Cate—No. 3

Today’s photo uses the same lighting and camera settings as the one last week.

In this photo, I wanted to bring –out the green in Cate’s eyes so I had her change into a green blouse and very bright red lipstick.  The complementary colors work well and get the job done. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D800, 50mm f/1.8 lens, ISO 200, f/6.7 at 1/125^th of a second. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon portrait preset, set white and black points.

Cate—No. 2

 

First, let’s get the technical stuff out of the way.  The background was simply a sheet on the wall and was lighted with two Elinchrom Quadra set at f/11 (about 1½ stops over the setting for Cate).  Cate was lighted with a single Elinchrom Quadra shot through a white umbrella at about eye level and to her left—I wanted a slight shadow on the right side of her face.   I used my Nikon D800 and 50mm f/1.8 lens at f/6.7.  The Nikon 50mm f/1.8 is especially sharp at f/5.6 through f/13; this f-stop also makes sure that when I focus on her eye, her entire face will be in focus. 

To me, Cate’s best features are her eyes and her mouth—and that is what I tried to emphasize in the photo.  I wanted this image to be straight-on to show off those features. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D800, 50mm f/1.8 lens, ISO 200, f/6.7 at 1/125^th of a second. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon portrait preset, set white and black points, added vibrance.

Cate—No. 1

 

Meet Cate.  I met Cate on the Worldwide Photo Walk that coordinated for Bay Area Photo Club on October 5, 2013.  Overall, the photo walk was a real success—mainly for the comradely more than the actual photography.

Cate is an aspiring model.  After I took her photo, we exchanged e-mail addresses.  Later we met and agreed to an exchange—I photograph some head shots for her portfolio and in exchange she would model for a couple of projects that I had in mind. 

My thought process for this shot was simple—blown-out background with her properly exposed.  I set my camera on manual exposure at f/6.7 and 1/1000 of a second and then set my flash to -1 EV (thus telling my flash to underexpose the exposure on her face by about one EV).  My flash was on camera so I pointed it towards the open space on the left—thereby, softening the light falling on Cate. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 lens at 82mm, ISO 200, f/6.7 at 1/1000^th of a second. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon portrait preset, set white and black points, added vibrance.