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B&W kids portrait
"Michael Scarpitti" wrote in message
om... I hope you all don't mind, only i'm doing a dissertation this year on "Portrait Psychology" and some of this is interesting... it's also interesting to see the vehemence of some to stick to these alleged rules, and the vehemence of others that there are no rules. So i've saved some posts to a folder. Conclusions remain to be drawn. -- Martin Staring at C:\ prompts since 1993 |
#2
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B&W kids portrait
"Martin Francis" wrote in message ...
"Michael Scarpitti" wrote in message om... I hope you all don't mind, only i'm doing a dissertation this year on "Portrait Psychology" and some of this is interesting... it's also interesting to see the vehemence of some to stick to these alleged rules, and the vehemence of others that there are no rules. So i've saved some posts to a folder. Conclusions remain to be drawn. Did you look at the portraits by these painters? |
#3
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B&W kids portrait
Martin Francis wrote:
I hope you all don't mind, only i'm doing a dissertation this year on "Portrait Psychology" and some of this is interesting... it's also interesting to see the vehemence of some to stick to these alleged rules, and the vehemence of others that there are no rules. So i've saved some posts to a folder. Martin, Good luck with your dissertation; I'll be most interested to read it when you're finished. Please advise. James Meckley |
#4
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B&W kids portrait
SNIP
Almost all Renaissance and later portraiture uses light coming from the subject's right (viewer's left). It has its origins in the left-to-right writing sytem used in the West since Greek times. Hi Mike: Since I last checked my watch, this is no longer the Renaissance (not since 3:30 PM, atleast ;-)) and no photographer in any age is limited by the habits, styles, or mannerisms of painters of past ages. Use the lighting direction that works best with the subject. (Blind following) Rules are for fools. As photographers we should observe, intuit, reason, feel and make our own best judgement calls as to lighting direction and how/whether its appropriate for each and every different subject. This reminds me of some studio photographers who virtualy, if not literally have their fill lights (and key lights?) nailed into the floor/ceiling/etc. When you have two eyes and a mind you no longer need rules - vision "rules". Regards, Lewis Check out my photos at "LEWISVISION": http://members.aol.com/Lewisvisn/home.htm Remove "nospam" to reply |
#5
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B&W kids portrait
SNIP
3. Light from the viewer's left is conventional and is to be prefered. I looked at paintings the Columbus Museum of Art a few years ago precisly on this matter, and confirmed the overwhelming majority of classical painters (1450-1900±) use light from the left, especially when people are in the paintings. Why emulate dead painters and the conventional - we are live photographers, aren't we? There's no need to fossilize a lighting approach, conventional or otherwise. "One size doesn't have to fit all" ;-) Regards, Lewis Check out my photos at "LEWISVISION": http://members.aol.com/Lewisvisn/home.htm Remove "nospam" to reply |
#6
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B&W kids portrait
Whenever I see portraits lit from the viewer's
right, I cringe. Conditioning. Neither left nor right is "right" - what is right (for lighting direction) is what works best for the subject being photographed at hand. Regards, Lewis Check out my photos at "LEWISVISION": http://members.aol.com/Lewisvisn/home.htm Remove "nospam" to reply |
#7
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B&W kids portrait
Subject: B&W kids portrait
From: (Michael Scarpitti) Date: Tue, Sep 23, 2003 8:52 PM Message-id: J C wrote in message ... On 22 Sep 2003 19:15:27 -0700, (Michael Scarpitti) wrote: Not absolute rules, but the human brain is programmed to see a single shadow from a single light sourse: the sun. It's inherently unflattering to see mutiple light sources that cast multiple shadows of near-equal strength on faces, and that's what I don't like here. Almost all Renaissance and later portraiture uses light coming from the subject's right (viewer's left). It has its origins in the left-to-right writing sytem used in the West since Greek times. Knowing something about the human brain and cognition, I'd have to say that the first paragraph above is probably wrong. I doubt that all the millions of years of evolution would lead to any such "programming" of the brain to