1x.com - My Sweet Embraceable You by King Douglas

Photos Artists Forum Tutorials Critique Books Buy Prints About

Stumble 1X

Tour

Join

Sign in

My Sweet Embraceable You

Related photos

Write

Mel Brackstone 1 month ago

Such emotion! I love the look in her eyes, King! This says so much!

Francesca Bosco 3 months ago

This embrace is a caress to the soul ... The look is fantastic and very gentle man prfilo. Congratulations. Frà

King Douglas Thank you so much, Francesca. I'll tell my models, who live just next door to me.

Marie-Claude C. 5 months ago

So beautiful !
You captured love !
I am stuck in front watching this photo !
Great !

I added it to my favorites !

Marie-Claude

King Douglas Thank you so much, Marie-Claude...and especially for adding this image to your favorites.
King

Monika Gruenwald 6 months ago

Happiness is written all over her face. This is so human, warm and inviting... just lovely.

King Douglas What a nice compliment. Thank so much, Monika.

Silvino González Morales 6 months ago

Full of emotion my friend, excellent.

King Douglas Thanks very much, Sivino.

thierry ysebaert 8 months ago

Damn strong !

King Douglas Thanks again, thierry.

Hani Metanes 8 months ago

Love

King Douglas Yes, it's true. Thank you for your comment. Hani.

OR. WE. 10 months ago

Wow!What a perfect moment you captured!

King Douglas Thanks OR. WE. ...actually this was completely visualized before I asked my models to pose. That is to say, I didn't capture the moment, I created the moment. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Faisal Almalki 10 months ago

Beautiful light and tones

King Douglas Thanks very much, Faisal.

Philip Armitage 11 months ago

really nice image

King Douglas Thanks, Philip, and nice to meet you. An friend of mine from the late 60's, an amateur photographer at the time, was one of the pioneers of the video listing service. He was a talented photographer who took his skill to making houses look good on video. I think he made good money at it for a while.

João Fernandes 1 year ago

Wonderful moment, expression, light and composition!

King Douglas Thanks very much, João.

Willem de Vlaming 1 year ago

Hi King
For me this is and has been an amazing portrait. I've come back several times to look at it and today I've added it to my favorites.
I'm glad to see you on the site again.

King Douglas Thanks very much, Willem. As I say below, this was shot one week before my bi-lateral total knee replacement surgery, 8 months ago. I haven't shot anything of any importance since then, but my knees are doing very well, I'm inspired and anxious to get back in the grove.

Willem de Vlaming I know about your knee operation... but it's good to see you up and running again... :-)

Elisabeth Clara 1 year ago

you captured the moment perfectly
great photo!

King Douglas Thanks very much, Elisabeth.

Fernand Hick 1 year ago

Wonderful moment...! Very nice...!

King Douglas Thanks, Fernand.

I shot this by window light. By very good fortune, I have come into possession of a very fine set of electronic flash lighting, with which use I am expert. Now I'll be able to shoot models who don't have to hold so still while trying to get them in focus with my view camera using a very shallow depth of field.

However, it is difficult to beat window light.

Fernand Hick Independently of the technique for which you are a master, mood and feelings are great...! Thanks to share.

dido 1 year ago

thank you for this picture

King Douglas I'm glad you like it...thank you for your comment.

ksenija mikor 2 years ago

i like it :) full of emotions

King Douglas Thank you, ksenija.

Renato Manzi 2 years ago

ECCELLENTE as always!!!

King Douglas Thanks so much, my esteemed Renato, and thank you for taking the time to write to me.

Suren Manvelyan 2 years ago

Fascinating emotions!

King Douglas Thanks again, Suren.

Andre du Plessis 2 years ago

Super work King!

King Douglas Thanks very much, Andre...so glad you like this.

Remo Rufer 2 years ago

makes my heart feel warm. thanks for sharing!

King Douglas Hey, Remo...thanks a lot!

Javier Roldan 2 years ago

Fantastic, King.

King Douglas Thanks so much, Javier.

Zoltan Nagy 2 years ago

Pure beauty!
I'm speachless.

King Douglas Thank you very much, Zoltan for the kind and heartfelt words.

Faddoush 2 years ago

Beautiful in so many levels.

King Douglas From every level of beauty, I think you deeply.

ivapetrovic 2 years ago

Amazing shot!

King Douglas Thank you, ivapetrovic.

Angela Bacon-Kidwell 2 years ago

Beautiful!

King Douglas Thank you...praise from Caesar is praise, indeed.

