I wanted a natural-looking portrait, but one that made them look their best by smoothing out their complexions. To do this, I lowered contrast in several ways. I developed the negative N-1 in D-25 (a super-fine grain developer with low acutance) and shot in flat lighting. I used two filters: a Harrision & Harrison Diffuser #2 (gives a bit of flare) and a blue-green filter B+W 470, both of which lower contrast.(posted 8633 days ago)At first I thought the picture looked a bit muddy, but after thinking about what higher contrast would do, I think the contrast is just right. The picture has a full range of tones: my father's belt is pure black, and my father's undershirt is white. My father's button- up shirt is very light, but not pure white, so it holds detail. If I increased the contrast, my father's shirt would loose detail.
The negative is not dense, but normal. The photo is square because I cut off an inch from both sides. The original is horizontal, and I felt that the space to the sides of them was wasted. It was taken with a Wisner 8x10 Traditional and contact printed on Segull G-2 paper.
What I like least about the picture is their expressions. They look like they are just standing there. I wanted it to look natural, so I did not try to make them smile or anything. Is there a portrait photographer whose work I could study to learn about posing people?
I don't know how to make the picture appear here directly. Please help.