Australia Day - a portrait

[Sheila Smart]

An indigenous portrait (using the Optikvervelab filter) taken with my Canon 135f/2L



He was with a group of buskers at the Quay.
Cheers
Sheila

[Mal]

Great expression / or lack off in the face. IMHO the eyes are a little too dark. I love to be able to see the eyes. But for an Australia day photo I think it speaks volumes.

[Nnnnsic]

Too close of a crop for me, Sheila.

[Geoff]

Sheila - I have a feeling I would prefer the original - would u like to post it?

[Killakoala]

I would swear blind that this photo was taken 150 years ago. great use of the optikvervelabs filters.

[Finch]

Steve,

Wouldn't it be great if they had the cameras of today capturing our early history?

Nice portrait, Sheila and captures a particular mood

Cheers

Michael

[mudder]

G'day Shiela,
I feel this is a very strong image, good B&W treatment, the tight crop works me for and seems to conjur up some kind of statement about a hard history overtaken by modern society (noting the shirt)... The contrast seems very strong but that may have been exactly what you were going for...

Good stuff and very topical for the day too...

[Sheila Smart]

With respect, I really do not feel that this is a "tight" crop. If the crop was just his face, then I agree it would have been severe but the original crop was a little more of his shirt which, of course, is not the subject of the image, and a little more of his hair. As Steve indicated, I used the filter to capture an image of last century.

Cheers
Sheila

[PALL]

this one got depth and a true old age feel.its dark on eyes and some parts of face i think may be cuz of contrast boost of optiverb?,.the crop looks good as well but may be little bit tight crop from RIGHT side could blance crop of LEFT side.

[LostDingo]

great image and like the crop except for the top of the head. Maybe a tighter crop? Squarish format to approx chin area?

Love the wrinkles on the face, rtells a story on it's own

[paulvdb1]

Fantastic shot but I'd like to have seen some more grey levels in it. The really large grain size and high contrast robs the picture of some detail. It's like you trying to add feel and grain to a person who already would have that strong texture in his original picture.

[Sheila Smart]

Here is a version using Fred Miranda's black and white plug in (orange filter) and a larger crop.



Cheers
Sheila

[marcotrov]

Lovely documentary image Sheila. I like the power and retrospectivity of the first image but with a tad more showing on the top of head (as in second image, original I imagine) and the left side of image hair showing. Ultimately it's your image and as artist you know what you wanted from the image. I like the image and my suggestions are just that and in the scheme of things, minor refinements.
cheers
marco

[meicw]

Sheila, I love this shot. The first pic works for me because it makes me concentrate on the man's face, which is full of character.

Regards
meicw

[kipper]

I prefer the cropped image, it removes the out of place hair on the top of his head. It also feels more engaging with the subject. If it wasn't for the shirt you'd think it was taken a while ago of a tribal leader or something.

[Alpha_7]

Shelia I love both of these shots and they appear so different after the different Black and White treatments (almost like two different photos). Thanks for sharing Shelia.