Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/01/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]both of the putins are good or great. the wide angles are sometimes effective, GHW bush is nice, and the kerry picture works nicely with that diagonal on the bottom. but the obama portrait is not flattering, the wider lens makes the nose more prominent (though the ears do recede). maybe it was intended to imply lincoln, who had large features. generally speaking, getting too close to your subject is not flattering, which is why us provincial fuddy duddies grab something near 2x"normal" focal length for head shots. gore, rove and spitzer look like they had their portraits made on xerox machines. on the other hand, he's got the only flattering photo i've ever seen of dean. "YAH!!" and the only unflattering photo of edwards. compared with that "baby photographer" who shot those mccains, this guy is at least professional, and doesn't seem to be disdainful of his subjects. OTOH i'd be concerned if i went to a portrait sitting and the photograher was on the floor, shooting up through my spread legs. you'd think wj clinton and spitzer would figure this out. the coulter full figure at least was taken at a distance, but i read somewhere that she wasn't happy, because they made her shoes look like size 13s. -rei On Jan18 19:19, Robert D. Baron wrote: > SonC wrote: > > "These portraits, I think are pretty wonderful; by taking the people out of > context, and only letting them have one prop for comfort, we get to see > something really special in most of the people. > > They aren't photography, they are portraits, and I think most of them > succeed." > > I agree with Sonny. If the purpose of these portraits is to make the > people appear better than they normally appear, they don't succeed. > But if the purpose is to convey some things about the person, for the > most part they work quite well. > > George Lottermoser wrote: > > "I find a few of them odd and "unreal;" > yet, more of them quite "real;" > as in how they "look" most of the time. > (even though the white background > removes all context)" > > and I agree with George too. > > If you want to see some even more extreme examples from one of the au > courant photographers du jour, go to > http://www.platonphoto.com/portraits/politics/index.html > > Personally I think for the most part Platon goes too far toward > editorializing; I don't find that in the Kander photos in the NYT. > > --Bob > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information -- Rei Shinozuka shino@panix.com Ridgewood, New Jersey