E Y E S Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

Back to my comfort zone...portraits.

A boy I met in Nan, Thailand. He has the most expressive eyes I've ever seen. When I showed this to our school's assistant director who used to work there, he said that this boy is also his most photographed in this village.

He was standing at the entrance of the church when I took this. The contrast in the light was magical. I converted this to BW to make it more "powerful".

papagolf21, Paolo, ChrisJ, eleparc, apache, lewiz, pgorod has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Furachan (0) 2005-08-30 8:58

Great stuff, Manuel! This is a very sensitive, serious portrait. You are right about his eyes, and right also to use a half shadow approach that only emphasizes how extraordinary they are...
Well done indeed!
Francis

Paolo (40755) 2005-08-30 9:02

Hi Manny!
excellent image.
is a very beautiful portrait!
there is a great work of b/w, with great shadows and a fantastic light.
the shining in the boy eyes is amazing!
thanks, ciao

Kenny10pin (19301) 2005-08-30 9:20

great work, I like the eyes here, very good portrait picture using b/w well done

TBasco (143) 2005-08-30 9:45

i love the way the shadowed side of his face still reveal taht other eye that looks through another's. texture, tone, atmosphere...captured to perfection

don_narayan (2014) 2005-08-30 11:26

wonderful shot. the black/white looks great. nice crop as well.

dolin (15647) 2005-08-30 11:45

Hi Mannuel.
You have catch a perfect glance. I like the light on the eyes.
Good w/b with nice contrast.
The position of the kid, the good blur on the dof....nice compo
Fred

eleparc (24059) 2005-08-30 12:35

Hi manny,

I am back! nice to see a b&w shot from you! it has a somewhat sohrab touch IMO! well done! i agree about the magical atmosphere.
how are you, muy friend?

Eric

ndb1958 (9249) 2005-08-30 16:19

Hi Manuel,
great b+w portrait of this nice boy. Great eyes, indeed. I like this picture very much. Thanks for sharing,
Nino

Zepi (22848) 2005-08-30 18:18

Hello Manuel,
Superbe portrait, excellent noir et blanc !
Ce regard est incroyable, stupéfiant !
J’adore
Beau travail
Merci pour le partage
Amicalement
Sébastien

ChrisJ (70443) 2005-08-31 3:42

Hi Manuel

A superb tonal range, in this outstanding b&w portrait. I like the slight tilt of the head & sharpness around the eyes. Good work!

papagolf21 (56811) 2005-08-31 4:32

Bonjour Manny,
Je suis heureux de retrouver le roi du portrait. Ici, encore une très belle prise de vue de cet enfant au regard étrange qui semble fouiller notre âme.
Le noir et blanc est parfait pour restituer toutes les nuances de ce regard.
Amitiés.
Philippe

Luko (13896) 2005-08-31 6:46

Also entering my BW comfort zone, Manny ;-D....

Whereas RGB fundamentals play on color match and good lighting, BW is a game about giving the right contrast and getting stong structure lines.
My opinion is that compowise this is not powerful enough to justify BW conversion : the left side of your pic could be adequate if it was displaying a nice color but just doesn't suit BW.

Another thing is watch out for contrast, while deep blacks and glaring whites can be admissible as a color twist they're deadly sins for BW pictures. I'm afraid RGB recipes don't always work in BW and the other way around (and that's also why personnally I'm not as good in RGB ;D ...).

faubry (32429) 2005-08-31 8:03

what regard! very serious ths boy, i like your B &W trairement, i take note for me....
superb
francine

sn00zie (2384) 2005-08-31 11:56

lovely lighting Manuel.. nicely done.. and what big, beautiful eyes he has.. indeed magical

kclai (2267) 2005-08-31 21:25

Hi Manuel
Cool and lovely eyes. And good effect of B&W and the shadow passing his right side.
You did mentioned "powerful" on this B&W portrait, but I felt only half of the power. Is it becuase of the contrast level or maybe you ought to give this pic the sephia tone effect.
Anywhere I like this kind of portrait and well done.
Eric Lai

apache (1426) 2005-09-01 11:02

Hi Manny,
Excellent portrait as ever. You sure are on home ground when it comes to portraits...:) I like the way half of his face is in darkness, and yes, his eyes are very expressive.
Great one
Ranjith

dsidwell (9745) 2005-09-08 21:53

Your photos are usually so clean; it is refreshing to see a skilled photo that is gritty and journalistic in nature. Nice work, Manny!