua last year. My wife was down there working on her PhD research and I managed to tag along for a few weeks to document the coffee harvesting.

This image was taken at one of the plantations near the end of the day. She is patiently waiting to see how much her cache of the day will earn her (workers fill up bags of fresh beans and are paid based off of volume). I tried my best to capture the moment. They are very proud people with an equally beautiful culture.

CC appreciated.

Cheers,
Dave

If anyone is interested in seeing more like this, just let me know and I'll post a link to the gallery (maybe in a new thread?).

Now this one DOES have Dorothea Lange written all over it. Different country, different time, nearly identical human drama.

 

[Asher Kelman]

He was standing, alone in a deserted beach at the most remote corner of the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. The Contras had attacked and raced the city of San Juan Del Norte including the small catholic church.

I have always liked this image because it represents the way I felt covering the conflict there for a local newspaper and seeing so much suffering and destruction.

So, the sitter was an expressive wooden figure...

Leonardo,

As with the previous post by DLibrach, your photograph is poignant and represents tragedy behind which there's so much more. In fact this fugure can be viewed in so many more profound ways.

So I'd urge you to again use this important picture to lead introduce your photographs of the conflicts in a new thread, here.

Asher

 

[John Angulat]

Here's a pair of expressive faces...

Shot from my lap. Quintessential NYC subway riders. Background map included at no charge.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Now this one DOES have Dorothea Lange written all over it. Different country, different time, nearly identical human drama.

Jim,

Amazing you should say that! I was just going to add that to my post. I discussed this with my wife and daughter in law and said that here we have a new Dorothea Lange epic photograph that can stand the test of time. They were moved and it went deep. I then thought, this is what Lange would have brought back to us! However, like finding the best lenses, you were faster!

Thanks for your insight!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Shot from my lap. Quintessential NYC subway riders. Background map included at no charge.

John,
Subway riders are a favorite subject of mine. One can see them in ways that don't appear in any other circumstance. It's as if they think they're invisible!

Asher

 

[DLibrach]

Jim,

Amazing you should say that! I was just going to add that to my post. I discussed this with my wife and daughter in law and said that here we have a new Dorothea Lange epic photograph that can stand the test of time. They were moved and it went deep. I then thought, this is what Lange would have brought back to us! However, like finding the best lenses, you were faster!

Thanks for your insight!

Asher

Wow! I am truly humbled by both yours and Jim's comments.

I'll post it up in the natural light portrait area for further discussions. (EDIT: The post can be found here.)


Cheers,
Dave

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Had to dig into an old hard drive to find this one...

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Ben,

A charming portrait of a guy who seems content with where he has put himself in life. That note book says a lot. He has no vanity about silly things like removing it!

Asher

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

It wasn't a portrait, I went to visit this guy on my way to the airport for a trip to Iceland. I was sitting there shmoozing to him when I realised that the light was perfect. I begged his pardon, ran out to the car and brought my 1Ds back in with me. As he sat there talking to my wife I took the photos. I dropped one off to him, he didn't like it, said it made him look like an old man. I didn't mind, this photo is exactly how I perceive him in real life.

 

[Antonio Correia]

This is one of my projects that will go for a long time - I hope - called "Square cropped portraits".
They are supposed to be Polaroid type in crop, but may be in black and white, color or split toned depending on the way I see them.
This time I thought the black and white would fit the way this woman was looking at me.
I added some LR work to blur her face and give this mood.
​

 

[Asher Kelman]

This is one of my projects that will go for a long time - I hope - called "Square cropped portraits".
They are supposed to be Polaroid type in crop, but may be in black and white, color or split toned depending on the way I see them.
This time I thought the black and white would fit the way this woman was looking at me.
I added some LR work to blur her face and give this mood.
​

Hi Antonio,

Who is this lady? The blur make her look as if through a mist. Certainly it creates some emotional distance from her as if there's a barrier or sphere one must pass to enter her word. I am interested that you used a wide blur and included the entire picture except perhaps here eyes not to the same extent.

That's so very different from the blur of the reduced focus of a long lens at a wide aperture. What lens did you use? The effect, anyway is interesting. Is there some photograph that gave you inspiration for this effect?

Asher

 

[Antonio Correia]

Let me then explain how I came to this image.
I had a couple to do some work for me on repairing the cover of some seats. They are retired but - in Portugal like in many countries more "developed" than this - the money they receive is small and they work to make some more Euros by the end of the month.
In this time of crisis - no only - everybody wants to earn money
I asked then if they let me shoot them while working.
They told me it was OK. As usual after the shooting, next day or so, I offer one or two photos which they are very happy with.
The first picture I show you is the woman making her job. She was seawing. If you look coselly you will see her husband back in red pullover, light above.
BTW: I don't like that light in this picture

​

The light was coming from my left but I was using a bounced flash somewhere in the room. But I am not going to tell you the story of this picture but to the other.
I asked her if she could move to the position where I was because there was some light coming from a door which you will be able to see here, in the next photo.

​

I tried to frame her in the door. I mean with the door all over her. See what I mean?
Remember that I was always using the flash for fill in, bounced against a low ceiling.
When I was back home I didn't like the picture. It had no sense, no feeling at all. But then, I begun to play with LR. Why not black and white ? Huuummm... let me try.
I came to the result below which wasn't - yet - a pleasant one. For me that is.

​

She was sad, kind of suspicious... Another work was necessary to save her. No, not her but the image.
Then I used the Adjustment Brush and apply some Clarity over all the areas but ... the eyes.
I have done other "works" but I can't remember which. One adjustment I do remember however is the adjustment of the green on the her back - the door - with the Adjust Luminance tool dragging on the area I wanted to change.
I do have changed it until it was satisfactory for me.
When doing this kind of work I can't care about the histogram. The density of dark in the photo and the blur/clarity gave to her face a mood we couldn't see at the picture I started from.
That's it LOL (like Janis Joplin at the end of the song)

Just a small detail: Canon 5D + Canon 24-70 + Canon 580 EX II + Canon ST-E2
I was going to forget: I was not inspired by any image.
I didn't offer her the picture I posted at first.

 

[Phil Marion]

This was taken in a small village (no electricity/running water) in the middle of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, India.

She was truly perplexed as to what I was doing. Probably wondering why anyone would find an average everyday occurance in her village of interest? After taking the photo she followed me around for a good 15 minutes - the whole time i was in her village. Unable to communicate with language we just smiled to each other. This time spent with a member of the opposite sex was very rare in conservative Rajasthan. Most women are not likely to be seen talking/spending time with men other than family friends/members.

 

[Antonio Correia]

 

[Gary Ayala]

 

[Asher Kelman]

Antonio,

This is beautiful! Looks like a studio shot. How on earth did you find him? Are you sure he's not one of yours? This is like some kid from "The Godfather"!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Are you quire sure this shouldn't be under "Street Performers". Seems like performance art which ever way you figure it!

Asher

P.S. Why are you pointing to the mouses tiny foot?

 

[Gary Ayala]

If you think this is a performance ... then I guess move it. To me it is more of a life style.