“The image strikes me as a technically very good but still generic stock photograph of a surgeon.”—Ingrid Spangler
Photo © Thomas Slott, Plano, TX. Gear: Nikon D3, Nikor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens set at 70mm, handheld with no flash. Exposure: f/4.5 at 1/80 sec, ISO 200. Cropped, color saturation and contrast boosted, background blur added in Photoshop and onOne Plug-In Suite 5.
Photographer’s statement: “I sell spinal implants for a living. This image was taken during an actual spine surgery. While I take pictures to document certain aspects of the surgery, most surgeons have never had a portrait type picture of themselves in surgery. Most would like to show family and friends what they do in the operating room. Shooting in the operating room has been very challenging for me. The lighting can vary dramatically in the room. There is ambient room lighting, which is typically florescent. There is lighting from the OR table overhead spotlights, which is very intense and then as you can see in the image, the surgeon has a headlamp that is the brightest light of all. So there are three different light-sources of varying intensity and temperature. I typically crop these surgeon portraits to remove any patient wound visualization and try to focus on the eyes if at all possible.”
Our critics say…
Jack Howard: Pardon the bad pun, but without seeing the surgeon actually engaged in his work, this image appears a bit sterile. That being said, it is a very nicely exposed environmental portrait of this surgeon. The photographer did a very good job of managing the challenging light in this scene. The wide aperture to get the faster exposure nicely paints the medical equipment in the background, and all in all, it’s a good shot of this surgeon, but again, it only feels like half the story. If there was an angle to show his hands, with just a minimum of blood and such, that would significantly increase the power of this image.
Ingrid Spangler: Despite what the photographer says about this being taken during an actual operation, there is little evidence to show this. The image strikes me as a technically very good but still generic stock photograph of a surgeon. I understand the photographer’s reluctance to have any part of an open wound in the image, but at the very least showing the drape around the incision, part of the doctor’s arms or hands (the hands are the body part that is most synonymous with surgeons), or perhaps another member of the OR team by the surgeon’s side would help to bring some more information to the image. As someone who has had numerous surgeries, I can attest to the various forms of lighting in the OR, all of them most unflattering. The photographer has done a wonderful job of taming these into a crisp image.
Mason Resnick: Technically, the photographer really nailed the exposure under difficult lighting, and accomplished a lot while working around several challenging restrictions. Our attention is focused on the intensity of the surgeon’s eyes, which was the photographer’s stated goal. It’s too bad the restrictions imposed on the photographer limited his ability to tell a more complete story. Nonetheless, this is an admirable photo shot in a situation where most of us rarely, if ever, are conscious, and even less likely have a chance to operate our cameras!
