Prompt
· English
A close face photo for a profile picture, the face large in the centre of a square, captures a 67-year-old man of Central Asian descent standing in front of a plain coloured backdrop in soft window light. The man stares directly into the lens with a deadpan, unimpressed expression, his lower lip pushed out in a sulking pout while his arms are crossed tightly over his chest. His very fair porcelain skin with pink undertones contrasts with his thick straight eyebrows and green eyes, which sit in the upper third of the frame. His face is wider at the jaw than at the temples, and he wears a loose white linen shirt with rolled linen trousers, revealing a tall lanky frame. On his head, a tangled mass of soft springy coils sits loosely, held together by a single rubber band, with short cropped dark blonde hair visible underneath and shoulder-grazing locs framing his neck. A goatee sits on his chin, where a smear of purple developer product is clearly visible. Behind him, the mirror reflection shows the back of the salon's product shelves, and a handwritten price list is taped crookedly to the mirror frame. The shot uses a 50mm lens to keep the background slightly soft while maintaining sharp focus on the facial features and the texture of the linen shirt. The light from the window falls gently on the left side of his face, highlighting the pink undertones in his skin and the sheen of the purple product on his chin. Shot on a medium format digital camera with a shallow depth of field, the image exhibits fine grain and natural colour rendering typical of a high-resolution portrait session.
