Fred

I spent this morning at the Town Hall of a neighbouring town taking portraits of 30 members of staff for a 'Trombinoscope' which is a wonderful French name for an organisation chart with photographs.

This portrait is of Frédéric Chenu, the head of communications for the commune and the one who commissioned the portraits. Fred agreed to sit for me for my project and I tried a look I have been wanting to experiment with for sometime. What I was trying to achieve was a moody cinematic style portrait... no doubt you will let me know if I succeeded or if I need to go back to basics!

[Richard Sayer]

I am less happy with this posted, the light flare on his nose was not so prominent in Lightroom. It comes from a badly aimed hair-light which has spilled over onto his face. Ho-hum, learning every day...

[Lou]

Cinematic is the word! I'm of no use when it comes to professional portraiture, but I do have to say I love the Rembrandt lighting - it brings so much character out of his face, especially that half-smile. I'm not too crazy about the green tones in his hair and sweater, though.
His face looks familiar to me, but I can't quite place it...

[DoY]

I didn't even notice the light flare on his nose, until you pointed it out. I like this. Love the colour. I'm sure Fred likes it too.

[Lou]

Aha! "A Framed Portrait of a Woodcutter," by Jean Mohr. The man's face is older and his expression is dour, but their eyes and mouth are identical.

[Tom]

I like what you achieved; has a lot of character; I agree on the nose flare!
Darn It! really like the portrait

[Rik]

Great portrait. The lighting is wonderful

[Gabi]

This shot has such depth- it stopped my scrolling cold. Should have known it was one of yours, Richard. Bravo!!

[Matt Sayer]

I'm sorry Dad, I thought this was a photo OF A portrait when I first looked. It's one of the best photos i've ever seen of yours. Moody, cinematic and very Gallic. Brilliant.

[Matt Sayer]

On the nose subject, I would have allowed a bit of re-touching here and you know my hate of photoshopping!

[Shelley]

What a wonderful portrait. I really like the lighting and this shot show depth.

[Kevin Wallace]

The light and shadows along with processing make it appear to be a painting to me. So well done, Richard. Only twenty nine more? :) Fav and thanks for sharing!

[Niki]

You would think it was a painting. It's lovely. I don't mind the nose at all, I am drawn more to his eyes and mouth. Well done.

[Jo Henn]

It looks like a painting, really. Somebody's blue period. Such depth of character captured too. I really like this one.

[Shanne]

great tones and character to this - it's a really great portrait (shots on here don't always look as good as they do on your screen or on other sites - they get compressed uploading)

[Fisher Family]

I think this is a wonderful portrait, which did remind me of old matinee idol photos from the 50's. Something about it reminded me of Dirk Bogard. Katharine

[Jenteal]

Amazing portrait.

[Joey]

Great portrait, love the processing

[The Mysterious Mr Biscuit]

@louuncouth That's it! Rembrandt! I was looking at it, thinking "This looks like some kind of painting..."

[Niki]

Yay, you made it to the New Faces page :D

[Claire]

I love it and a fav...wish we had shots taken like that for our work instead of the normal boring head and shoulder shots! Definitely has that cinematic feel to it.

[Lisa Targowska]

Great portrait! Fav.

[Rachel]

I like it a lot, the bluish tones, lighting and dark backdrop give it a slight dramatic feel. I like how his featured are well defined and portray a lot of character. In my eyes, great portrait!

[Linda]

I think you did a great job of achieving the look you were after. Great portrait!
(Linda, @se7en , Fridays)

[Vijay]

brilliant portrait ... Fav and follow (thought I was already :-()

[Richard Sayer]

@friend2303 Thanks Vijay - I thought you were following too, I certainly get notifications of your posts... must be a glitch in the system.

[Frank Hymus]

I think it worked extremely well Richard.

[Delia]

I keep thinking about this picture - saw it a while ago, and it hasn't left my brain. I really respond to the fact that it looks like a painting, but is a picture. It's wonderful.

[Richard Sayer]

@deliag Thank you Delia - I was rather pleased at the way this turned out, but Fred himself doesn't like it much... he says it makes him look too old!