Felicity Jayne, exploring looks.

gbmphoto

gbmphoto

Messages
1,564
Name
Graham
Edit My Images
No
I have loads of portraits where the subject is looking directly at the camera and I wanted to try something different (for me) in this image. When I initially looked at it, I almost discarded it, but after revisiting and editing it, I really think it has a lot of appeal. It's certainly one of my most viewed images on Flickr, not that that is really indicative of anything...


FelicityJayne-172-Edit-2 by Graham Mayers, on Flickr
 
Tricky one in some ways. It almost works for me, but I am struggling to put my finger on what is bugging me ... Maybe because she is looking up with her eyes or maybe the framing.
 
It does have a lot of appeal, it's just the right side of 'catalogue model staring into the distance'.

I've been trying to understand when looking away from the camera works and when it doesn't.

My conclusions so far..

it works well when the gaze is directed to a point within the frame. That way the viewer's eye isn't led out of the frame.

It also works well when there is some compositional element to direct the viewer's eye back into the frame. In this case looking down towards her shoulder might have done that. In some cases it's enough to have the gaze line fall down along the baroque diagonal, as the viewer tends to look upwards from bottom left.

It works less well when the subject looks directly at a light.

Obviously changing the position of the head changes the mood of the shoot completely. There are plenty of folk who'd tell you to forget all that analysis and just concentrate on feeling the mood of what's going on.
 
I agree with Simon's observations, and I think a downwards glance would work better than the upwards out of the frame look. I think the shot would benefit from not cropping so much off the top of her head as well
 
Thanks guys...

@juggler some things for me to consider, thanks (as always) and I may try to get more of a handle on this and experiment more.

@Kodiak Qc it might be... but then looking away does work too... it's probably more along the lines of not looking away in the right way o_O
 
I like the look a lot, and I do agree with you that looking away from the camera can work and in this shot I personally think it does, the only thing I would add is if there was a little more dead space to the right. I'm not so sure on the central positioning.
 
Really like the warm and airy tones and details in the eyes. Lovely soft light (something like a 5 ft octa?)
 
PaulButler said:
Tricky one in some ways. It almost works for me, but I am struggling to put my finger on what is bugging me ... Maybe because she is looking up with her eyes or maybe the framing.
Click to expand...
I think it's the direction she's looking, if the image is is mirrored left-right it becomes more wistful and less disconcerting. It could be the western cultural bias for left-to-right movement in the frame.

The lack of eye contact shouldn't be a problem.. see http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...es-men-women-love-relationships-a7694916.html
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top