Angela Bacon-Kidwell oh please, King. How are you feeling?

King Douglas I'm doing better day by day, but still in considerable pain--so still taking pain meds. I can walk now, even without a cane, but it depends on how I feel. Thanks for asking!

Ben Goossens 2 years ago

Good interaction and perfect tone... bravo King:-
Nest time with the Linux... maybe after the operation?

King Douglas I shot variations of this with my LX3, but always intended to submit the view camera version. Thanks, Ben.

Ali Morshedlou 2 years ago

Amazing shot,
congrats...

King Douglas Thanks, Ali.

jacques philippe 2 years ago

OK King, this is great image, nothing to add that has not been said...

..hmm... well... might be. Something I don't understand with DOF here.

The lady's eyes are sharp. Her hands on foreground are sharp (ring is very sharp)... but the top of the man's head is blurry and seem out of DOF, whereas it seems to me in between lady's eyes and hands, both sharp. Don't understand that... (unless you blurred this part at PP but I can't believe you did that). Or maybe something you had on the lens (can't believe it either). Anything to explain that ?

King Douglas jacque philippe,

What you have described is simply characteristic of focusing view cameras. I'll try to explain as well as I can while having pain-killing drugs in my blood.

In a fixed camera, such as a DSLR and the usual lens, you have three planes that are parallel at each point: the plane of the sensor, the plane of the lens mount, and the plane of focus which, in most cases can be imagined as an infinitely thin area with width and height parallel to the sensor...that is, what the sensor sees.

The view camera photographer can manipulate the film plane independently of the plane of the lens support, which is perfectly perpendicular to the axis of the lens.

By manipulating the film and lens mount planes, the image plane can be adjusted to any number of positions. Any point on the plane of focus will appear to be in focus on the film plane, even without stopping down the lens (Google the Scheimpflug principle and refer to the Wikipedia...that's all I'm talking about here). A couple of common examples:

A landscape can from brought into focus from flowers in the foreground high cliffs in the background without stopping down.
In photographing a tall, long building looking down one side, the entire plane of the receding face of the building can be brought into perfectly sharp focus without stopping down

Now about this photograph. It was shot at about 1/50th of a second at f8 by window light. On a 210mm lens with the subject pretty close to the lens, f8 doesn't provide enough DOF to get both people sharp, so I to use the Scheimpflug principle to get the *important* elements in focus. I decisded that the important elements were the woman's hand in the foregraound, especially ring as the eye would be drawn there and her eyes, of course. I also wanted the man's eyes, even though in silhouette, to be equally sharp. So I adjusted the plane of focus to be the ring in foreground to the woman's eyes in the background, then adjusted the plane of focus such that the man's eyes would be one of three points of focus. You can imagine, then, that everything on that line of focus, plus the small amount of DOF provide by f8 would have to do it. Everything else would be more or less out of focus.

Hope this helps, and thanks for the perceptive question.

From my hospital bed and feeling no pain,

King

jacques philippe Thanks King for the detailed explanation. And by the way hope you are recovering well, which is way more important than my musing.

... but again I don't understand. I understand the explanation you provided, which makes sense to me, but not the way it is applied to this specific image because my perception sees the blurred area on top of the man's head should be *inside* the plan of focus you mentioned. what I see more precisely is, in the order of distance from the lens are 1. Ring: perfectly sharp 2. Top of man's head: not sharp 3. Man's silhouette and lady's eyes: sharp. So I can figure out a plan of focus that ranges from about points 1. to 3. with an out-of-focus element (2.) *inside* that plan. Does that makes sense ?

Could be a sort of illusion though. And again it is more bla-bla than anything else and does not do anything wrong to the overall emotional impact of the image.

King Douglas More later..I'm not competernt to write just now...if I ever was. :>)

jacques philippe ... Just if you don't mind King.
Oh, and I did a mistake in words by the way. What I referred wrongly to the plan of focus is instead the "area of sharpness", i.e. the depth of field which is supposed to be sharp given lens aperture and distance. So here I expect everything to be sharp in the depth between ring and lady's eyes, which should include the man's head/hair that I find weirdly unsharp.