prefer light from one direction over another -- particularly since most of that evolution happened in the absence of art and writing. But if we evolved on a planet with two or three suns, it would seem more natural to us, no? Which brings up a tangential but related subject, catchlights in the eyes. Common wisdom says only one catchlight for each eye since we have only one sun. But we also have windows and water and mirrors and chrome from cars/etc. that reflect that sun so it seems more logical to me to have as many catchlights as one wants _provided_ it works with the overall subject and mood of the photograph. This is especially true for studio fashion photography where it is obvious that the subject was photographed in a studio (seemless paper in the background may give it away as a studio ;-)) in which, to me anyway, it would seem more "natural" to allow each eaye to have as many catchlights as there are lights being used w/i range/angle of incidence on the subject in the studio - only changing though amount/type of lights used or later in Photoshop how many catchlights (reflections of the light source) appear in each eye. This is not to say that if there was a cafe set in a studio in which the subject sits next to a mock window (let's say to set a romantic mood or sense of place, ie. a cafe) that using a rectangular vertical soft box to get a fake'/faux window light reflection in that person's eyes wouldn't be a good move. Speaking of moving, whether catchlights or lighting direction, convention(s) should only be used when it fits the subject/mood of the photograph and virtually never for their own sake lest you want to emulate a past/conventional style of lighting for some odd (or even ;-)) reason. Regards, Lewis Check out my photos at "LEWISVISION": http://members.aol.com/Lewisvisn/home.htm Remove "nospam" to reply |
#8
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B&W kids portrait
Subject: B&W kids portrait
From: J C Date: Wed, Sep 24, 2003 3:46 PM Message-id: On 23 Sep 2003 13:52:39 -0700, (Michael Scarpitti) wrote: But if we evolved on a planet with two or three suns, it would seem more natural to us, no? Good question Mike. But in the realm of science you need to test a hypothesis, collect the data, and report your results. AND your results need to be testable and repeatable by other observers. So in this case you'd need to compare two exactly similar organisms that have envolved on different planets -- one planet with one sun and the other with multiple suns. SNIP First you'd have to invent warp drive, though, and "live long and prosper" enough in order to have the funds to get there. Then there's the matter of finding life on other planets, which, if there are doing a quite well job of avoiding our detection. If they were smart, they'd move to another unkown planet/star system before all the Earth photographers arrived to test out their hypotheses. First comes the scientists, then comes marketing, then comes demographics, bill boards, strip malls and before you know it Alpha Centauri IV is starting to look a lot like El Paso, Texas but w/ less Chevy dealers. Regards, Lewis Check out my photos at "LEWISVISION": http://members.aol.com/Lewisvisn/home.htm Remove "nospam" to reply |
#9
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B&W kids portrait
Subject: B&W kids portrait
From: (Michael Scarpitti) Date: Wed, Sep 24, 2003 9:49 PM Message-id: James Meckley wrote in message ... Michael Scarpitti wrote: Almost all Renaissance and later portraiture uses light coming from the subject's right (viewer's left). This is simply not true. A broad survey of western painting shows only a slight bias toward portraits lit from the left (about a 55/45 split), with some painters favoring left, some right and some exhibiting no preference. Even more interesting is photographic portraiture, which shows a virtually even 50/50 distribution of left-right preference in a survey of fine art and commercial portraiture over the last 100 years. The only exceptions are certain amateurs and camera-club members who are unduly influenced by dogmatic rules telling them that the light must come from the left. James Meckley In my review of painings in the museum, I found an overwhelming preference for left-side lighting. Perhaps your sample is not representative of the whole of all fine art paintings from the Renaissance till now? They call New Jersey the Garden State, but just viewing it in the Northeast section one might think they wrongly named it and should have called it "The Asphalt Bungle" ;-) Regards, Lewis Check out my photos at "LEWISVISION": http://members.aol.com/Lewisvisn/home.htm Remove "nospam" to reply |
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