NON Square Cropped Portraits - (nSCP's) - Archive

[Ashwin]

[QUOTE=Nicola;79077]

Antonio,
perhaps I found a pic more aligned with your remarks... isn't it?
adding a bit of vignetting could be better?
bye
Nicola

PS canon 50D + ef 17-40

[Nicola]

[QUOTE=Antonio Correia;79399]I don't think it is the best way but...
I have an "old" 5D and I set C1 for indoors (ISO, Manual mode, and so forth)
You don't have one custom mode, you have two like in the Canon G9 (which I also own) for example.
You erased the raw: never do that and you can see now why you shouldn't do so

for sure..
I feel grow my "photographer's bones"..!! thanks to all of you
when I erased the .raw I was sure that one time would come for repent...
but the space on the old HD was finished..
I 'm going to try to use both custom modes.

bye!
I have to go to training.. no photo today, only fatigue is waiting for me!


PS I said that your are a teacher because you wrote your workflow... I didn't think that you should explained so clearly

sorry for my bad english

[Antonio Correia]

[QUOTE=Ashwin;79405]

Good Ashwin. Good work. You could have cloned the tree...

[Alis]

I like the tight crop, Antonio!

[Ashwin]

[QUOTE=Antonio Correia;79411]

Good Ashwin. Good work. You could have cloned the tree...

Yes that was a better option

[Katy Noelle]

I took this at the Christmas pageant, this year. She was the littlest angel in the play and, here, in the pew in front of me, she is holding the "baby Jesus".

I was struggling with this situation because the kids were moving around so quickly and it was very tough to get a "clean" photo without all sorts of messy Shtuff in it. I cranked the ISO up to 1600 and just tried to snap away with the lowest dof that I could get with the kit lens, without being obnoxious and/or missing the moment. Flash would have been inapropriate. I don't know but, is this just the way life goes? Is there a magic secret in these circumstances?

C&C very welcome!

(Antonio, I'm working on getting Lightroom 2, like you, and others, have suggested. Perhaps, that will be able to take grain away with some more efficiency than iphoto. For some reason, I cannot get iphoto to save any more changes to this.)

[wilgk]

I am practicing my indoor shots after Colin's lesson 6 in Portrait school...but my efforts to date with 1 speedlight, a work lamp from the shed and a white shower curtain are too terrible to share.....so after getting frustrating results with that we went back outside, where it was much more comfortable.



I will keep practicing indoors though...

[revi]

I am practicing my indoor shots after Colin's lesson 6 in Portrait school...but my efforts to date with 1 speedlight, a work lamp from the shed and a white shower curtain are too terrible to share.....so after getting frustrating results with that we went back outside, where it was much more comfortable.

I will keep practicing indoors though...

Well, one problem you would have had indoors is different colours from the different light sources. How did you avoid those? (I assume the work lamp was an incandescent light, giving a very warm light?)

[Antonio Correia]

[QUOTE=Ashwin;79487]

...Yes that was a better option

Was it, really ?

[Nicola]

[QUOTE=Ashwin;79405]

Ashwin
I see your beatiful work only today... sorry, I've to try this way...!
thanks

N

[Antonio Correia]

I took this at the Christmas pageant, this year. She was the littlest angel in the play and, here, in the pew in front of me, she is holding the "baby Jesus". I was struggling with this situation because the kids were moving around so quickly and it was very tough to get a "clean" photo without all sorts of messy Shtuff in it. I cranked the ISO up to 1600 and just tried to snap away with the lowest dof that I could get with the kit lens, without being obnoxious and/or missing the moment. Flash would have been inapropriate. I don't know but, is this just the way life goes? Is there a magic secret in these circumstances? C&C very welcome! (Antonio, I'm working on getting Lightroom 2, like you, and others, have suggested. Perhaps, that will be able to take grain away with some more efficiency than iphoto. For some reason, I cannot get iphoto to save any more changes to this.)

When I started this thread I used to take special care about technical aspects of the images. In fact, I still do but not as much as I used to. Perhaps because I master them better and/or because I have moved into other concerns or even I have changed with time. Why not ? It makes part of the evolution of the Human being.
OK I stop with philosophical and speculative aspects of Photography in which I am not, and never will be, a master.
But what I know is that we like to see an image - call it a photography for the moment or a shot if you wish to be more prosaic - nice and sharp but we also like to see what is within it and this is the main (is it?) aspect of the shot. What has a great impact is the "core" of the photo, what it represents/shows and what it means to us, or to the people we are involved with, as there are people with many many different cultures who can have many many different approaches to our visual signs/messages.

