Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Portraiture 1st


Shanti and I decided it was time we experiment indoors with portraiture photography. We have never done any controlled environment "studio" style photography and admittedly it did require a little bit of experimentation to achieve some good results. Between fluorescent light fixture placement and fill flash we managed to achieve some fairly convincing "studio" setting photographs.


Marley, our miniature poodle (aka killer grizzly bear), did a great job of participating in the shoot. I guess pets are much like kids when it comes to attention spans.


White balance settings are a bit tricky with the mixed lighting because the fluorescent lights and flash do not mix too well. If one commits to a fluorescent white balance, typically the flash will add a hue of blue tone to the picture. For this time around I just set the white balance to "auto" and allowed the camera to do all of the guesswork for me. Not too shabby for a first attempt. Minor histogram adjustments, shadow/highlighting, and brightness/contrast tweaks make for some decent finished products. The faux framing and matting were also post production additions.

8 comments:

Bob said...

I like the top photo the best. But all three are without a doubt winners! Thank you for the post. It was a pleasure visiting your blog.

Mary Ann Mattox said...

I liked the topmost "lime in bottle" and also the topmost one of Shanti. It looks more candid [I LOVE candid shots - the less the subject is aware of me, the better]. I took LOTS of candid shots in NYC - I'm working on them and hopefully should have them up in the next couple of days. Shutterfly has a new option where I can create online photo albums/portfolios. No more having to INVITE people to see my pictures, they are always there on a static website created!

Mary Ann Mattox said...

P.A. I just finished reading the link you have to "Your Camera Does Not Matter". It made me feel OH so much better about not being able to afford a fancy camera right now. What did it say that I liked...."Education is the key to better pictures, not the purchasing of more/better photography equipment.".... something like that. Well, I need to gets myself edumacated I suppose then! My friend Linda is currently taking a photography class at USF. I might look into that.

EugenioC said...

You mean like this?

http://eugenio.shutterfly.com

You can have online shared albums. You can set it up with your existing albums this way all you do is send one link.

I agree with both of your preferences. I typically insert my favorite photo at the top. Thanks for the comments!

EugenioC said...

Mary Ann,

All the education you need can be found in books and on the internet! It takes a bit to do, but you can learn it on your own. Regardless of whether you go to a class or on your own, at a minimum, you'll still need to supply a fully manual capable camera. Check out Nikon's FG series camera on eBay (~$150). (35mm) OR, the new Nikon D50 (~$599). There are cheap alternatives out there that can suit your needs.

Thanks for dropping in!

Bob said...

I own 3 35mm cameras but the one Olympus digital is the greatest. Taking lots of photos on my trips, friends and family and then sharing them with my Chinese friends (last May I spent 28 days in China) via email connects me with people thousands of miles away I never dreamed possible. What is a real pleasure is editing my photos on Picasa 2. Of course my photography is no where near yours Eugenio.

Mary Ann, I second Eugenio's recommendation about learning from books and the internet. After awhile your inner teacher will show you the way. Twelve years ago I learned how to bake bread through books, TV (back then the Food Channel had great teaching chefs)and my own inner teacher.

Mary Ann Mattox said...

I LOVE Picasa! My boyfriend Robb is a Photoshop person, and is simply amazed at some of the results of Picasa-editing. He said it would take much manipulating in Photoshop to equal many of the same results achieved in Picasa in only a couple of minutes.

Anonymous said...

The Blue Bullet has a new sidekick?
What happened to Pellet?

Jeff M.
boojiesdad@gmail.com