Street Portrait - Keke

[jeremycole]

Hello, all.

It's been some time since I posted (I was on a non-Nikon tear for a while).  More recently, I've broken out my Nikkors again to do some street portraits.  This is new to me so I thought I would post here and get some good critiques. 

For this photo, I found a pleasing background (a make up store with a colorful and mirrored front window display) and asked Keke, who was just coming out from trying out this new look, if she would mind posing for me.  She obliged and I used a reflector to bounce a bit of light from below.  The lens was a Nippon Kogaku 85mm 1.8 mounted to a Sony A7s.  I used spot metering on her face and let the camera select shutter speed.

Thanks in advance for your input!

Jeremy

[Steved53]

Hi Jeremy,
I was going to say I would have liked to see some white of her eyes on her left. Then I zoomed in on her eyes - wow! What is going on there? Are they some weird contact lenses?

I find the stray hair distracting on her face. Not something you'd bother with in street photography, but I see it as more of a portrait that happens to have been taken in the street, rather than what I think of as street photography.

Nice exposure.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

I'd like the near eye to be in focus.

[Andrea B.]

Jeremy, our name is Nikongear (by historical accident), but we don't care what camera or lenses you are using. You are very welcome to post here with any photographs made with any camera or lens!!

[Bill Mellen]

Jeremy,

I agree with Bjorn, the near eye in focus would be more comfortable to the viewer.  Unless you wished for a feeling of discomfort for the viewer.

[armando_m]

Seeing this large is even more evident the focus is only on the far eye, not the lips, nose, or closer eye

the bright spot in front of her is rather bright, I would clone it or crop it out

I assume you used focus peaking how accurate is it ? maybe you moved a bit after focusing ?

[MFloyd]

I like quite much this photograph. And yes, there are some flaws from an academic perspective, but maybe this makes all the charm of this street shot.

[Ethan]

Artistically, it is a nice picture.

Technically, there are areas to be improved:
- Left eye focus
- Tooth out
- Hair detail lost
- Side and back highlights blown
- Cyan too high on skin
- Yellow too low on skin
- Earphone cable?

[David H. Hartman]

I'd like the near eye to be in focus.

Many years ago a friend shot some photographs of young lady. He was lamenting that one eye was out of focus. I did the printing for him as the darkroom chemicals kick up his dormant asthma. My advice was don't tell anyone and they won't notice since you nailed the focus on the near eye. I believe this is true and I habitually focus on the near eye. I must have read that somewhere. The lens was an 85/1.8 K with factory AI. Years later I tried to buy the lens and offered a good price. He wouldn't sell it.

Dave

[jeremycole]

Hello, all. 

Thank you for your replies. I appreciate any advice that makes me a better photographer! 

Since there were a number of questions on focus, I'll answer that first.  I was using a manual focus lens set at 1.8 while holding a reflector, so after focusing initially I just leaned my body to correct it. I was using focus peaking but for some reason, it just wouldn't light up around her eyes.  I resorted to holding down the shutter release while rocking back and forth a bit.  Despite the soft focus on the near eye, in my opinion, this frame was the best compromise across various considerations. One day I may pay for an autofocus 85mm but for now, I like my old lens.  It was used by a photographer at the LA Times and is engraved with the paper's name.  I kind of enjoy that

Yes, those are contact lenses she is wearing. The thing that looks like an earphone cable is actually an earring. 

Since this photo was taken I've been improving a bit on my processing of street portraits in terms of keeping detail in shadow/dark areas.  I think I just went a little too far with contrast, etc., and lost hair detail.  I may revisit that.

Thanks again to all of you for offering your insights.

Best,

Jeremy