'Portraiture' Winners Announced!

Prize

Sponsor

We have six winners this month and a very good shortlist too. You gave us a great collection of portraits to look through from quality family pictures to studio set-ups. We had work and play, happy and sad. Great characters, great emotion, and great quality.
The winners were chosen for the following reasons.

1st prize: frencm71's use of mirror and room lighting work incredibly well. The warm tones and direct eye contact really are exquisite. We are being seduced by the gaze. Catchlights in the eyes, chain and earrings all add subtle points for attention. The bleached background keeps our eyes on the main aspects. Mark wins Corel® PaintShop Photo® Pro X3, Corel® VideoStudio® Pro X3
& Corel® Painter™ 11


2nd prize: blackbird's captured at my local agricultural show. The girl in white coat contrasts strongly against the black of the cows, her expression, connection with the cow and balance in the frame all stack up to a wonderful portrait.

Merille wins Corel® Painter™ 11  &Corel® PaintShop Photo® Pro X3

3rd prize:  johnwattsrobertson's portrait of the new UK Government Parliamentary Standards watchdog, Alan Lockwood. is a classic single light shot  with shadows, stark contrast and colours that leap of the screen. The firm pose, intense stare all add to the character. Good balance, good use of props. This would look equally good in the company report or in the national papers.

John wins Corel® Painter™ 11 & Corel® PaintShop Photo® Pro X3

4th Prize:  They don't come much more graphical than this by Danielle_T. High contrast, precise focus and sharpening has resulted in a very striking image. The expression adds to the madness of it all. Not an easy shot to pull off so well. Well done. Danielle wins Corel® PaintShop Photo® Pro X3 & Corel® VideoStudio® Pro X3

5th Prize:  SGPhotography chose the emotive angle and has cropped extremely tightly on the face which has worked. You can't avoid feeling the sorrow in this shot. Extremely well executed and highly emotive. Sophia wins Corel® PaintShop Photo® Pro X3
& Corel® VideoStudio® Pro X3

 6th Prize: Seamuscamp's shot is technically lacking in contrast and sharpness, but in the same vein as Julia Margaret Cameron, those things don't always matter, especially if the expression is captured as well as this. Here we see a mesmerised child and read the caption to see it's Disney that's captured her attention while the boy enjoys his food. Beautiful!  Seamus wins Corel® PaintShop Photo® Pro X3

Well done everyone. Good luck with July's competition.