Portraits of Rivka (without pearl earring) Locked

rumple wrote:

michonn wrote:

Great but still this background is way too dark. She look like a spot light in the picture.

Perhaps if someone had told Vermeer about dark backgrounds he would have sold more paintings and not died in poverty and despair. Or maybe the war raging around him cratered his business.

Vermeer's idea of a background - at least for the girl with the earring.

There is a time and a place for everything. If Rivka's portrait was a traditional portrait then it would have had five lights (key, fill, kicker, hair, background). It is not a traditional portrait, so it has the number of lights that suited the photographer. It is simple, elegant, and technically very good (with a quibble about the pupils). Presumably what the photographer wanted.

To address the technical, the subject (Rivka) has light skin, light hair, a white shirt (not my first choice, but okay with this subject and not overpowering possibly because the key was feathered) - so all that light tone pops nicely on the dark background. As I see it. You apparently would have added a background light and/or splashed some key onto it. Or some other photographer might have decided to high-key it and go with a light background and 1:1 key/fill ratio on the subject. Quite a different feeling that would come with the different look.

We talk about photography not painting. Obviously painting has much less contrast it is different from photography. The black in the painting is not black by the way.