Q&D portrait of Peter

Young Peter came to town from the village today looking for a portrait for his school.

So it was the GX7 with the Oly f1.8 45 lens, out to the shade of the big mango tree, one minute posing, click! -- and back inside to the computer and printer.

The shade of the big mango tree is one of my favorite places for informal portraiture. The lighting when the sun is high is terrific -- looking towards the house, as here, the light coming in under the tree from the from the front of limited by our house shaded by verandahs and other big trees and bananas.

On the other hand, the sides and rear are pretty open so there is a bit of sky light plus light reflected from open grassed areas. The result is the fairly even but nevertheless accented light you see here.

This kind of all round light is ideal for dark skin. The late, great Gordon Parks emphasized modelling with light rather than with shadows as you would with light skin. However, I have found the light demonstrated here to be pretty much a universal "good" light, regardless of skin color. The contrast has to be zapped up a bit for lighter skin though.

The background? Hmmm - I should have checked the aperture to make it a bit more blotchy. In general, I find it okay. I could blur is down a bit more in PP. If I want to formalize things a bit more, I drag out a couple of the kids to hold up a plain background.

This is an excellent portrait. Great lighting, sharp focus, and I think it really portrays this young man in a very natural and pleasing way.

richj20 wrote:

Very nice pose and facial expression, Geoffrey. Much more natural looking than the normal school book pose!

(What does Q&D mean?)

I do say it tongue in cheek; I'm not much of a fan of formal portraits, I find Q&D -- quick and simple/naturalistic, really -- works best for me.

Wonderful portrait, Henry!

That's a very good photograph with lovely light.

Thanks for the gear tip, but unfortunately I can't fit a mango tree in my camera bag.

Regards,

Alan

So much better and realistic than the days when all the girls wore essentially the same thing and all the boys wore a white shirt and tie....then all posed in the same way.  More like mug shots than school shots.  Nice image which is realistic not plastic.