- Matt
Vanilla -Isaac
So this clearly isn't a portrait. The photo challenge was was to take a picture like the stock one. The stock photo screamed to me "Vanilla!" The pure white background, the subject slightly off-center, the lack of logos, the happy feel, the generic subject- these elements all make for good stock images. To make a profit a stock photographer has to sell the same photo again and again. The smiling girl used as a seed for this project could be used for a teeth whitening brochure, an online-dating website, a vacation pamphlet, and on and on. The wider the application, the more successful the image. I think its all kind of blah.
"Matthew" - Cary
So the things I noticed in the shot that I tried to reproduce were: portrait (headshot), off center with lots of negative space, face lit from the left, catchlight in the eyes and the high key look. I wanted to shoot this outside so I figured I'd shoot it in the morning towards the sun to get the sky as close to white as possible. I wanted to have a white-only background but I had to take what I could get with my reluctant model. The lighting on Matthew's face is from the rising sun on my shiny gold reflector.
E-3 w/ 12-60mm @ 35mm, 1/250 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 100
"Smile" - Matt
Things that I saw in the original photo that I tried to incorporate into my own: white background, a soft light on camera left, big smile, bright clear eyes, high key, and baby's right eye at the top right intersection of thirds. Things I would have changed if Gideon was more cooperative: soften the light even more, brighten light on camera right, add a catch light.
