This is great for portraits (much better than the silly automatic portrait scene modes), for example; use the largest aperture you have, lock your focus on the eyes, recompose and you'll find the background is thrown out of focus and is, consequently, made less distracting.
But some of the visual vocabulary of the Princeton "Dutchman," directed by Steven LaCosse, with projections designed by Mark Pirolo and David Palmer, was unintentionally silly: a portrait ballooning in size until it loomed over the singers and, perhaps worst, the final image of a cartoon ship in the distance levitating into the clouds.
Snapchat has become a destination for sharing silly self-portraits, and maybe the mysterious, unlaunched startup "Selfie" will seduce some users.
The mural-size tapestry titled "The Unity of the State," woven in 1540 to 1547 for the French king Francis I at Fontainebleau, is a silly thing, a promotional portrait of the monarch tarted up in Roman-consular garb.
Mr. Bowie was naturally far more poised, although he, too, took a chance by performing "Silly Boy Blue," a romantic portrait of Tibet that he wrote and recorded at age 22 in 1965.
Greg Wise clearly adored his subject for all his faults, and made what could have been a silly freak show into a compassionate, occasionally bemused, portrait of eccentricity.
It sounds silly but I would love to have 3D portraits of all my grandparents.
Yet you see the anxiety behind Arkadina's grand, silly postures; like Chekhov himself, Ms. Streep has drawn a portrait of comic ruthlessness and gentle understanding.
The camera almost seems to be begging her to change her silly, unflattering flapper clothes and sit still for a Sargent portrait.
Especially in its partnered duets, the portrait of male behavior is compelling, by turns aggressive, tender, and downright silly, as the boys run up the walls, bounce on a trampoline, and work up to a booty-slapping finale.
