This is the shot I wanted, the kind of picture most people don't get. Tight DOF, candle light, no flash or overhead room light, all art and warmth and feeling, the picture tales a much better story than the way it normally get shot as in the example above. You can even see the candle light reflected off her glasses, to just bring that story that much more, and to put some "pop" into the highlights. She was looking down at the cake, thinking about her wish, so I wasn't going to get the highlights in her eyes, plus this way, I've got the highlights to draw the viewer there, but she's obviously meditating.
I and everyone else love this shot, because its fine art, not photo journalism. I love throwing these kinds of shots in everywhere I can. This is one of my top ten lifetime photos. Copyright 2007-2009 All rights reserved.
F/4, 1/40 of a second, no flash at ISO400 with a 28mm lens, handheld.
Friday, January 02, 2009
A Tale of Two pictures part two!
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8 comments:
Much better. It has mood. The other one does not.
Happy New Year,
Christianne
I agree, pic 2 is the shot. Such a warm glow, and she is much more contemplative. F4 is pretty dark to be held handheld, but you did a fine job. Good good!
I like Mood in a picture, it helps give it depth and feeling. Tells a much better story.
Yeah, F4 is pretty dark, but it helped give me the depth of field I wanted. Thanks for the vote of confidence. I got kind of good at steady shooting in natural light from years of not having a tripod, and shooting weddings without a flash. I like to keep the flash activity to a minimum because I feel natural light tells a better picture, and it always rocks the Bride and both family.
"Wow, I hardly ever saw the flash going pf an was worried you didn't get enough shots. Now, I've got so many to choose from I'm blown away."
When I shoot weddings I typically bring LOTS of film and shoot in RAW mode. When I was doing it to make money my packages never had a frame or film limit. It was a great way to work. When they'd asl about frame or film limits I simply said "You're only going to have this wedding once right? It's your day, my job is to give you as much coverage as humanly possible, so I don't put silly limits on things or count shots.
Something that just dawned on me. I was actually more worried about the shutter speed than the aperture, then again I usually do. They say you should never handhold below 1/60th, but it wouldn't give me that shot, the depth of field, and I'm really big on using that as part of my comp process. Not only is it important for my cameras to be able to do full manual, but DOF preview is also a make/break requirement.
At 53 I can still handhold down to 1/15th on a good day if I've left the caffeine alone. Yes, you shouldn't do it, yes you should use a tripod and a cable release if you're trying to shoot something you need tack sharp, but rules are meant to be broken and you shattered this one nicely!
Beautiful shot!
alan
One other thing, if you absolutely need some fill but don't want to lose all the ambiance, check out:
http://www.stofen.com/
and see if they make one of these for your strobe. I bought a pair in white and a pair in gold for my SunPak's and they are amazing, especially if you can bounce the flash instead of going direct!
Just a thought...
alan
Excellent on the stofens, I've owned them for years though. I've got one for each of my flashes. The fill shot was a stofen with the head at a 60 degree angle. I NEVER shoot right into someone's face, it's a good way to wash them out.
Why for every flash I own? Because I have the Canon wireless flash system that lets me drop multiple flashes around and behind the subject, with control over how the light is set up from the back of the camera. It's so cool. Basically that setup has allowed my to quickly go into office buildings, set up in a conference room and shoot studio quality ports in no time flat.
I haven't had to do it in a while, but yeah I too can handhold down to 1/15. Like you say though, I try NOT to do it. I've got a perfectly good SILK pro tripod, and a cable release for my rig. Both of which were used in the mountain shot. The moonlight shot I hope to get up soon, maybe tonight...
Something else that just dawned on me. It was because I was using a stofen in bounce mode for the other one that I was still able to get some warmth and light on her from the cake. That was important to me in setting up the shot.
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