A lot of my time is spent making photos of people’s faces, even more is spent looking at those photos thinking of ways to improve composition or working on some technicality. Some time is spent thinking about how the sitter might have helped me help them, but any critique in this area is usually filed in the “next time I have a chance to coach a sitter” part of my brain.
Am I uniquely qualified to offer my judgement on the photos used by the Maine Democratic Party to provide quick information as democrats hustle to replace their discredited former candidate? No.
On the other hand, almost everyone and their cousin has gotten in this race in the last 11 days. Unique qualifications don’t seem important for a lot of the candidates—I feel almost ashamed I didn’t throw my own hat in the ring. After all, I have a website—-I could have just added a page declaring myself qualified. Nevermind my stance against voting for anyone my age or older.
Herewith, without regard to policies, polling, my personal preferences, or the horse race, is my two cents on the photographs representing these candidates.:
Elizabeth Cote
A couple of things would help this make a better photograph.
First, digital photography tends to pump up the greens and a yellows of foliage and grass, particularly when these elements are the only things making up the background. A regrettable by-product is the greenish hue cast over the sitter’s skin and hair, especially notable when the model, like Elizabeth here, is a fair skinned red head. A simple fix in light room is to mask the background, cut back the green saturation a bit, and cut back the yellow a bit more, sometimes a lot more.
As the old teaching from Ilford’s web site on black and white film tells us “a yellow filter darkens blues, it reproduces green, yellow, orange and red in lighter shades. This gives more differentiation between the different colours of foliage while flesh tones have a more natural look.”
A better, but very similar compositionally, photo of Elizabeth can be found on her campaign webpage. I suppose she didn’t want to use it because of the doctor’s white coat. Or maybe the Maine Dems just picked photos off the website?
My second quibble is the shoulders-square, passport photo mugshot posture. I know, I know, we are all in a hurry—three weeks from implosion of he who will not be named to a second chance.
Still just turn that right shoulder 5 or 10 degrees to the camera and it will relax your posture and maybe get that shadow from your hair off your left eye
B-
David Costello
David, David, David. We know you’re a serious guy but seriously, that bookshelf? Volume after volume of turgid non-fiction. In the old days the Curtis Memorial Library here in town did a giant annual donated book sale at the junior high…..table after table of unread books by George Will, various generals, business men, and wannabe wonks, all with their spines as uncracked as the day they were printed.
Throw a bit of humanity on that shelf David, it’d be a great complement to that nice photo behind your shoulder of young David and one of the kids.
Bookshelf backdrops in general….so 2020 zoom call.
The photo itself not bad. The smile I know to be genuine, the same real deal I have seen around town at high school soccer games or what have you.
A bit of fill flash would take care of the shadows. But just like Elizabeth Cote we’re looking at a passport photo here. Just turn the shoulder a bit (that’d get us a better look at that photo on the shelf and maybe help us forget Stalin and Gulag over your right shoulder). Another easy trick to relax the posture a bit is just to raise one foot a bit. Outside you can always put your leading foot on stone or a log. Indoors? Well you have a lot of door stops behind you on the shelf……put one on the floor a step on it!
B-
Troy
Actual dirty clothes. Not “distressed,” curated, or vintage. Note one shoulder slightly closer to the camera, posture looks human (see passport photo critiques above). Nice depth of field on the skidder. The smile, such as it is, looks genuine, wry. Like, “hey you sure you’re ok out in these woods?”
But Troy when you were over to my neighbors house talking people up and parked at the end of my driveway did you even notice that giant felled oak tree? A good guy with a skidder would have offered to drag it away for me.
Photo is a winner.
A
Kristina Libby
Heretofore unkown. A quick look at the website suggests Kristina is looking for that next thing and thought, “Hey. Sudden opening for US Senate cannon fodder, why not me?”
On the 2020 Zoom call bookshelf background see the Costello critique above but with Kristina ahead by a nose for throwing a little fiction on the shelf. And Mary Oliver? Nice touch but it’s collected essays rather than poetry.
These days they say prose is hard but poetry is easy. But let’s face it, actually reading poetry is a different animal altogether. It’s hard to read….that’s why people read collected essays instead.
Everybody likes a picture with an object designed to help tell the story. But I think Maine voters will prefer Troy’s skidder to Kristina’s braclet. By a lot. In fact, pose, head and hair are really pretty good but the clothes and bracelet seem a bit like Jennifer Coolidge’s portrayal of a New Jersey Realtor in The Watcher.
Kristina’s branding consultant must have missed the memo about Maine female politicians: there’s a direct line from Margaret Chase Smith, Olympia Snowe, to Janet Mills and they all wear boiled wool.
B+ as a picture of Kristina, C- on the bookshelf and knowing your audience. Final grade B-
Ashley Webb
Some of these candidates have been campaigning for something for a long time. Others, like Ashley, are relative new comers to this year’s campaign cycle. And this particular segment of this campaign is only three weeks long. So by all means use a selfie if you must.
However selfie best practice is to have the phone held at slightly above eye level and off to one side a bit. Looking up just a bit improves the portrayal of the face, especially around the eyes. If the eyes are the window to the soul we want to see them, looking up opens them. It also helps a few other details and balances the background a bit. Setting the phone a bit to the side also goes a long way to address the passport picture/mug shot issues referenced above.
