Christine, I asked for brutal comments on this pic, but I'm afraid I will have to return some brutality in my response this time.
You ask if there's not more to this teenager than his pimples. I take that as a rhetoric way of saying that the presence of his pimples keeps you from seeing him as anything else than pimply. I'm sorry, but to me this just comes across as shallow. Absence of pimples in a teenager's face has nothing to do with dignity either in my book, I'm afraid. I would say to the contrary that dignity very much goes hand in hand with honesty as to their presence. And in that way, I think I do go about photographing people the way I photograph landscapes. I have no objection to removing things in PS such as intruding branches or straws, but I would seriously hesitate to beautify a landscape by removing integral elements. In the case of this teenager, I'm pretty sure he would think me screwed if I presented him a portrait with his skin smoothened out to look like a baby's butt. In the same way as I wouldn't try to straighten fluffy or stray feathers in a bird portrait either. Hope you do not take offence by this opinion, despite its rough presentation. But it's veering away from the photo presented. Thanks for sharing your sentiment on the photo. I do appreciate that, Christine. It certainly got me thinking. best, Jostein 2009/4/9 Christine Aguila <[email protected]>: > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "AlunFoto" <[email protected]> > > > 2009/4/9 Christine Aguila <[email protected]>: >> >> Hi Jostein: I agree with Bong about the too tight focus. Also, I don't >> know if it's shadows or what, but it looks like there's a rash around your >> subjects mouth, which, well, doesn't seem to flatter him that well. HTH. >> Cheers, Christine > > You're entirely right about the rashy looking part. It's called > pimples, and is known to happen to young people who don't get their > portraits photoshopped. :-) > > But honestly, why does it have to flatter him? > > Well, I suppose, technically speaking, you don't have to take a photograph > of this young teenager that is flattering, if that's what you want to do. > The picture doesn't take itself. You're the photographer--you can decide > how you want to portray him. > > But, Jostein, consider this: You are an accomplished landscape > photographer, who has probably won awards and accolades for your "portraits" > of mother nature and all her creatures. You spend a lot of time considering > the best angle and the best light to capture the spirit of the of the place > or creatures you're photographing. Why wouldn't you want to grant the same > attention, respect, and dignity to a young teenager? I'm sure there's more > to this young man than all his pimples. Cheers, Christine > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- http://www.alunfoto.no/galleri/ http://alunfoto.blogspot.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
