One of my favorite portraits by Gregory Heisler is from his simple series. His subject is placed more on the right side of the gride not really in the middle which worked with the choice of lighting he uses and the dark background. The lighting he used is I believe short or broad light because the right side of his face most of it has a light on it and the left the side of his face barely or has no light shining on it. The model’s expression is more of a serious kind of sad but more serious expression which worked out well with the lighting styles that Heisler used.

Michael Paul Smith’s work is amazing in the fact that he makes toy cars look like they are real life like cars. He sets up his cars on location on a table then takes the image up close i believe but he ends up with amazing results that amazed me. When I first looked at his work I thought these were real life cars that he shot. But then I saw the image under it of the toy cars set up in the way he took the image to make it look life like and also looking closely his work shows a 1950s feel based on the cars he photographs.

Annie Liebowitz photograph of Demi Moore pregnant portrait shows more of a dramatic look. And that helped with the dark background and the fill light on her face that gave it more of a dramatic look. And the Beyonce photograph by Awol Erizku also had a dramatic/serious look with similar lighting styles, to be it looks like Erizku used front light and a fill to get this results. Both images have contrast. But I believe that Liebowitz’s image of Demi Moore has a strong and sharper contrast then Erizku’s Beyonce photograph. Which might have to do with the fact that Liebowitz’s image has no background except the dark background and the fill light making Demi Moore the main focus. Unlike Erizku’s image that has so much going on with the flowers behind Beyonce making us not only focus on her but on the background as well.

Yousef Karsh is an American-Canadian photographer in the 20th century who is best known for his portraits of celebrities at the time. Karsh portraits are in black and white old school simple but beautiful work. His technique, is photographing them in a simple way whether if its looking straight at the camera or looking away smiling, no smiling but it all worked out and looks beautiful. And also his images has a smooth finish.  One of the portrait that I love  from Karsh’s work is the Audrey Hepburn, 1956 portrait. Its one of the first and favorite portraits that stood out to me, because its not like typical portrait of the subject just looking at the camera  and smiling. She’s facing side ways not really smiling and closed eyes which to me shows elegance, beauty without even looking at the camera. Similar to an off guard pictures which I Love looking at and sometimes taking as well.

Nadav Kandar portraits were more  new and with color and some black and white. The subjects in his portraits have serious expressions. Similar to Karsh, Kandar also photographed famous individuals. He uses light and shadows in his work and even some blurs like the portrait of Brad Pitt III, 2008 or Bobby Gillespie III, 2013; blur of hand movement across his face. Kandar’s portraits are not just colored or black and white portraits, he showed reflection, shadows, lighting, and colors on the faces, close ups, and zoomed out. The lighting wasn’t too much on their face but you know that some portraits did have lighting in one side of the face. My favorite portrait form his work is from his Solitary Portraits series and its called, Erin After Caravaggio,2004. The reason  its my favorite because the subject stands out even though its not a close up, she’s  on the grass looking at the water, with her eyes closed  with her reflection. To me the image looks a little dramatic, serious, colorful and just beautiful.