First time on the big stage we will give this shot a Mulligan.
Jordan Wood
Speaking of running for everything, Jordan Wood was in this race against Susan Collins until Jared Golden decided he’s rather eat glass than run another second district congressional campaign, Jordan jumped at that low hanging fruit up north. After a gentleman’s third place finish in that primary, he barely had time to rest on his laurels before GP imploded.
So the campaign exposure has done him some good—three races in a year—he’s bound to have a good photo. Little hint of over exposure in the upper right but handled pretty well in post (I see you blue luminescence slider).
Best of all Jordan got the 2020 Sara Gideon memo. Remember the YUGE scandal when Sara wore Patagonia, rather than L.L Bean and then photoshopped the Patagonia logo out. The cover up is almost always worse than the offense.
In this grouping the photo is an A
Dan Kleban, a/k/a Beer Bro
Why Beer Bro? For one brief shining moment it looking like it was going to be Beer Bro v. Oyster Bro for the US Senate primary. And I was in for Beer Bro. Here’s what I wrote last October when the first shoe dropped on GP, Mills got in, and Kleban got out:
…..but back to the photo. It’s an OK pro shot. This guy has been in businesss a long time and personal brand is important to Beer Bros so no surprise there. Beer Bro’s posture is relaxed, no mug shot here; his smile is genuine and, like Troy, he is surrounding by the tools he uses to make a living. On the other hand the exposure is not great. Upper left quadrant is too bright which washes out Dan’s right temple. Somewhere, I saw a similar photo—same outfit, but with a darker background—it provided a better contrast for BB’s light complexion and the grey top he is wearing. If that had been chosen it’d be an A- up there with Shenna and Jordan, but this shot gets a B+
Saundra Pelletier
Definitely the best photo in the group in terms of composition and lighting and a relaxed comfortable subject. Problem is it looks more like a still from a Big Pharma Ad letting me know that I, too, can be happy managing my plaque psoriasis so long as I am willing to forego my blood pressure meds and let my eyeballs dry up.
Like Elizabeth, Joseph and Kristina, I knew nothing about Saundra Pelletier (except that she has the most late 20th Century Maine name ever) so I had to look her up. Clearly a success in her work life. Like Elizabeth I wish we had more than a week to consider her and get beyond this photo. Photo gets an A. but I am pencilling it in the grade book due to lack of context.
Joseph Leveille
Also a great sounding Maine name, but I have to go C on the photo. Mug shot passport as noted with some others, but at least you avoided the faux pas with the book shelf. Regrettably the orange-pink background gives Jospeh’s facial area a Canadian Wildfire Sunset tinge. End of days may near. We are also battling a lot of shadows here with a strong light to Joseph’s left giving the temple of his glasses a really strong shadow over the eye. Next time tone down the warmth, saturation and maybe block some of that light from the side.
Governor Shah
Hat tip to the photog on one point. See how the temples of Doc’s glasses run somewhat above his eyes? I think the phtogoraher asked him to tip his glasses just slightly to diminish reflection. At the same time I see a couple of errors here. That sky is completely blown. With a cloudless sky go ahead and step back, stand on a box or something. Shoot down a bit so the tree line extends above his head. No amount of masking and messing around is going to bring that sky back. Second, some heavy, heavy masking went on to recover exposure between the Doc and the background. The outline of Doc’s blue blazer (a fashion necessity down on the dock) is so distinct it’s almost like there are two photos here.
My guess is this photo comes from the early days of Shah’s campaign before the big money consultants descended and said “hey this is for real.” Dr. Shah’s comfort with his hands diminishes the passport photo shoulders and saves the photo. A for comfort level and smile, B for realism and C for execution in post. Overall B
Shenna Bellows
Photo is a winner, Just like Troy’s. A.
Jordan got an A too but I am giving the nod to Shenna and Troy based on the intangible: authenticity. Shenna does have the the shoulders square passport style but overcomes this defect with the slightest turn of her head to her right. Can’t say whether to credit her innate comfort level or photog’s direction but it saves an otherwise square pose. I think the wind blown hair with wisps of grey help too. Like Jordan, Shenna got the Patagonia v L.L.Bean memo. Good job sticking up for Maine jobs.
Minor technical quibble. The sky here, as in other photos, is blown out. You can see where someone tried to bring detail back to the sky in post. That blurry line separating the land from the sky shows where someone tried to mask the sky and then pull up some detail by using dehazing, or some such. When the sky is that blown you might as well just head over to photoshop and replace the sky altogether.
Worried about faking? Just take a photo of the sky that existed right then and there. It won’t be blown out if you leave everything but the sky and the horizon line out. Use that sky rather than those offered by photoshop as a replacement.
Sure, it does’t meet journalistic editorial standnards….but this is just politics.
Finally, hat tip to the Maine Democratic Party for keeping up with the revolving door of candidates and wannabes. The presentation seems neutral and the available information updated rapidly with each change in cast regardless of the whimsical idiosyncrasies of the candidates.
I see a lot of people participating, recalibrating and analyzing. Lots trying to do their best to help pump out the hold.
Happy Delegate Selection Date.
(All these photos came directly from the Maine Democratic Party’s Website published to facilitate the upcoming public and newsworthy selection of a replacement candidate for the 2026 general election to the US Senate from Maine. Their use here is fair, satirical, and newsworthy)