Smile! He is taking a picture.

[jiro]

Thank you very much for viewing.


Nikon D70, Nikon 18-70mm lens, ISO 400, f/8 at 1/320 second.

[AB26]

Jiro is it for viewing only or open for comment as well?

[Muriel]

Love the skin tones.. Thanks so much for posting the photo Data!!

[jiro]

Jiro is it for viewing only or open for comment as well?

Fire away, Andre. I don't mind. This shot was only cropped a little from the original RAW and converted to B&W. Nothing was cloned, altered, or erased from the image itself. My mind is always open to learn from others so your comment is very much welcome.

[jiro]

Love the skin tones.. Thanks so much for posting the photo Data!!

Thanks, Muriel. I always try to include the exif data to help other photographers understand how I was able to capture the shot. I'm glad you like the b&w conversion. Cheers!

[AB26]

Hi Jiro, I think it is a good B&W Portrait, it works well.
Shooting people I am always very wiery of cutting bodys. If the cut body is in the background and out of focus I find it ok. With a shot like this I would rather step back and get the people right behind into the shot as well. I know it is sometimes not possible to get the composition right. If it was just a snapshot there is nothing you could have done to avoid the people in the background. If it was possible to move the group I would move them forward and cut out the people in the background with a wide aperture. If it is your family or anybody you know it is a good shot to keep as remembarence.
If it is strangers it is a good shot to look at and think about what to do next time the same opportunity arises.
Wish you could isolate the little finger guy and his sister.

[jiro]

Thanks for your comments, Andre. I am fully aware of what you're saying since I've been practicing street photography for the past 3 months now. Mind you, doing street photography is a beast. You really have no control of your subjects even more so with your background specially during a parade with hundreds of people everywhere. If I own a fast 70-200mm f/2.8 lens I could probably blur some of those background better on this shot but I don't own one. You simply have to work with what you have. I am more after the expressions that I want to capture so if I have to cut off some limbs to properly compose my shots then so be it. I know the rules - not to cut along the joints so I think I have practiced that well here. I would even recommend that you try street photography once in a while to fire up your adrenaline thinking about rule of thirds, composition, not cutting people along the joints, exposure, exposure compensation, location of the sun, waiting to press the shutter at the right moment to capture the expression you've been waiting, your POV, lens to use, etc. all at the same time. Hehehe.

[AB26]

Jiro, do you only have the 18-70 lens for these captures? Then I understand what you are saying to me. If the expression on the faces is very important to you, not much else you can do.
How about turning down the ISO and opening the aperture for less DOF. Why shoot at ISO 400 with F8 and 1/320sec?

[jiro]

Jiro, do you only have the 18-70 lens for these captures? Then I understand what you are saying to me. If the expression on the faces is very important to you, not much else you can do.
How about turning down the ISO and opening the aperture for less DOF. Why shoot at ISO 400 with F8 and 1/320sec?

In street photography, Andre, there is nothing more important than capturing the expression on your subjects faces (if they are facing the camera). That's is what makes street photography unique. As for my camera settings, since I only own 3 lenses so far, I know at what aperture setting my lenses are at its sharpest. My 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G lens works very well at f/8. Open it up at f/4.5 and the resulting shot is soft at 70mm (equivalent to 105mm on FX cameras). So, as I have learned even from some wedding photographers, shoot at the aperture where your lens is sharpest and set your ISO high enough to get a decent shutter speed reducing blur. That is why I increased my camera's ISO from the base ISO of 200 to 400. You need to know that the event is a city parade. A lot of things can happen and keeping the settings at high ISO will let you concentrate more on your shots instead of fiddling with your camera settings thinking about exposure and stuff. I can go lower than 1/250 second on this one since the subjects' movement is straight to the camera but why bother when 1/320 second is much safer? Again, mastering the use of the gear that you have, if somebody will lend me the legendary Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 or the 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, I don't have any problem shooting this event at its widest aperture of f/2.8 since its MTF tells me that even at f/2.8 all my shots will be sharp. Shooting with my simple gears for almost 2 straight years now (I only started digital photography last September, 2010) I can look at a scene, position myself at the POV that I like, set my camera to Aperture priority, set the aperture opening to what I think is appropriate for the scene, and simply wait for something to happen before I press my camera's shutter button.

Here's another shot taken with the same camera (my only camera actually. Hehe) and the 18-70mm kit lens I got.


As you can see, all the elements inside the frame is rendered sharp because I am at the wider side of the lens. I was about 2.5 feet away from the main boy and if I am not mistaken this was at its widest 18mm setting (equivalent to 27mm on FX cameras). Even at f/3.5 everything is sharp! And since I am shooting under direct sunlight I don't mind setting my camera to its base ISO because I know that the camera can handle the exposure by playing with the appropriate shutter speed. I think my shutter speed here is about 1/1300 second hence another reason for the sharp image. Hope this helps explaining everything. Don't worry, Andre. I have taken almost 27,359 shots since I owned my Nikon D70 trying to understand how it works and its quirks so I can confidently explain what I am doing for every shot I'm taking. Hope this helps.