Portrait using available light

A beautiful shot of a beautiful subject indeed. I like how the cat was placed in front of a strong light that made its pupil go really thin and become much more interesting than normal. The depth of field is very good, with the eye and lower part of the whiskers in perfect focus and both a foreground and background blur, so as to emphasise exactly what the most important thing and point of interest in the picture is. Overall a well-executed shot, it would have benefited from a slightly different composition and crop to either make the cat's other eye completely present in the picture (although in the shade) or to take it out of the image completely.

This shot made me interested to know more. As soon as I saw it I wanted to ask a lot of questions: What is the girl doing? Is she really jumping? What is she doing in a field at night? I like it when a shot makes me wonder, but wondering too much sometimes can mean not understanding the image and being tempted to move on. I feel that some of my questions should have been answered by the picture. Maybe seeing the subject’s face would have helped an understanding of her feelings and purpose, giving the viewer a better sense of what is going on, as well as something more clear to rest attention and eyes on.

I like how close up this portrait is, drawing the viewer’s attention right to the big, curious eyes and to the rotundity of the cheek, which can be so typical of kids. But it’s a more ‘adult’ type of photography we are talking about here, with a serious, strong black and white portrait that contrasts very nicely with the child-like features of the subject, such as the immaculate skin, the big eyes, the round cheek and the soft hair. The light, coming from half way towards the right-hand side of the subject, is well diffused and distributed on the face, generating beautiful catchlights in the eyes and creating soft shadows that add interest to the picture without being too important or disturbing.

A well-executed portrait with an interesting highlight that creates moody, long shadows. I feel I would have liked to see a bit more of this picture – like more detail in the top of the coat, where a tiny bit of light is already just about showing some detail – to give more context to the head. The cigarette is strongly lit and therefore becomes a decisive point of interest in the shot. A back-lit white curl of smoke coming out of it, against the black of the background, would have stood out and added even more drama and interest to this already dramatic shot.

What captured my attention about this shot is how fresh and spontaneous it looks while at the same time being obviously well thought out and beautifully created. The back lighting adds a decisive point of interest in this picture, contributing the typical warm colour of a setting (or rising?) sun, glare included. Although the backlight is strong, the highlights on the face are kept under control and the rest of the face still benefits from the correct exposure – great use of available light. The large aperture contributes to the beauty of this shot, which is made up of a stunning foreground and background, grainy blur that stops just in time to leave space for a perfectly sharp subject. In terms of composition the length of the ledge behind the subject could maybe have been minimised, although the large blur helps to almost blend it in with the background and keep the viewer’s attention onto the captivating subject’s eyes at all times. An eye-catching, spontaneous shot that most definitely deserves a Top 3 ranking.

There is a simple beauty about this shot that made it immediately stand out from the rest of the entries. Not only does the photographer make perfect use of the available light in a soft but not flat way, but there is also a certain depth to the image that goes beyond the technical side. The old lady is holding what looks like a picture of herself in her young years, and seems to be doing so with a certain melancholy. Everything in this picture makes me think about the passing of time: from the wrinkled hands to the old house and bed and even the soft pastel colours, which give the idea of something worn out with the passing of years. The choice of subject is beautiful and everything in this shot works in harmony and contributes to the theme and mood. Good composition and depth of field, which slightly blurs the background while still making it easy to detect and understand (the location is an important element in this picture and not a distraction). Overall a great shot and definitely a winner.

The dynamism and the interesting choice of subject are definitely two of the winning elements in this shot. While I look at the man I can almost expect him to start playing again any time, as if the picture were just taken during a brief pause in the song, allowing him to take a deep breath and start again with the next verse. The light is overall very diffused and soft, pretty shaded, although the back and rim lighting creates a lovely point of interest, and makes a beautiful way to frame the dynamic subject and detach him from the still and empty background, almost to emphasise the contrast between the two. Without the rim light, the shoulders of the man would have easily blended in with the wall in the background as they are a very similar shade. The highlight is a bit harsh on the head, but overall the photographer found a great balance between that and the general shadow in the shot, creating the overall right exposure on the subject. Once again the location and not-too-blurred background is not too much of a distraction here, acting to help us understand more about this interesting and somehow eccentric subject.

A very interesting subject and light, and it was a good choice to shoot in (or turn into) black and white. What penalises this picture is the very tight crop on the subject, which is slightly cut on the top and bottom. When I look at this picture I realise that I would really like to see more of the whole scene, to understand more about the subject: where he is, what his audience is, how people are reacting to his presence, and what’s going on around him. I think this would have made a good landscape-format shot, with the subject on the left-hand side and the rest of the scene developing towards the right-hand side, telling a proper story about the subject and giving him more space to ‘breathe’ in the picture.