I may be wrong the way I see your picture... But this has lead me to think on how to achieve such an effect and regardless of this specific photograph (assuming it could be a sort of interesting effect, having unsharp points within the sharp depth of field). And I mean with pure optical means (i.e. no post-processing or vaseline on lens or whatever). I guess if you take a photo of a photo which is sharp, but have it slightly inclined and use a tilt/shift lens (or very fast aperture) you can achieve such an illusion effect. Also maybe an,d more sophisticated if you use some angled mirror system between the camera and subject matter you can achieve something like that. But now I am too lazy to try this out, but is certainly an interesting thing to discuss... :)

King Douglas You are confused about the focal plane in the case of view camera work. The focal plane is analogous to the film plane. It is like a flat, infinitely thin book that exists in two dimensions (it is depth of field that gives it the appearance of a third dimesion).

The film plane can tip forward or back, swing left or right like a door, and shift up or down or left to rigt.

In this image, think of the film plane as tilted backwar4d along the plane of the ring to the eyes. The depth of field is relative to the planed of focus, not the distance from the lens. I'm finding it very difficult to explain myself with all the drugs in my bloodstreem, among other things. Le's get back to this another time.
.

jacques philippe **In this image, think of the film plane as tilted backwar4d along the plane of the ring to the eyes**

OK King. That is very interesting. Can I put that in the forum, with your photograph and some quote from your saying here ? I am curious to know what the other members will think about it.

King Douglas

.

King Douglas You can publish my remarks in the forum but keep in mind that I don't think I cab write adequately from the hospital.

Monique 2 years ago

fabolous image.
type of light is perfectly choosen here.
they look so wonderful together.
Bravo ...and all the best for you...come back to home quickly.

King Douglas Thank you very much, Monique, and my apologies for taking so long to reply to your fine compliments.

Muzaffer Sütlüo?lu 2 years ago

well

King Douglas Thank you, Muzaffer.

steffi s5pro 2 years ago

this picture is a sole declaration of love, it is great

King Douglas Thank you so much, steffi. I think you description is true of these two people, neighbors of mine.

jalili 2 years ago

Amazing ..............

King Douglas Thank you, jalili.

jalili My regards ...........

Marek Urbanowski 2 years ago

Good job:)

King Douglas Thank you, Marek...sorry to take so long to reply.

Phariborzz 2 years ago

Fantastic capture, great job!

King Douglas Thanks very much, Phariborzz.

fulviopellegrini 2 years ago

great one my King
F.

King Douglas Thanks so much, fulvio...very kind of you.

Barbara Orienti 2 years ago

So intense King!
I like it
B

King Douglas Thanks, Barbara...I'm glad you like it. My apologies for taking so long to thank you.

Alex OBrien 2 years ago

I don't think I've ever seen a piece this professionally done with so much emotion. Just excellent work King. Gute besserung!

King Douglas Gosh, Alex...thanks very much. You are young, right? Perhaps you will see many more by the time you reach my age.

Rina Ciampolillo 2 years ago

In the scene missing part of the right hand, and a little sorry ... but the sweetness of his gaze exceeds any lack.
Wonderful moment!

King Douglas I agree about the crop, but it was necessary to the *overall* success of this image.

Thanks very much, Rina.

cumboandrea 2 years ago

very nice for this work!
that lens has used?
ps: good luck for your surgery!

King Douglas Thanks, cumboandrea.

210mm Caltar lens for 4x inch view camera.
Equivalent to eight-five mm on a "full frame" DSLR.

Rui Pires 2 years ago

I hope you will be ok soon and completely recovered, King. This BW is superb, a realy masterpiece of characters, story and light !

King Douglas Thanks, Rui. Simple window light.

For those who might be interested. I visualized his specific image, including the light, before I asked these folks, my neighbors, to pose for me.

Of course I shots of other poses, but this is the one designd for 1X submission.

King Douglas 2 years ago

Folks,

Thanks for all the comments, to which I will replay over the next few days. I'm in the hospital recovering from double knee replacement surgery yesterday (May 11) and I'm on heavy medications = I'm as dumb as a box of rocks. While I appreciate the kind words, composing sentences is a bit difficult just now.

So THANKS VERY MUCH!

lasse grundell 2 years ago

god work

King Douglas Thanks very much, lasse.

limawhisky 2 years ago

minimum lighting, perfect grain, and perfect detail of the lady...
I learn a lot from this beuatiful art work..
wish that you are fine there King..

King Douglas Thanks very much, limawhisky, and my apologies for taking so long to reply.

RICHARD20D 2 years ago

Absolutely brilliant the embrace of two people, this is great. I love the light on the womans face, and the title says it all. Compassion, Love, Emotion and Kindness all in one image, the eyes say it all. The talent you have for photography truly shows in the images you take.

Kind Regards Richard

Ps I have just read the other comments made And although we dont know each other, I too wish you a speedy recovery from your operation.

