August 10, 2010

BAPC Field Trip—Portraits #4


I must admit, this portrait was a race against the sun—and the sun ultimately won.  Danielle and Eric were my last models of the night and light was quickly fading.  I moved away from the warehouse so that I could get a little more ambient light into the photo, but that was not enough.  I had to shoot the photo at 1/15th of second.  Very slow shutter speed for a hand held shot, but the flash helped to make the photo sharp by freezing Danielle and Eric.
In the photo I wanted very little separation between them.  I moved them as close together as I could.  I had Danielle closer to the light for two reasons:  her skin tone was a little darker than Eric’s so it would look more evenly exposed if it was closer than Eric; and, Eric had a white shirt on, which would be a lot of white too near the light source.
Considering the falling light and the short amount of time that I had with them, I was pretty pleased with the result.
Enjoy.
Camera settings:  Nikon D3X, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 shot at ISO 200, f/8 and 1/15th of a second with Nikon SB-800 in small softbox at camera left.
Post Processing:  
Lightroom—Set black and white points and cropped photos.
Photoshop—used nik Color Efex Pro soft focus filter to give the image a little softer look.

5 comments:

  1. Photo looks like it was taken in a studio in front of a backdrop. Without the backstory I would never think it was outside and taken with falling light. Is shutter speed of 1/15 a misprint?
    Mel

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice however it seems be a ordinary photo. Nothing stands out about it.
    Debbie

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pleasing but nothing extra ordinary. Wish it had more zap to it.
    Tanya

    ReplyDelete
  4. Not one of your better photos.
    Charles M

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree with most of the other people, seems a little ordinary. You could have taken this one in studio in front of a backdrop.
    Eddie

    ReplyDelete