Ok. I really can't do portraits. I've never really gotten over a 6 on a portrait challenge unless it's a blurry mess portrait challenge. :)
I was going to do it on this one!!
I wanted something different -- something that would stand out.
I was looking through 1x, and feel in love with this one:
//1x.com/photo/56765/latest:portrait
(if the link doesn't work, it's called Thanatopractor.
As soon as I saw it, I didn't see the man in the suit -- I saw my daughter in a certain red flouncy dress, and a fascinator. Did you know what those hair things were called?? fascinators? I had no idea until about 6 months ago! Aren't they cool? I'd seen them many times, but didn't know they were fascinators until about 6 months ago.
Anyway, I immediately saw the red dress and the fascinator. I really have no idea why.
The title wasn't supposed to have been "first date". It was supposed to be untitled. It was supposed to leave you wondering 'what in the heck??'
But it was late, it was due, and I didn't have a title.
"What should I title it??" I asked my daughter, as I proceeded to come up with something really, really lame. She said she didn't know, and then said "first date" as a joke.
It was kinda funny.
We laughed.
I was tired.
I didn't want to think of a title, so it went it.
This was shot in the physics building at the College of William and Mary. We had to put my husband on two lab tables back to back, because one wasn't long enough. We shot in a doorway, because I thought the frame of the doorway would be cool in the shot. It was too far away, and not interesting enough, so we wrapped ourselves in tight spots, and had the lights in weird ways for no reason.
But I'm so proud that I actually got decent lighting on a portrait, and I actually got a portrait over 6!!!
(I'll ignore the fact that it was at 5.85 in the morning, and I was whining and crying about it to everyone I knew. (I really, really tried hard on this one, so I was kind in the early morning "I'm so crushed" zone.))
Thanks for the wonderful comments!!
Thanks to my wonderful daughter!
Thanks to my wonderful husband's feet! (which we rubbed with charcol to make them more dead and grungy.
Thanks to my wonderful son who held the hairlight even after the light stand broke and made it very difficult to work with.
It really was a lot more fun than your average portrait. :)
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This was yours!!! Wendy, you never cease to surprise me with what you accomplish when you venture outside your comfort zone. Very well done in color, clarity, and warped humor. Only little critique is that the hair light is a little too prominent.
I think you ought to be doing really well with this one but my ability to predict anything seems to be off these days. I think you will hit well with many types of audiences (just quirky enough to get the people who don't like plain old studio shots and not so quirky as to turn of the rest) I think the lighting the pose and the look are pretty well spot on. The only thing that slightly bothers me and I don't even know if it bothers me that much or if I am just nit picking is the light spot on her hair, I can't decide if it adds or detracts from the overall feel of the image.
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