Quote Originally Posted by reijo View Post
I have been following the posts here for quite a while and notice, especially with portraits, there is a tendency to make stuff pop out especially eyes.
Then, I started examining many paintings from the Renaissance period. In them many of the faces are shrouded in shadow making it difficult to see features well.
I was told once by a good photographer to listen to artists and not photographers because the former know much more about the use of light and dark.
Is this worth at least a serious discussion here?

This photo in my humble opinion is a good example. The dark eyes, the shadowed face, the darker skin create an emotion that is far superior to one that would light up the eyes.
Reijo
I agree ... in some cases. But they need to be cases where the shadow and light are very strongly opposed to each other which is not the case in this photo.
I'm not one that needs to see eyes in every portrait by a long shot. But if I do see eyes and they are not in strong shadow then I find it far more appealing to see them as clearly as is possible.
Not sure a painting from so long ago is totally relevant in today's modern photography but todays photography is so wide in it's range of compositions and techniques that anything is acceptable to somebody depending on it's purpose.