An experiment

[sirhc55]

I have always been fascinated by the fact that the right and left hand side of faces are different.

The two shots below are not brilliant technically but what I have done is taken the first photo and divided it staright down the middle and deleted the right hand side. I then copied the left hand side and pasted to a new layer and flipped the layer horizontally and joined the two together - the effect is below:

Original



Two left hand sides of the face joined

[Nnnnsic]

I've always preferred that humans aren't symmetrical. It shows how perfect we aren't... which always makes me laugh at perfectionists.

That said, did you by chance enter this into the AGNSW Portrait Prize?

[Glen]

Very interesting experiment

[sirhc55]

I've always preferred that humans aren't symmetrical. It shows how perfect we aren't... which always makes me laugh at perfectionists.

That said, did you by chance enter this into the AGNSW Portrait Prize?

Did not even know there was a comp on. . .

[Glen]

$15,000 prize Chris, would have been an interesting before and after.

here is the link http://forum.d70users.com/viewtopic.php ... ght=15+000

[Manta]

Nice work Chris.

I've done this experiment myself a couple of times and I'm staggered at the difference it makes when you compare a LEFT-LEFT face with a RIGHT-RIGHT face. It's even more dramatic if you take an original that is facing the camera on an angle - one combination will be really wide, the opposite combination is really narrow. It gives some quite harrowing effects!

I'm at work at the moment so don't have access to my piccies but I'll post some examples I did with my daughter's photo when I get home tonight.

[mic]

Please, Please Chris,

My brain is fried in overload oil from the weekend with all my computer adjustments.

This sort of thing just frys it even more

Nice beard.

Mic.

[darb]

some people have perfect symmetry dotn they ?

[kipper]

Looking at the photo the subjects head is slightly rotated and not facing dead centre. If you have a look at the ears you can see the ear on the left side of the photo is showing more than that on the right. As a result you'll be getting more of the subjects face on the left side. Which when mirrored will make the face look fatter. If you could reshoot but with the person facing so that there is no rotation of the head then mirror it again?

[sirhc55]

That’s why I used this photo kipper - I wanted the fattening effect - makes him look a bit meaner

[Photodude]

I am sure I read somewhere that people we consider beautiful have very symetrical faces - not that you model doesnt

[Photodude]

I am sure I read somewhere that people we consider beautiful have very symetrical faces - not that you model doesnt

[kipper]

K, so it was intentional

[leek]

I am sure I read somewhere that people we consider beautiful have very symetrical faces - not that you model doesnt

I read somewhere that one side of the face looks good and the other evil... It would be interesting to do the equivalent match up on the right hand side of the face and compare the two... It would need to be a head on shot to be fair though...

[Neeper]

I got one for you guys. You wanna see something really freaky? Check out this picture:



head shot:



I would like to see someone do the same experiment wih this picture. Do each side of his face. You'll end up with 2 pictures of completely different looking people. This guy is a hockey player here in North America.

[Manta]

Here you go Neeper:

(From top to bottom - Original, his left duplicated, his right duplicated)

[Neeper]

Now, you guys can't tell me that is not weird as hell.

[Onyx]

 LOL that's an interesting effect.

Yes, I do remember learning in my psychology course that people tend to rate symmetrical faces as 'more attractive'. If that's the case, that hockey player is butch ugly!

[Manta]

And he's one of the pretty ones!!!

[phillipb]

Chris, I used your technique to restore an old photo where almost half the face was missing, worked great, didn't get any complaints... that person has been dead for 50 years so that helps.

[gstark]

This guy is a hockey player here in North America.

Which easily explains how he becomes two completely different people.

[Matt. K]

Which reminds me of an experiment I did many years ago. Many people feel quite uncomfortable looking at their own portraits. They alwys feel that it does not look quite right, and therefore it is not a good photograph. I produced a number of head and shoulders shots of friends and made 2 prints of each. One print normal and one with the negative reversed in the enlarger. You can only do this if there are no reference points such as text or badges in the shot. I showed each person both shots and asked them to pick the one they preferred most. In each case they picked the reversed image as being asthetically the most pleasing. This is because we get to know our own likeness from seeing ourselves in the mirror, and this is a reversed image. Cute eh?

[sirhc55]

Very clever Matt

[christiand]

Hi Matt.K ,

I'm with you on that.
I also sounds a bit like the situation when people hear a recording of their voices for the fist time.
We listen to ourselves constantly but hardly ever to our recorded voices.
It sounds so different and I felt uncomfortable when I first heard a recording of myself.

Cheers
CD

[marcus]

Yeah Chrstiland....I hate the sound of my own voice on the answering machine (I get my wife to do it now) and can't stand it when I hear my own mobile phone message. It's scared me so much I'm going to delete any front on pics of me on my PC!