Colorful youth

[Jusselin]

I love viewing your posts

[tml]

Paco, my favorites are #3 and #5. In #3, her sweet expression is complemented nicely by the yummy ice cream. In #5, the light is so beautiful with the shadows giving the shot so much more life, mystery, and depth. #7 would have been so nice with a less busy background, or shallower depth of field. Thanks for sharing such wonderful works. Tri

[texxter]

Jusselin, very kind of you to say that, glad you enjoy the images.

Tri, thanks! Yes, northern window light is hard to beat, especially when the window is very large! On #7 I wanted it to be an environmental portrait where the place is an important component of the image. On #6 the background is just a background with enough interest to make the viewer know she's not in a studio against seamless paper; on #7 the background is a quiet place of study, so hopefully this comes across - I did include both a blurred foreground, another yellow armchair, and the background, with the main subject sandwiched between the two. I shot at f/2.8 as I needed to get most of her in focus from about 10 ft and still blur the foreground and the background. Thanks again for the kind words!

[lenron]

The wall notwithstanding, I like #4 a LOT. Sure, its a bit "normal" and all, but really it just flows right.

Still, all these are fantastic. #1 speaks the most to me, emotionally, and I like the composition especially.

Nice!

[e.bphoto]

WOW! Beautiful and calming...she does have a great confidence about her in these photos, that's part of what makes them pleasant and sweet. #1 is my fave for sure and I love how you captured every detail of her face and her eyes stand out so bright and bold...very pretty girl :D

I'm like you, all about natural settings and lighting. I find myself wanting to take more photos like this, rather than using flash..it can be too harsh on the face and takes away from the natural coloring of the skin...Grrr!

[texxter]

Nino, thank you so much for your comment. I agree that #4, and hopefully the rest too, look unpretentious and simple, as this was the intent, and what's needed for commercial purposes. The more like a well done snapshot it looks, the more value it has as a commercial lifestyle image. It's nearly always the case the new models have no idea how to pose naturally, and then tend to pose in cliche ways, so it takes some discussion ahead of time and an explanation of what we're doing and why to get the results I need. With more or less effort we get there.

Erica, I really appreciate your kind comments! I constantly flip-flop between ambient light (sometimes with some touches of flash) and pure flash, and this going back and forth is one of the things that I find fun an challenging in photography! Now, flash only produces bad results when used in certain ways, just like the sun produces bad results when used in certain ways. Flash illumination, when channeled, diffused, focused, positioned, reflected, blended... with some understanding of light principles, will give you extremely natural, beautiful results! It wasn't until I understood that flash is not a strange little light that sits on top of your camera that I "saw the light" - pardon the bad pun! Don't give up on it, master it!

Here are two pictures I have posted on TPF before, one with flash and the other without. Can you tell which is which? Here is #1 and #2.

[e.bphoto]

Originally Posted by texxter

Erica, I really appreciate your kind comments! I constantly flip-flop between ambient light (sometimes with some touches of flash) and pure flash, and this going back and forth is one of the things that I find fun an challenging in photography! Now, flash only produces bad results when used in certain ways, just like the sun produces bad results when used in certain ways. Flash illumination, when channeled, diffused, focused, positioned, reflected, blended... with some understanding of light principles, will give you extremely natural, beautiful results! It wasn't until I understood that flash is not a strange little light that sits on top of your camera that I "saw the light" - pardon the bad pun! Don't give up on it, master it!

Wow! those are also very beautiful shots! And nope I couldn't guess which one you used the flash for. I would love to learn how to use my flash like that! here's one I took of my friend the other day and had to edit this one a lot. I didn't have good lighting at the time so I had to use my flash. I hate using it inside but in this case I had to :( I don't like the harsh shadow behind her head either, I just keep practicing! any pointers?



Thanks!

[e.bphoto]

Ps. When I try to take photos inside without my flash, my shutter wants to stay open longer; thus producing a blurry photo. Is there any way (on my Nikon) to get it to snap the photo quickly? Even without flash?

[texxter]

Erica, three key things: move the flash off the camera, make it bigger with respect to the subject, and position it such that you add dimensionality and volume. There are resources on the internet to teach you how to do these things, a good one is http://strobist.com.

The camera does a good job with TTL when the flash is mounted on the hot shoe. I dont have a D40 or use TTL with on-camera flash, so I am probably not the best person to give you advice on your second question.

[texxter]

Originally Posted by Landen's Mommy

Ps. When I try to take photos inside without my flash, my shutter wants to stay open longer; thus producing a blurry photo. Is there any way (on my Nikon) to get it to snap the photo quickly? Even without flash?

Sorry, misunderstood your question. You would need to raise ISO, which can be done automatically using auto ISO, check your manual. It's important to understand what contributes to exposure, i.e., aperture, shutter speed and ISO, and how each changes the attributes of an image, e.g., motion, depth of field, noise, etc.

[reader0428]

Paco I am going to venture a guess that you used the flash on #1. (The tiny catchlight in the left eye is my clue...but that may be something else.) Am I right?

[texxter]

Amanda, you won the prize!! The first one uses flash and ambient mixed together. Good catch!

[e.bphoto]

Originally Posted by texxter

Sorry, misunderstood your question. You would need to raise ISO, which can be done automatically using auto ISO, check your manual. It's important to understand what contributes to exposure, i.e., aperture, shutter speed and ISO, and how each changes the attributes of an image, e.g., motion, depth of field, noise, etc.

LOL, I know...it was kind of hard to explain :D

My ISO in that photo was 200, so that would make a lot of sense. I just made my own studio lighting but haven't got to try it out yet. I'm hoping it will help me out a bit seeing as my house's lights aren't good for portraits.
I have been practicing a lot and can't wait to improve more and more each day. I know the photo I posted is a beginner picture, but it's actually better than my first ones, so I'm very happy :) (minus the flash harshness) But that's why we practice!!

Thanks so much for you're advice! I can't wait to see more of your work in the future...

[L Stegall]

Erica, Paco is an excellent source to learn from. Not only does he post beautiful work, but he is incredibly generous in providing explanations for what he is doing.

[texxter]

Lisa, it's too nice of you to say that, thank you.

Erica, I appreciate your kind words too. The technical aspects of photography are not very difficult, but there are many many different things to pay attention to when making an exposure, and it's easy to get one or more than one of those things off. Do spend time getting to know how things work, and you'll eventually be able to do some of those things without thinking. My inspiration for photography is music - to be able to convey a feeling with a piece, without having to think about each finger and each chord - to be able to bypass the mechanics of it, and let intuition and experience guide the image making process. It may take a long time, but with perseverance and some help you'll get better. Even the most experienced pianists need to spend many hours practicing in order to achieve that amazing ease and grace to convey emotion seemingly effortlessly. We photographers need to practice, learn from things that work and don't work, and build our "photographic muscle memory" or intuition.