Portrait without a face

[peteloud]

Hi Guys,

I was surprised how many people viewed the portraits which I submitted yesterday, "Portrait with a difference", so I thought I'd submit another couple.

Once again I am more concerned about portraying the person's personality rather than skin tones and pin-sharp eyelashes or a silly pose.
http://www.peteloud.co.uk/photos/Friends/Bea/Bea_pano.html

I hope that you all conclude that she is an artist who does not bow to a conventional consumerist lifestyle. But did you notice that among her books there are two books on Hitler? What does that suggest?


And here is something more conventional.
http://www.peteloud.co.uk/photos/Seahouses/Dobbin.html

That this has been successful masks the difficulty. It was taken, handheld at 1/4 sec. inside a small dark bar. The only illumination was from small windows. The guy was sat about 3 ft from me so I was using a standard lens, hence enlarged nose. It was probably taken on a 6x6 Bronica S2A in 1974.

 

[dOlBy]

Very nice 360 of the room :thumbsup:

 

[peteloud]

Hi Dolby,

I apprecietate your positive comment on the "Very nice 360 of the room".

But I am not sure whether you are carefully wording your comment restrict your comment to, "of the room".

The purpose of my submission is to suggest that the personality of the person, which is what I want to represent, is reflected in their surroundings.

With Bea, her personality is defined not by the sharpness of her eyelashes, but by the lifestyle with which she surrounds herself.

Please don't let me down. I want to believe that photographers in Singapore see beyond pretty faces.

Cheers,

Pete Loud

 

[Lolrence]

Personally, I feel that a 360 of the whole room is really not needed even if the point of the photo(s) were to place an ordinary person in her surrounding. To me, the whole Quicktime 360 thing is just something fanciful, like Photoshop effects overdone, to the point where the focus in no longer on the subject, but the effect.

 

[peteloud]

I agree that the whole room is not neccessary. The same effect could have been achieved with a similar ultra-wide angle shot.

> . . . . whole Quicktime 360 thing is just something fanciful
I disagree. In my panos taken around the river,
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=372066
or on the streets of Penang,
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=372201
or of Chinese temples,
http://www.photomalaysia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48239

only a panorama can gives you the full scene. There is nothing fanciful about that. It is a functional technique to achieve a particular result. It is just another tool for photographers.

Pete

 

[baileys]

hi there, the room decor portrays a very nice earthy mood about it along with the wooden furniture + tigerskin pattern sofa. i can tell reading is one of her pastimes, from the bookshelfs visible. one thing that strikes me abt the books is she has a few books on hitler which is most obvious.

i dont understand why there is a half mannequinn and a tripod with a bino though, could you elaborate on this?
i can't make out is she a designer or voyeur or is it supposed to leave us wondering?

 

[Lolrence]

I agree that the whole room is not neccessary. The same effect could have been achieved with a similar ultra-wide angle shot.

> . . . . whole Quicktime 360 thing is just something fanciful
I disagree. In my panos taken around the river,
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=372066
or on the streets of Penang,
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=372201
or of Chinese temples,
http://www.photomalaysia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48239

only a panorama can gives you the full scene. There is nothing fanciful about that. It is a functional technique to achieve a particular result. It is just another tool for photographers.

Pete

IMO, I would rather take a few photos, taking into concern what's important and what can be left out, and find another way to narrate the story. Of course, the 360 pano have it's uses, but if one of the concerns is to maintain a professional standard, unless the whole room has been styled properly to make sure all unnecessary elements have been taken out, it'll just be like any other normal panos done without planning. IMO, I think your pano needs a clear focus in the sequence.

 

[peteloud]

I too can't understand why there is a half mannequinn there. I have several friends who are artists and I think most of them have all sorts of strange things lying around their houses. I suspect they collect odd bits like this to possibly use in some future work. The pair of binoculars is simple, there is a nice view from the house across, to the sea, so her husband has some binoclars to examine the view.

. . . unless the whole room has been styled properly to make sure all unnecessary elements have been taken out, . . .
If I had tidied up or re-arranged, the room to make it conventional it would have defeated the object of the photograph.

I take a similar view when I shoot street scenes or Chinese temples in Penang. I am not particularly bothered about taking pretty pictures, I want to take pictures which show life as it really is. To me, old bicycles and wheelie bins are socially significant and should be included. I rather like it when I have a old man sleeping or reading a newspaper in a Chinese temple. It helps give a more accurate picture of the way people relate to the temple.

 

[peteloud]

Hi Guys,

Just after I finished writing that I remembered that I have a pano of my sitting room at home in England on internet. You can see how I live.
http://www.peterloud.co.uk/panorama/PH8-3600.htm

This was not me attempting to illustrate my personality it was me teaching myself about panoramas. This was the second panorame that I ever made. It was taken on a Nikon Coolpix 3100. It it terrible as panos go. It needed about 60 images to be stitched together and has discontinuities all over the place. I could probably re-process those original images and make it much better. I use that pano to illustrate the difficulties that I had so that others who give it a try are not discouraged if they have problems.

Although it was not my intention, it does give a great deal of information about the sort of person that I am. I must admit that the violin and tune book on the coffee table looks very contrived. At the same time as doing the pano I was taking a picture to use on a website that I have about fiddle tunes.