; )

-- Mike Dixon (mike@mikedixonphotography.com), December 15, 2000

Answers

I do like this one - her name's not Mona Lisa, by any chance?

-- fw (finneganswake@altavista.net), December 15, 2000.

I swayed back and forth in my seat.. and her gaze did follow me!

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), December 15, 2000.

Now you're talking! Marvelous portrait, and you've calibrated your monitor too.... What lighting? what format? any photoshop on this? It's just fantastic-

-- Chris Yeager (cyeager@ix.netcom.com), December 15, 2000.

Great crop

It's the cropping that impresses me the most, though some space at the top would help to draw attention to her interesting eyebrows. Frankly I have seen enough prettier-than-life women as photographic material, so I like this one all the more.

-- Emre Safak (emre@coe.neu.edu), December 15, 2000.

I like it, but I don't like how the eyes are aligned. The alignment disturbs me. Because of the shape of her skull, the tilt of her head, and her expression, her eyes arrange themselves into almost a cubist like form, giving the illusion that one eye is significantly higher than the other.

If you do a quick exercise, and cover one eye with the palm of your hand (either the left or the right), your aesthetic sense sort of says, "ahh, ok, what I imagine the other eye to look like is this." unfortunately, when I move my hand away again, the other eye doesn't fit the description my mind made up.

I guess this would appeal to my aesthetic sense more if she were to tilt her head to make the eyes line up in a line parallel with the bottom of the frame.

But then again I'm nitpicking :)

-- ed (ekang@cse.nd.edu), December 15, 2000.

Did she have a huge zit on her forehead? ;)

-- steve vancosin (w2705@aol.com), December 16, 2000.

Mike, while I can appreciate what you have done here (and I like the crop), I much prefer the more cryptic and/or seedy Mike Dixon photos. But that's just me...

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), December 16, 2000.

I always thought the Mona Lisa looked bored. This woman seems genuinely amused, albeit in a wry, raised-eyebrow sort of way.

I like the lighting, like the pose, and love the crop, but she seems to be looking over my right shoulder, which became a little distracting once I'd looked at the image for a while.

-- Struan Gray (struan.gray@sljus.lu.se), December 17, 2000.

How many guys have looked through their camera at a woman, and seen exactly this expression? 100%? 110%? This is a great portrait, Mike. It's easily as compelling as any of your spontaneous work, and more in line with my tastes, as you probably would guess... really great...Pay no attention to those that criticise the angles and perspective. Composition is perfect. t

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), December 17, 2000.

I think her face is slightly high and leftward, but only slightly. I love the portrait. Very beautiful.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), December 17, 2000.

What a great look, Mike. Sooo expressive and open to interpretation so it engages me... which i like in an image. Absolutely perfect composition. I love the way that eyebrow is holding up the left top frame of this! LOL. Beautiful lighting too. Pay no attention to Jeff (;-) )and his desire for your "seedy" shots, i like those too but..... you can do both. So please do.

-- Susan Daly (SLascaux@aol.com), December 19, 2000.

Just checking in briefly from my new extra limited all-work-no-play account (and please donīt ask me how I got that e-mail address - it was an accident, I swear!)

I love this portrait for most of the reasons stated above. Some of the comments just makles me wonder about the ever-mysterious (to me) beauty issue... "Prettier than life girls" for instance - what are they? Why is this woman not a perfect beauty? She has grace, charm and personality - clear skin and pretty hair. OK, I know that between men and women, different standards apply - and maybe in the case of Mr. Vancosin, different stages of evolution - but isnīt the current beauty ideal, embodied by such characters as Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Elle Mcpherson etc. merely a set of industrial norms, calculated to fit a product, rather than an expression of actual desires and wishes of men and women? Well then, MOST men and women :) - Just trying to understand what makes this girl less than "prettier than life"...

:) Christel

-- Christel (digimon@worldonline.dk), December 20, 2000.

christel: count on you to open pandora's box...:) i used to say that there are only two issues that i would never openly debate on a forum such as this: politics and religion; to that duo i must now add a third: the question of what makes a woman beautiful. there can be no definitive response, for surely beauty is the most subjective of all judgments. for myself, i can only mirror the attitude expressed by justice clark of the u.s. supreme court, when speaking, of all things, about the definition of obscenity: i can't tell you exactly what it is, but i know it when i see it, said the judge. i feel exactly the same way when confronted with the visage of *any* woman for the first time.

that's about as hard as i choose to hit this tar baby.

-- wayne harrison (wayno@netmcr.com), December 20, 2000.

Time, finally, to thank everyone for their comments and to answer questions and make other relevant noises.

Thanks everyone!

This was cropped from a 645 negative (maybe 40% of image area), shot with a 200mm lens on HP5+ (EI 320), and lit by a set of windows about 6 feet by 15 feet (indirect sun, cloudy day) located about 7 feet from the subject. [Gotta get me a square format camera one of these days.]

The print was made with a low contrast filter, then the eyes, lips and hair were burned in slightly with a high contrast filter.

Photoshop was used to get rid of dust and to make the scan look more like the print.

Though it's fun to do studio stuff on occasion, my seedy side is in no danger of disappearing. It just get put on hold sometimes.

The marketing of ideals of beauty is a really tricky topic that I haven't really sorted out yet. Ironically, the fashion-model type that Christel mentions (tall, thin, distinctive) is primarily marketed toward women; the women who are primarily marketed toward men are generally shorter, more curvy, and prettier (rather than more striking). I'm not sure who's making the decisions. . .

My own taste regarding female appearance is fairly eclectic ("know it when I see it"). But I will say that 5'8" curly-haired ballet dancers who look like Mona Lisa are about as appealing as it gets. . . : )

-- Mike Dixon (mike@mikedixonphotography.com), December 21, 2000.

Stop! will you?!! Jeez, that's a great follow up image. The friendly skepticism of this woman's face is killing me... Great eyes in this one, man. You couldn't ask for a better face to look at, through a camera, or straight on. Who gives a shit about Claudia...

There a great thread on the Car Guys (NPR) website about a third expression being discovered in Cindy Crawford's face... This woman looks like she may have several hundred variations of just this one... t

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), December 21, 2000.

and Christel... stop sweatin' the super model issue, it's a deadend. Read about the biological urge to pursue the "supra normal" mate. It's a wacky evolutionary glitch that every species suffers from. I read about blue (male) butterflies that will try to mate with a wooden bluer butterfly, than successfully mate with a real, but "less" blue, female butterfly. Sound familiar?... t

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), December 21, 2000.

who could believe the eyes on this woman? who could escape their power? god, i would think that having made this last image, you fell to the ground, begging for her to restore the ability to breathe!

well, with an apology for the least bit of hyperbole, this last is a marvelous shot, and one that could not occur without a bit of chemistry between model and subject. but perhaps i presume too much...:)

-- wayne harrison (wayno@netmcr.com), December 21, 2000.

The eyes in the second shot are hideous. Like Sarah Brightman on acid - all soppy coyness and salesmanship. If it weren't for that smile you'd never know this was a real woman.

Thanks to H+M, there's a lot of Claudia in my town just now. She looks cold, poor girl. Someone should buy her a dressing gown and a large helping of Jansson's Temptation.

Happy Bloody Christmas everyone.

-- Struan Gray (struan.gray@sljus.lu.se), December 22, 2000.

well, struan, who is sarah brightman, and where the hell do i find her?

takes all kinds, i suppose.

-- wayne harrison (wayno@netmcr.com), December 22, 2000.