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04/11/2005 12:39:55 AM · #1 |
| I was just curious as to why you would say that my pet portrait isn't a portrait??? |
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04/11/2005 12:43:20 AM · #2 |
| Suggest you PM the commenters that made that comment and ask them directly. Be prepared to accept whatever answer they give without prejudice or rancor. |
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04/11/2005 12:43:35 AM · #3 |
| I said it was a nice candid and still stand behind that. A portrait is usually a more formal setting, though the bathroom dog blew that theory out of the water (no offense to the owner of that shot) but also the subject should be the main focus of the portait. Props can be wonderful things or very bad things, very distracting and while the cat was visible, it wasn't the main focus of the shot, it was competing with it's surroundings for my attention. I shouldn't have to search the photo for the main subject unless it's a "Find Waldo" challenge. Hope that helps from my point of view |
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04/11/2005 12:52:31 AM · #4 |
A portrait, pretty much by definition, zeros in on the subject. The surround is in competition with your subject here. It's an appealing image, but I'm not surprised people didn't see it as a "portrait" and so didn't score it as high as they would have in, say, a "Pet Candids" challenge.
Stepping outside the box is fine, I do it all the time myself, but it rarely returns a significantly good score. That's just the way it is in this sort of voting, no point in trying to fight it. As long as YOU are happy with the image, you're in good shape.
Robt.
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04/11/2005 01:03:49 AM · #5 |
The cat is clearly intended to be the subject, but the foreground is too busy to let the attention stay on the subject. Framing or cropping more closely would have helped, but would have changed the feel of the image drastically -- photographing at an expanse of fence that is not marred by the plants would also help and keep the feel. I understand this was a spur of the moment shot -- by definition, a candid -- with the unfortunate occurance of the busy-ness that conveys this to the viewer.
In short, the subject you captured in the image was the moment of time -- not the cat.
Still a very nice image though.
David
Message edited by author 2005-04-11 01:04:09.
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04/11/2005 05:12:28 AM · #6 |
Originally posted by thefotog:
I was just curious as to why you would say that my pet portrait isn't a portrait??? |
I got the same and I must admit that I am not sure that I would have first thought of my shot as something I would carry in my wallet and a portrait but after taking it I thought it fit my pet perfectly. I did score your picture pretty high and thought you captured your cats personality. |
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04/11/2005 11:43:36 AM · #7 |
Thanks for the feed back it's much appreciated.
Though now I have another question. Are there different portrait challenges? Will there be an enviromental portrait challenge or any other facet of the Portrait...? Things like that. Or am I missing something here?
Message edited by author 2005-04-11 11:44:25. |
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04/11/2005 11:47:11 AM · #8 |
| The best way to see potential upcoming challenges is to check out the Challenge Suggestions forum. This is where most of the topics come from. You can also check out the challenge history to see the challenges we've done in the past. |
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04/12/2005 10:59:37 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by thefotog:
I was just curious as to why you would say that my pet portrait isn't a portrait??? |
Not a full member, didn't read the actual challenge description, but started noticing the "not a portrait" types of comments.
I finally caught onto the gist of the challenge. In the future, my mental-model for determining the picture's status as a portrait or as a snapshot will be to determine if the photograph could have been shot by a seventeen year old at Sear's or Walmart's (Holiday Special - 20 prints @ $14.95.)
Once that is done, it will be time to analyze the quality of the image.
:&) Kathy |
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04/13/2005 12:12:53 AM · #10 |
Kathy, Is this a stab at me or are you comenting about yourself???
Message edited by author 2005-04-13 01:58:23. |
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04/13/2005 12:43:14 AM · #11 |
My definition will be more loosely wrapped.
As quoted in the introduction to a portrait gallery:
The face is the mirror of the mind,
and eyes without speaking
confess the secrets of the heart.
Jerome
//www.luxuryportraits.com/intro.html
If the face and eyes convey to me mind and heart of the subject, and it is obvious that is the intent and the picture easily takes me there, then it will fit my definition of a portrait.
Knowing cats, for me, this is a nice portrait.
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04/13/2005 12:27:03 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by thefotog:
Kathy, Is this a stab at me or are you comenting about yourself??? |
No. No. No. I just get these wierd little ideas on how to keep things straight. I pictured a dog sitting in front of one of those backdrops for its Easter portrait at Sear's. So, now.... that is my benchmark for Portrait. If it's a picture of a dog having a great time doing something, it's a Snapshot. Regardless, I surely did enjoy looking at all the pictures. (And bless those of you who have reptilian best friends for not publishing pictures of them.)
Until so many people wrote comments about Snapshot or Portrait, it never occurred to me that there were such distinctions.
Clear? Kathy.
(Uh... did I mention my AADD issues? Naw, probably got sidetracked and forgot!) :- )))) |
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04/13/2005 01:14:43 PM · #13 |
Damn, I really liked the shot. I was one of your 10s!
It was unconventional, but then again so was mine. I don't think of portrait as being just a face, or a close up. When I think portrait, I think personality, not features. So that's how I voted.
I wouldn't worry too much about it. Scores don't matter. Just enjoy taking the photos.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :p
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04/13/2005 03:20:07 PM · #14 |
The foreground is distracting and you can barely see the cat. There's no rule that says you can't make the subject small but you have too much in the foreground competing for attention. Regardless of whether or not it's a portrait, it's just not a strong photo.
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04/14/2005 12:00:38 AM · #15 |
Kathy :)
virtuamike, I'm a newbie here so I didn't want to push the editing thing to far (still learning the rules before I bend them). Both of my shots were pretty much right out of the camera. I didn't do much if any cropping. However hind sight being 20/20 I'd of like to have cropped in quite a bit on my pet portrait. To bad you feel like you do, seems you are in the minority here... But you know what they say about opinions??? :o
kdkaboom, I know exactly where you are coming from and BIG thanks. ;) |
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