Back in Black

The latest on-going attempt to perfect my portrait technique...

Portrait:
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....1-bw-small.jpg (BW,
quick loading)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....rtrait1-bw.jpg (BW, full
size)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....lour-small.jpg
(colour, quick loading)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....it1-colour.jpg
(colour, full size)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks..../Portrait1.cr2 (original RAW
image)

I think both the subject lighting and the DOF should be fairly good in this
one, but I'm wondering how the background appears. Does it look
artificially dark? Distracting?

It was just taken in my livingroom, in the middle of the afternoon. I
wanted to both blur and darken the background so that it wouldn't be an
issue.

What do you think?

Take Care,
Dudley

On 2009-04-07 09:49:49 -0700, "Dudley Hanks"
said:

The latest on-going attempt to perfect my portrait technique...

Portrait:
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....1-bw-small.jpg (BW,
quick loading)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....rtrait1-bw.jpg (BW, full
size)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....lour-small.jpg
(colour, quick loading)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....it1-colour.jpg
(colour, full size)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks..../Portrait1.cr2 (original RAW
image)

I think both the subject lighting and the DOF should be fairly good in this
one, but I'm wondering how the background appears. Does it look
artificially dark? Distracting?

It was just taken in my livingroom, in the middle of the afternoon. I
wanted to both blur and darken the background so that it wouldn't be an
issue.

What do you think?

Take Care,
Dudley


Hi Dudley,

Well I think you got things right with this shot. I found both B&W and
colour to be efective and pretty good.

Nice work.
--
Regards,
Savageduck

"Savageduck" wrote in message
news:2009040710233479149-savageduck@savagenet...
On 2009-04-07 09:49:49 -0700, "Dudley Hanks"
said:

The latest on-going attempt to perfect my portrait technique...

Portrait:
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....1-bw-small.jpg
(BW,
quick loading)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....rtrait1-bw.jpg (BW,
full
size)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....lour-small.jpg
(colour, quick loading)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....it1-colour.jpg
(colour, full size)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks..../Portrait1.cr2 (original
RAW
image)

I think both the subject lighting and the DOF should be fairly good in
this
one, but I'm wondering how the background appears. Does it look
artificially dark? Distracting?

It was just taken in my livingroom, in the middle of the afternoon. I
wanted to both blur and darken the background so that it wouldn't be an
issue.

What do you think?

Take Care,
Dudley


Hi Dudley,

Well I think you got things right with this shot. I found both B&W and
colour to be efective and pretty good.

Nice work.
--
Regards,
Savageduck


Thanks, SD, it's slowly coming back. Although, I'm finding that there are
substantial differences from how my old lenses worked on my film cameras.

For instance, my much maligned 50mm f/1.8 lens which I barely used for film
turns out to be a nice portrait lens, clocking in at around 80mm effective
focal length. Ditto for my old 28mm - 80mm f/3.5 - 5.6 multipurpose zoom.
At it's mid-point, the latter lens is about 50mm f/4, which worked quite
well for this portrait.

Still, I hope I can find a way to get a bit more control on DOF so that I
can take advantage of the really narrow DOF of the 50mm lens at wide
apertures.

Take Care,
Dudley

In article NuLCl.21897$PH1.7229@edtnps82, "Dudley Hanks" wrote:
The latest on-going attempt to perfect my portrait technique...

Portrait:
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....1-bw-small.jpg (BW,
quick loading)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....rtrait1-bw.jpg (BW, full
size)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....lour-small.jpg
(colour, quick loading)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....it1-colour.jpg
(colour, full size)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks..../Portrait1.cr2 (original RAW
image)

I think both the subject lighting and the DOF should be fairly good in this
one, but I'm wondering how the background appears. Does it look
artificially dark? Distracting?

It was just taken in my livingroom, in the middle of the afternoon. I
wanted to both blur and darken the background so that it wouldn't be an
issue.

What do you think

I find the background annoying as well as the foreground. Trying to read the shirt.
Too much darkness under eyebrows. Shadow from hair.

greg

"GregS" wrote in message
...
In article NuLCl.21897$PH1.7229@edtnps82, "Dudley Hanks"
wrote:
The latest on-going attempt to perfect my portrait technique...

Portrait:
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....1-bw-small.jpg
(BW,
quick loading)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....rtrait1-bw.jpg (BW, full
size)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....lour-small.jpg
(colour, quick loading)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks....it1-colour.jpg
(colour, full size)
http://www.photography.dudley-hanks..../Portrait1.cr2 (original
RAW
image)

I think both the subject lighting and the DOF should be fairly good in
this
one, but I'm wondering how the background appears. Does it look
artificially dark? Distracting?

It was just taken in my livingroom, in the middle of the afternoon. I
wanted to both blur and darken the background so that it wouldn't be an
issue.

What do you think

I find the background annoying as well as the foreground. Trying to read
the shirt.
Too much darkness under eyebrows. Shadow from hair.

greg

the background. Is it the darkness which is annoying, or the blurred
artifacts?

the T-shirt. I just snagged my daughter to test the configuration, so
I'm not too worried about her wardrobe. If I were doing ad copy, that would
change.

shadows. I tend to like shadows, so they've always been a part of my
work. I find that shadows do a lot to establish a particular mood or model
facial features. However, like anything, they can reach a point where
they're excessive. For this shot, I took a number of different pics at a
variety of lighting levels. My daughter, the subject, liked this one the
best. (I guess she inherited a bit of my likes and dislikes...)

Still, I'll wait to see what others say before I decide whether to lighten
up the shadowy areas.

Thanks for the feedback. It gives me something to work on.

Take Care,
Dudley