Photo Suggestions

[John Hinton]

I am truely a novice in photography and am seriously interested in learning as much as I can. I am very open to all criticism, good and bad. How else to learn?


Here I submit a recent photo taken of a friend's daughter at Halloween. I used lighting from a desk lamp with no flash at night. I hand held my 30D using a 50mm 1.4 lens.


Any feedback or suggestions would be appreciated.


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[Sean Setters]

I like the picture. Your highlights are exposed well, and your shadows aren't too dark. I like it. If you would have used an on camera flash, you would have ruined it in, my opinion. Now the trick is to be able to do this kind of lighting anywhere (how often do you have a lamp within 2 feet of your subject and well-lit ambient?). If you really want to improve your photography on the whole, look at Lighting 101 at the strobist blog. Also, check out the strobist group on flickr. I've been combing those two resources for the past couple of years, and my photography has gotten ridiculously better. It takes a little bit of investment in off-camera lighting, but the results are well worth it (and there are always ways to cut corners like buying used flashes and cheap wireless triggers).


Using the techniques I've learned using the two resources I listed, I've been able to produce images like this:


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[John Hinton]

Thank you Sean. I'm on it . . .


I do appreciate you taking the time to review and suggest.


John

[Thom Deevers]

Very nice shot. I would very much appreciate a shot like this as a gift. It captures the innocence of the child and definitely would make the parents smile.


Keep on shooting - pixels are cheap - and enjoy!

[Daniel Browning]

Fantastic! Great photo. For subjects with dark eyes, I like to experiment with light closer to the photographer (perhaps 60 instead of 90 degrees, i.e. step to the right a few feet) so that there's enough light to bring out more color in the eyes. Blue and green eyes can often be illuminated with just a sidelight, but I find that dark brown eyes take a little more work.

[John Hinton]

Thanks for the tip, Daniel. You are right - the eyes could use more illumination to bring out the life. It's great to receive these suggestions. Something to work on.


John