Let me center on your image.
What do I (yes, me Antonio) see in this picture ? A very cute young child with a tender and looking expectantly to something. Perhaps she was waiting someone to take her picture and she was standing still for some brief moments during which you took the opportunity.
On the other hand she is with a younger baby, oh sorry it is not a baby it's a doll, the "baby Jesus" like you say.
Curious that sooner I came here, opened your post and looked at the picture and at the first glance it looked like a baby. I went away to do something else and then I came back again, sat and opened the post to read.
Oh yes. It's not an human being. I had to be informed to know it . I was however suspecting as the doll was too in-expressive to be human. I was going to make a second or third view to understand completely the hole picture.
I downloaded the image to try another crop without the doll but I couldn't do anything better - under my point of view of course - unless if I cloned the ear and part of the head of the doll. Even doing so, I was not able to have field enough in front of her face as I would like to have.
I have been very bad till now towards your photo Katy. But I have more.
What is the white triangle at the bottom left ? I understand that to make photos of children is not an easy task. How many shots have you done ? Were you shooting in sequence ? Many at a time ?
Suggestion to take pictures of children: Move your focus mode to AIFocus and you have a better chance to get better pictures.
The grain/noise in the picture doesn't bother me at all
Is it important if the photo have all these problems (has it ?) as it conveys emotions and feelings ? Perhaps it is not.
Thank you Katy for ... no, not only posting here but also for reading what I write.
-
After re-reading this I suddenly asked myself: Why have I written the 2 inicial paragraphs ?
Because Katy's image is not perfect in technical terms but has lots of emotions which is the main idea. I go now as I am repeating myself.

[Alis]

I am practicing my indoor shots after Colin's lesson 6 in Portrait school...but my efforts to date with 1 speedlight, a work lamp from the shed and a white shower curtain are too terrible to share.....so after getting frustrating results with that we went back outside, where it was much more comfortable.



I will keep practicing indoors though...

This is actually very nice, Kay! The image is pretty sharp, has a warm feeling to it, the expression on the face of the model is nice and her is pose is interesting and comfortable. And finally the eyes are sharp and bright. Nicely done!

Overall, I have a feeling you can do better, if you have come this far. I can't put my finger on it. Let me try

The back ground is not pretty, it is the type of background you have there and then the boke did not turn out well, may be due to lack of enough blurring, I am guessing the distance between the subject and background is not that much for the DOF.

And then the lighting on the face could be better I guess. Not sure how many light sources you used, but looks like it is only one in front with a diffuser or something. That is probably why the center of the face is a bit too bright.

Anyway, I think the biggest issue with the this portrait is it's background.

Well done!

[Antonio Correia]

Back to Katy

[Antonio Correia]

Thank you Ali Well said.

[Katy Noelle]

Antonio, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! This is exactly what I was mining for..... gold! Not hard on me, at all! Helpful and insightful and practical! And, don't we need to keep coming back to the "philosophy"? Also, it helps to know if someone else sees the emotion in a photo - we're not always the best judges because we're biased, right? You answered a lot of the technical things that I was wondering about, too. Thanks, again!

P.S. Your crop is beautiful, too, although, I do miss her curls.

Also, the white triangle in the corner is the "swaddling clothes" or the blanket. I didn't even see it as strange because I knew what it was.

[Antonio Correia]

...Also, the white triangle in the corner is the "swaddling clothes" or the blanket. I didn't even see it as strange because I knew what it was.

5 times "thank you" in a row. Good
My children used a dipper - cloth dipper - as "safety" blanket ! Remember, this was 33 years ago...
My daughter used to drag it around her right ear all the time and of course, was slipping with it while sucking the thumb

[wilgk]

aaah the safety blanket is International! - our son had a 'blankie' and worked his thumb into the seam under the satin binding taking it to sleep with him every night.

I digress - Thankyou Ali and Antonio - you are of course spot on - the model was close to the shrubbery background, this coupled with it being a too busy background adds to the problem.
The light was 1 off camera speedlight, which was perhaps too strong and I haven't balanced the flash and ambient light as well as I could have.
I also thought the top of her hair was too bright, but this is good as I have since been practicing my very limited pp skills on doing some 'soft brush dodging' to see the effects as I try to fix it...you see from a mistake we have a lesson

[Alis]

My wife was reading a book for him on sharks, starts with different types of sharks, some facts on sharks in general, where they live, their size, etc.

But then the books talks about the fact that some of them eat humans (the book belongs to the library, from 1980s, I imagine they probably don't put this kind of information in books for young kids anymore).

Any way, it was the first time for him learning that sharks are not that nice




My be I should take care of the yellow cup there...

[Antonio Correia]

...Any way, it was the first time for him learning that sharks are not that nice :eek

May be I should take care of the yellow cup there...

Sharks are nice and should be respected. Humans are worst, aren't they ? Well, let's move on...

Yes Ali take care of that yellow cup and you will have another nice shot of yours...

TFPH again Ali This is a portrait with "soul", substance, consistent. We can see he is envolved in anything. Good work
It tells a story. We can even see a book...
Next time don't tell us what he is doing or watching. Make us guess.

[wilgk]

I think the book on the table is perfect - we know from that he's hearing a story....we don't know it's about sharks, but better them than spiders i say