An interesting soft-light portrait with punching colours and immaculate composition. I like the fact that it’s a landscape-format shot rather than a standard portrait one, and I like the contrast of the pale skin against the bright red of the lipstick, which matches the red leaves in the background. Colours are really the strong point of interest in this shot. The large aperture and thin depth of field adds more interest to the portrait by keeping the face sharp and well framed at the very centre of the image.

I like the creativity of this shot – the interesting and almost funny choice of subject and background: the man holding a small dog (who looks a bit uneasy) and the massive, almost scary, big dog (or bear?) looming in the background. I think this shot would have benefitted from a slightly closer aperture so that the dog would have been clear sharp (it’s almost a more important subject than the man in this picture). Also I would have really liked to see a bit more of the face on the background, especially the eyes. Pulling the camera back a bit would have allowed a more complete composition, with the eyes in the background showing completely and the man in the front showing down to his waist.

This image is lovely and peaceful. The first thing that captures my eye when looking at it are the soft, pretty pastel colours that just go so well with the overall soft and sleepy mood of the shot. The baby’s perfect skin tone, the pink cheeks and the white pyjamas: they are all so in tune with each other. Because of that, the leg and blue jeans behind the baby’s head looks like a distraction in terms of colour and shape. But sometimes with babies it’s all about capturing the moment, and moving them to a location with a more suitable background can be out of the question. In this case opening the aperture to a wider setting would have allowed the leg (and maybe what looks like an arm on the left-hand side) to blur out completely, and to be less of a distraction overall.

A strong, minimalist black-and-white portrait that very much reminds me of film noir in terms of lighting and facial features. I like how the backlight illuminates only the right-hand side of the face, drawing a precise, confined line and leaving the left side in complete darkness, blending with the pitch-black background. A stronger catchlight in the right eye would have been a nice extra touch, but overall a very well executed, moody close up, stripped of all distractions and right to the point.

I love the geometry and severity of this shot, and the black and white works perfectly to enhance both elements even more. The side lighting is brilliantly used – it lights up part of the face while leaving the other side completely in the dark, turning the man into an authoritative and mysterious figure. The lines that the light creates on both the coat and the wall also contribute to making this shot very interesting to look at. The very long depth of field, which makes the whole image completely sharp, background included, is a clever choice as it doesn’t allow the gate/doorway to blur out and therefore be lost. The sharpness contributes to the overall austerity of the picture, and the sharp gate contributes to the geometry of the shot, adding an interesting element at the right point of the picture, which would have otherwise got lost in blur. A striking shot with its own strong mood and uniqueness, great technical choices and beautiful, creative use of available light.

This shot can be innocent, playful and mysterious at the same time. The light is soft and very well positioned, perfectly brightening up the side of the subject, which is in perfect focus and centre of the composition, and slowly decreasing towards the other side of the face, where shadows reign but still leave space for some details to shine through and yet leave space for the imagination. The light creates a beautiful catchlight in the eye, which is always the key to close-up portraits – even this shot wouldn’t have been the same without that little touch. The depth of field is another important element in this picture, introducing a soft blur which embraces the subject but leaves space to a beautifully framed, curious little eye, which appears perfectly sharp and doesn’t fail to please the viewer.

I found this portrait very interesting from the time I saw it. The choice of subject is very interesting and so is the location and objects around them. It’s a picture that could go from simply being a great, fun-looking shot to having hidden, deeper meanings. The light is balanced and ‘correct’, although appears a bit flat when compared to some of the other shots, so maybe the picture would have benefited from side or 45-degrees-side lighting more than from the front, to add a bit of depth. The aperture could have been opened up just a little so that the background would have still shown clearly but been slightly blurred, to draw a bit more attention to the subject rather than to the room, and to again add a bit of depth to the shot

The issue I usually find in pictures of babies is the untidy and distracting background: it is undoubtedly hard to get ‘clean’ pictures of newborns as they are normally being held, or in their bed, or have a background of a room messy with toys. What I like about this shot is how easy it is to concentrate on the subject’s eyes without being distracted by anything else behind them. The large aperture creates a beautiful blur and softness which is very much right for this kind of subject, and works beautifully in framing the little face, eliminating any kind of distraction. The light is soft but not flat, thanks to it coming from the left-hand side of the subject. A good portrait that would have maybe benefitted from a stronger connection camera-to-subject.

I like the idea behind this picture, which slightly pushes the boundaries of the definition of ‘portrait’ photography. Although not ‘alive’ the subject is peaceful and pleasant to look at, and the light falls nicely on its side, creating some interesting shadows under the brow, cheek and nose that overall enhance the depth of the face. The shot is a bit too simple and static to be considered for the Top 10, but is well executed.