King Douglas Richard, thank you--you see in this image everything I hoped to convey of the relationship between these two beautiful people.

Please forgive me for taking so long to reply.

RICHARD20D Thankyou very much for the reply but you dont have to appologise as I understand you were recovering from a knee operation. I ofton look back on this image and think to myself how lucky I am to as I hve been married for 33 years this year to my wife, best friend, and a brilliant mother of two grown up children.

Kind Regards Richard I hope the operation went well and you are on the road to recovery

barbara 2 years ago

excellent story and the light is just amazing.

King Douglas Thanks very much, barbara.

Amnon Eichelberg 2 years ago

good light

King Douglas Simple, unadorned window light, although carefully composed within that light. Thanks very much, Amnon.

Stephan Sünderkamp 2 years ago

Care, love, tenderness, purity. Just great!

King Douglas Thank you Stephan. I'm happy that you see what I see in this image. My apologies for taking so long to reply.

Stephan Sünderkamp No problem at all. I hope you are doing well.

Wings 2 years ago

When I see this image I feel I'm on a quest.

King Douglas What a nice thing to say, Wings...thank you very much.

Vlad Dumitrescu 2 years ago

beautiful work...

Congrats!

King Douglas Thank you, Vlad.

Codrin Lupei 2 years ago

A wonderful image, King, so beautifuly captured, sincere and full of feelings, love it! Happy to read that the surgery is now over and you are okay! Wish you all the very best!

King Douglas Thanks very much, Codrin. I'm hoping now to get caught up on replying to comments left for me and to comment on the images published by my 1X friends...I see I owe you several!

Thomas Wegner 2 years ago

Intersting composition. Well done.

King Douglas Thanks very much, Thomas.

Anna Golitsyna 2 years ago

Perfect sweetness! Congratulations on your second hundred starting!

King Douglas Thank you, Anna. Sorry for the long delay in replying.

Anna Golitsyna King, not a problem at all! I feel touched that you feel obligated to answer at all given what you are going through. My best wishes and may you recover as quickly as possible.

-Anna

Glen Ballis 2 years ago

thats just amazing

King Douglas Thanks so much, Glen.

Kevin Ng 2 years ago

This helps me justify buying a medium format cam - thanks King! - a wonderful, tender picture!

King Douglas Thanks, Kevin...Sorry for the long delay in thanking you.

Nicolas Marino 2 years ago

simply Superb, King!! you never cease to amaze me with your quality

King Douglas Thanks, Nicolas, for the fine compliment.

Robert 2 years ago

This is amazing!

Robert

King Douglas Thanks so much, Robert.

Pierre Pageau 2 years ago

félicitations .

King Douglas Je vous remercie beaucoup, Pierre.

Rogel 2 years ago

Mesmerizing and deeply touching image!

King Douglas Thanks very much, Rogel...sorry for the long delay in replying.

Geert Deleu 2 years ago

I can't recall the time when I've been so deeply touched by a photograph. How good can it get (both photography and life itself)..? Congratulations and a deep bow ;o)

King Douglas I feel deeply complimented by your words, Geert. Thank you so much.

Richard Ford 2 years ago

The master at work....

King Douglas Thanks very much, Richard...sorry for the delay in my response.

Phyllis Clarke 2 years ago

King, there are so many little touches here that all combine to make this image outstanding. Just a few for me...her eyes, his profile, that ring, and the lighting..ah...the toning also..I think I still do love the look of film - it is so natural.:) Bravo on this capture. My best, Phyllis

King Douglas Phyllis, You say the nicest things! Thanks so much, and my apology to be so dilatory in my response.

Lev Tsimring 2 years ago

wonderful, heartfelt work, King! You can create rapport not only with dancers! :)

King Douglas Thank, Lev, for the kind words.

Raphael Guarino 2 years ago

+++ wow

King Douglas +++Thank You!!!

JBA 2 years ago

Tenderness personified. Lovely shot your majesty.

King Douglas Thanks so much, JBA.

JBA Hope the knees are bearing up, King. You are in good company, Lee Friedlander had his knees done a few years ago and is very much up and about. . .

Bob Patefield 2 years ago

Wonderful K. Is this new work? Hope the knees are feeling ok. B

King Douglas Thanks for the kind words about this photo, Bob, and for your considerate question about my knees. I'm doing okay overall, but feel terrible this week (you can read by forum post about my condition).

This was shot on May 2, just over a week before my knee surgery.

Regards from King