11/1/2008 7:13:52 AM

Hi Christine,
Good images often require a combination of luck and skill. We need to use our craft to balance and create the character of the light in a photograph. In this case I was using one strobe and the existing light in the room. If I had done this with a color shot the combination of daylight and tungsten in the room would have created color problems, but with black and white film this was not an issue.

I did have to use a very long shutter speed, about a 1/4 of a second. I needed this long speed to bring the room light up to the right value. This long exposure allowed a place for luck to enter the project. After I did a couple of shot where the camera was on a tripod and the subject was still, I started moving the camera or asking the subject to move after the strobe triggered. This was one of those shots. In the areas where the strobe is virtually all of the light her is sharp, but in the areas where the existing light is an important component of the light there is softness created by blur. While there is not a lot of depth of field in the shot, probably less than f8 on a medium format film camera with a 180mm lens, this might be like f4 on an 85mm lens with a small sensor. The thing that really severs to create the three-dimensionality in the shot is the slight blur. I did this several times, most of the others were lousy, often the case when you trust to luck.

Shot for AidsWalk in New York. This shot was used for banners and collateral materials. I believe they were pleased with the image.
Thanks, John

11/1/2008 9:44:54 AM