When I look at a portrait I first see the expression on the subject’s face, and after a few moments of appreciation I find my gaze inevitably drawn to the eyes. The eyes reveal the personality of the subject, confirming the expression of the face or contradicting it. The eyes are the most important part of the portrait, yet the smallest. This is a pity because eyes contain beautiful details that are lost in most portraits.
This project consists of inside-out portraits. The intention is that after the first few moments regarding the eye, your gaze is inevitably drawn inwards to the subject’s face.
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Bernie, Thats cool (Your Eye project).
Is this an original idea?
Did you get the idea from something similar?
Regards, Bob
Dude, raise your price a little bit. You should make a little money on each book. $5.00 is not a big deal. You should make a little something for your effort.
Wow. Amazing. Innovative. Excellent. Beautiful. Superb stuff, Bernie! Thank you for sharing the photos and your technique.
Bernie – your eye portraits are great. Haven’t seen anything like it before and I found them fascinating.
bob: yes, it’s an idea I had with my wife one evening
nick: if I sell hundreds then I might, but the main customers are my subjects so it’s not really fair to profit!
Amy and Gordon: thanks!
Oh by the way did you try doing a shot with just the iris (as in the last photos of this post) with portrait inserted?
I suspect you might get a change in emphasis with more going to the portrait. There sure are a lot of variations you can do with your concept. If you have any more variations please let me know.
bob: The original concept has just irises, but firstly it was harder to shoot, and secondly they just didn’t look human enough.
What a fascinating project and beautifully executed. It was particularly generous of you to share so much about your technique for shooting and editing. Thanks and congratulations. I am looking forward to your next project.
Interesting project, especially as one gets little idea of gender from the eye itself. Nicely presented.
Couple of technical points (as you’re sharing workflow): Looks like you’re actually using the canon 70-300 DO lens (at least in the picture you show here). I’ve found that it softens up quite a bit if you put filters on the front (even a simple UV). Might want to try extension tubes instead of the 500D for sharper results.
On the hiraloam sharpening (High radium, low amount) that you use for contrast enhancement – I find it’s generally betetr to apply before the low radius sharpeing rather than after, can help reduce artefacts.
Nice job on the SoFoBoMo website, btw.
thanx for sharing these beautiful eyes.
And I hope you don’t mind if I try it myself as well.
I just love your idea and the pictures. Very nice, and it’s true what youe say about portraits…wine helps. ;)
I’m starting in all this photography thing, and might enter the 2009 SoFoBoMo contest. I just need an original idea as yours.
By the way, how coud you get the dog stay still while taking it’s picture? ;)
Kepp it up.
Great book!! I’m so intrigued by the way the iris works. The way you captured the details is amazing!
Brilliant! I am going to have to try this as well.
Nice work mate!
I really liked the info shared in this blog.It makes me more knowledgable towards it.I am waiting eagerly for your next post.
Stumbled on this by accident! I’m thinking about trying photography and your photos are really inspiring.
Thanks!