”Glamour” is from the "Portrait in a milieu" workshop I participated in May. The venue was an old building complex of discarded office and industrial spaces, with boardrooms and salons for entertaining, providing a background for an endless amount of scenarios. After theory lessons, the participants were let loose in small groups with a bunch of experienced TFCD models to seek suitable locations for a story. We wandered to the basement of the building, and our model danced into a room where paint was peeling from the walls. Some daylight fell from windows on her left, and I tried to capture something of the way her presence seemed to fill the room, and the sense of movement.. - Fuji X-T4 on tripod, 55 mm, f/4.5, 1/8 s, ISO 8000. I put the image through DXO Pure Raw, turned it into B&W, finished with the Dark Glow filter in NIK Silver Efex, and added a vignette. - I like the old Hollywood glamour feel that I think radiates from the lady, but is the image too soft and blurry? The background is off focus, but I wonder if the patterns on the wall are too dominating?
8 comments posted
Barbara Gore
Hi Kirsti. What a fantastic workshop and great opportunity to be creative. I really like the colors and tones in the original image as the subject and the background are harmonious. A sense of movement is especially visible in her hair. I also like the placement of the subject in the original as its adds more context and depth to the portrait. The B/W conversion works well, but I notice some detail is lost in the hat and jacket and the square crop places strong emphasis solely on the subject. I think this crop would work if the subject was less blurry. My only suggestion for portraits would be to ensure the eyes are sharp or at least the eye closest to the viewer. For me the eyes are the focal point in a portrait and draws the me into the image. Posted: 07/09/2025 14:02:42
Kirsti Näntö-Salonen
Thank you. Barbara, you are so right about the eyes! When I went through the images from the workshop, it felt that something was at least slightly wrong in every frame. The instructor left us with the comforting thought that every mistake that we made now would mean one particular mistake less in the next photo shoot.
- I'll go back to the BW conversion and see if I could get more tones out, and it was also a good point about the crop. Posted: 07/09/2025 14:31:56
Robert Cordivari
Hi Kirsti - another great opportunity you were preented with.
My original reaction was the woman looked like more of a caberet performer but old Hollywood works also.
I think the background walls are fine; I do like the original for the placement of the subject.
Perhaps you could try working on the focus with Topaz or some similar software?
Rob
Posted: 07/09/2025 21:06:00
Kirsti Näntö-Salonen
Thank you, Rob! I did try the previous generation Topaz Sharpen AI that we have at home but that only added some artifacts. Maybe it would be worth while to invest in the latest version that seems to have such glowing reviews - does anybody have experience of it? Posted: 07/10/2025 05:13:30
Albert Zabin
I agree with Barbara on the technical points. I feel that a single person portrait requires some engagement with the subject or the subject with the artist or engagement by the subject with someone else or even something else. Posted: 07/15/2025 02:01:09
Kirsti Näntö-Salonen
Hi Al! I do agree about the technical issues, and also about the significance of the feeling of contact in a portrait. However, I am thinking about some of my favorite images of the film star Greta Garbo where she is looking off the camera, immersed in her private world. I think that sort of feel is what I actually was after with my lady, moving glamorously inside her own bubble, indifferent towards the audience. Thank you for helping me think deeper of the issue! Posted: 07/19/2025 09:06:42
Ed Ford
Hi Kirsti. In answer to your question - to my eye it did not work as you wished. I did not get a sense of motion - more like the camera was simply out of focus, but that is my eye on this and I am not much into portraiture. The hair does indicate movement but it is hard to make out in both, though a little easier in the color version. This is one of the few times I admit to liking the color version a little better.
Her expression is great especially with the light in her eye, and the pealing paint backdrop helps along with the vignette.
Thank you for sharing it with us. Posted: 07/19/2025 01:34:55
Kirsti Näntö-Salonen
Thank you very much, Ed! I think that you encapsulated the essence about the technical problems in the image. This is one of my many "if only I had done something differently" times with a rare opportunity that is not easy to repeat! Posted: 07/19/2025 09:19:50
