April 8, 2009

Fat Tuesday #2

Before I write about today's photo I would like to answer an e-mail I got about flash.  The basic question was: how do you get so you know what to do in the different situations?  Practice and play is the simple answer.  This week I will post four shots from Fat Tuesday, but, I took over 200 shots.  Most of the shots were experimenting with various techniques, and most of the shots were really, really, really BAD!  But, I learned a lot by playing with different settings on my camera and trying this and that. The thing that I find liberating about digital photography is that, unlike film, it cost you no additional money to try different things.  Believe me, I try a lot of stuff that does not work-out.

This is one of the people that my young lady from yesterday was watching.  I do not know why, but I was surprised that an elder citizen would also be in this mad-dash for shinning beads.   I could not image me standing on the street waiting for someone throw me a string of beads.  I must admit, she seemed to be having a good time.

I wanted this photo be about her looking for beads and the beads around her neck.  I also wanted the light to be soft and primarily on her face, so I feathered my flash so that it was pointed about two feet to her right.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 150mm, shot at ISO 400, f/4 and 1/30th of a second with Nikon SB-800 connected to camera with SC-29 iTTL cord and attached to camera with Really Right Stuff Wedding Pro Flash Bracket.

Post Processing:  Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity and vibrance, added slight vignette to darken corners.

3 comments:

  1. I can see what you wanted to do, however, I do not think you captured it. The scene seems to be washed-out and not very focused, especially after looking at yesterday's post. Better luck next time.
    Charles M

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  2. Natural colors, great exposure and a true connection to what you wanted to accomplish with this photo.

    In particular you did a great job on keeping the glare or any semblance of flash out of her glasses. That's pretty hard to do in a controlled environment, let alone in this setting.

    Good job Larry.

    DHaass

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  3. I wished that she was looking at you when you took the pix. I think that I would have more of a collection with her then.
    Debbie

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