Photos

batalay (20994) 2009-09-05 11:03

Hello André,

This is an excellent portrait, the young woman in concentration, set against a dark background, her flesh tones and golden hair standing out dramatically. You have intuitively (or consciously) achieved a very good demonstration of the centerline principle. It was discovered in 1998 by the British born psychologist, Christopher Tyler, who heads the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Institute, that in almost all great single-subject portraits, a vertical line that bisects the frame passes right through one-eye of the subject. It could be the right or left eye, and it could be the leading or the trailing eye (as it is here). I wrote about this in one chapter of my book, "Math and the Mona Lisa" (Smithsonian Books, 2004).

A second principle you've presented is that discovered by the young Australian psychologist, Mike Nicholl, who discovered that when a subject wants to be endearing, he/she presents the left cheek (acting with concert with the emotional right hemisphere). In distinction, if the subject wants to have her portrait hang next to Albert Einstein, she would present her right cheek (in the control of the mathematical left hemisphere, the inferior parietal lobe to be exact). I wrote extensively, first because I like the portrait very much, and secondly, because I see that you are a fellow scientist.

Warm regards,

Bulent

Polonaise (5636) 2009-09-22 13:45

You should be arrested Andre, sentenced and put to jail for that kind of 'experiment'.

:-)))
...........

When I was a member of a photo club at the age of 8, we had experimented with that light as the kids have had hundred years before us, and the kids will be experimenting a hundred years in future.
You just need a flashlight - that's all.

:-)))

Big and juicy - yellow monkie, bro !

Love and fun - george