It seems that pretty much all men, women and children like looking at women, but I wanted to acknowledge that there are a lot of other sizes, shapes, and colors of people in the world. The idea was to shoot everybody using the same setup, but I could not get everyone to the same place at the same time and had to re-create the setup three times, so the lighting is simlar, not identical.
I decided to align these images using the eyes as the fixed points, which allows you to dissolve from one to the next with some sort of registration, but it does a strange thing to our child, Ruby. Because children have smaller heads, when I aligned the eyes she became much bigger. But she is so cute — why not have her larger?
Bottom line: It matters WHO you photograph. (And one setup will never be ideal for everyone.)
Why Nicole? If you are going to make a website that features photos of just one person, you might as well pick someone who is nice to look at (and as a dancer, has remarkable ability to find the same pose even after changing clothes).
Specs: 100mm, f16, large softbox on each side.
By the way, the original, subject for this whole project was just a pair of eyeglasses, but I was luckily talked out of that at the last minute.
Left
Right
Our little one, Ruby, is here to remind us that children are people, too, and taking pictures of them is a special talent. Ruby was somewhat overwhelmed by the big "whomp" and flash from the studio lights, and was not interested about posing. (She was understandably much more interested in my cats.)
I prefer to photograph kids while they are doing their own thing, rather than posing.
Jackie is very tall and has a different facial structure than Nicole. She reminds us that even among people of a similar description, there is a lot of variation.
Jimena is our representative from the Latin group. Her big, brown eyes are very expressive, and she is the sole representative of the entire Latin American world.
Daniel is from Sudan, and has deep, rich dark skin. He is here to remind us that there is a big range in the lightness of skin tones, and that you can't ignore that fact when taking pictures of people. Daniel is the designated representative for all dark-skinned people of the world.
Nicole — your basic white lady. I love to compare Nicole side by side with Mike, the madman with the wonderful eyebrows. Same species!
Sharon is here to remind us that most of the people in the world are from Asia. It is hardly fair to have her stand in for billions of people, from tiny babies in Japan to Yao-Ming, the basketball player.
Mike is an old friend who has an unmistakable look of Mike-ness that I really wanted for this group. He is here to represent everyone whose personality radiates strongly from their look, from Don King to Andy Rooney.
Nancy is a grandmother, and she represents all of the people of that age group. Quite a burden, but as in all things Nancy handles it very well. She is also a sculptor, creator of the famous Ducklings in the Boston Public Garden.
Our little one, Ruby, is here to remind us that children are people, too, and taking pictures of them is a special talent. Ruby was somewhat overwhelmed by the big "whomp" and flash from the studio lights, and was not interested about posing. (She was understandably much more interested in my cats.)
I prefer to photograph kids while they are doing their own thing, rather than posing.
Jackie is very tall and has a different facial structure than Nicole. She reminds us that even among people of a similar description, there is a lot of variation.
Jimena is our representative from the Latin group. Her big, brown eyes are very expressive, and she is the sole representative of the entire Latin American world.
Daniel is from Sudan, and has deep, rich dark skin. He is here to remind us that there is a big range in the lightness of skin tones, and that you can't ignore that fact when taking pictures of people. Daniel is the designated representative for all dark-skinned people of the world.
Nicole — your basic white lady. I love to compare Nicole side by side with Mike, the madman with the wonderful eyebrows. Same species!
Sharon is here to remind us that most of the people in the world are from Asia. It is hardly fair to have her stand in for billions of people, from tiny babies in Japan to Yao-Ming, the basketball player.
Mike is an old friend who has an unmistakable look of Mike-ness that I really wanted for this group. He is here to represent everyone whose personality radiates strongly from their look, from Don King to Andy Rooney.
Nancy is a grandmother, and she represents all of the people of that age group. Quite a burden, but as in all things Nancy handles it very well. She is also a sculptor, creator of the famous Ducklings in the Boston Public Garden.
