There I was, working on my “Oldfashion” project, when they came.
Mother and daughter, they want to know what that was. And want their picture done, after which the young girl run to the playground. In fact, that was the reason why they went to the park.
But the mother stay around, chatting a little, while I was attending other “customers”, making me understand that she may want some other kind of pictures than just the classic one. But, since I was working with the “wooden” camera, I give her a hand mirror that I had taken with me for some other project, so that she could have something to play with until we could do it.
A mirror in the hands of a woman can do miracles! Not just is an object were she can have their hands and do something with them, but also make her to be sure about her looks, getting some confidence about her self. And she gets comfortable about the photos to be done!
The light was just as I like it! The sun very low, giving a very strong backlight, with well defined contour around the figure. The sky was clear, giving a soft and fill light on the subject, allowing shadows but not strong ones. The background was a little bit darker than the foreground and distant, giving a notorious sense of deep, being neutral at the same time.
The first picture was an “Over the shoulder” with her reflection on the mirror. A classic shoot, with just a bit sensuality, almost undefined. Nice, but not what I wanted.
Then I did this profile one. Just one picture. And that was it! The light, the expression on her face, the composition… Everything that could be done at that time was done. Anything else as to be worked with the image processor.
The first thing to take care of was her face. In our conversation, she told me that her grief was those pimples, giving her a look of a teenager that she wasn’t any more. I make a new layer with just her skin, wipe out the pimples using the rubber stamp tool and reduced the opacity of the layer. This way, they were visible but very smooth, almost as if they weren’t there.
Then I crop it. I like wide horizontal photographs and I had it in mind when I pressed the shutter. After all, we do see the world from left to right and not from top to bottom.
Before considered it as finished, I wondered if I should flip horizontally. If I had already lied, I could keep doing it. And the portrait was an interpretation, not a faithful document.
But, from the chat we had, I was sure that her past was too heavy to be left over, and her future a distant quest. I keep it as it was.
There was just one thing left to do: her permission to publish it. And I got it by e-mail.
It is not an easy task to portrait a stranger. It’s always a fight between the model’s truth and the photographer’s truth. I guess this one is somewhere in the middle.
Texto e imagem: by me
Mother and daughter, they want to know what that was. And want their picture done, after which the young girl run to the playground. In fact, that was the reason why they went to the park.
But the mother stay around, chatting a little, while I was attending other “customers”, making me understand that she may want some other kind of pictures than just the classic one. But, since I was working with the “wooden” camera, I give her a hand mirror that I had taken with me for some other project, so that she could have something to play with until we could do it.
A mirror in the hands of a woman can do miracles! Not just is an object were she can have their hands and do something with them, but also make her to be sure about her looks, getting some confidence about her self. And she gets comfortable about the photos to be done!
The light was just as I like it! The sun very low, giving a very strong backlight, with well defined contour around the figure. The sky was clear, giving a soft and fill light on the subject, allowing shadows but not strong ones. The background was a little bit darker than the foreground and distant, giving a notorious sense of deep, being neutral at the same time.
The first picture was an “Over the shoulder” with her reflection on the mirror. A classic shoot, with just a bit sensuality, almost undefined. Nice, but not what I wanted.
Then I did this profile one. Just one picture. And that was it! The light, the expression on her face, the composition… Everything that could be done at that time was done. Anything else as to be worked with the image processor.
The first thing to take care of was her face. In our conversation, she told me that her grief was those pimples, giving her a look of a teenager that she wasn’t any more. I make a new layer with just her skin, wipe out the pimples using the rubber stamp tool and reduced the opacity of the layer. This way, they were visible but very smooth, almost as if they weren’t there.
Then I crop it. I like wide horizontal photographs and I had it in mind when I pressed the shutter. After all, we do see the world from left to right and not from top to bottom.
Before considered it as finished, I wondered if I should flip horizontally. If I had already lied, I could keep doing it. And the portrait was an interpretation, not a faithful document.
But, from the chat we had, I was sure that her past was too heavy to be left over, and her future a distant quest. I keep it as it was.
There was just one thing left to do: her permission to publish it. And I got it by e-mail.
It is not an easy task to portrait a stranger. It’s always a fight between the model’s truth and the photographer’s truth. I guess this one is somewhere in the middle.
Texto e imagem: by me
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