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Amor Once More
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- Ken Smith Contact Ken Smith Ken Smith's Gallery |
Hey Richard, congrats on your upcoming marriage...and you certainly have a beautiful fiancée. Best wishes for a super marriage and happiness!
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- Dayna Cain Contact Dayna Cain Dayna Cain's Gallery |
I would LOVE to discuss this pic with you sometime. Can we do that?
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Richard Lynch |
Hahaha, Dayna, discuss away! If you feel there is something you'd like to keep off the public discussion here, feel free to contact me via email or betterphoto's emailing system. Richard
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- Dayna Cain Contact Dayna Cain Dayna Cain's Gallery |
Ok, the first thing I notice is the obvious, much lighter spots on her cheeks and across her nose. She has beautiful skin so I am interested to know your thought process on the lighting and why you chose it. It's also the same for her arms. Please don't think I am trying to be a smart*ss. I am truly interested!
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Richard Lynch |
Well, I can vouch for the fantastic skin. And I had no reason to believe you were being a smart*ss. The problem for lighting models is that they move. She was in my apartment kitchen, which is about 15x12. The room is fairly light in color, but has only one window, which is not at all placed well for photos. I like soft light for the most part, and trying to make light look natural, though we will be shooting soon with more variations and some harder angles, and a little more skin... But this shoot was limited in that is wan't in a studio, and I had very little equipment. I had pretty much just moved from the US to Romania (arrived October 2, this was October 5th). I brought "portable" lighting... 3 YongNuo flash heads (an amazing value) and several umbrellas for lighting. Regretfully I found out the day of the shoot that I forgot the flash head mounts for the light stands. That made it a little difficult to adjust the position of the flash heads, which I had to place using the plastic stand they come with, and propped them on chairs with the umbrellas. There is a fairly simple, classic 2-1 light ratio on the umbrellas (right and left) and I believe I was shooting 1/128 power with the on-camera head pointed at the ceiling, or even slightly back from the subject. I sometimes put a toilet paper tube on the on-camera flash as the trip (ridiculously effective solution), and that way I can use the third flash for back or hair lighting, and it front fills slightly, but I prefer to have the head on camera adjustable so I can fill when I want, mute, etc. I had purchased remote units for the flashes, but they didn't arrive before I left. Obviously not the most sophisticated setup, but you can't always shoot in a fully equipped studio. The shoot was supposed to be fun, a little casual. I just love shooting with her... not all models are fun, creative and enthusiastic, and sometimes you need to encourage them. I never have to work to get her interested. She has absolutely no makeup on. She just looks like that. Like most of my shots there is post-processing. Here there is some contrast enhancement, a little color saturation, sharpening AND softening. I probably slightly lightened the white of her eye, and enhanced the natural lip color slightly. The depth-of-field effects are as shot with the 2.8 EX lens wide open. Note the very sharp wisps of hair above her face, and the blurred ones surrounding her face. I appear to have been focused on the tip of her nose. I believe I took something like 700 photos in 3 hours with several costume changes and varied settings. So my question is, why the question? I assume you don't like the lighting? I'm honestly not quite sure why this shot seems so top-lit, as the umbrellas were below eye-level to the right and left (as you can see in the catch light). I'm shooting up from the floor, which explains some of it... Have I got you covered? Richard
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- Dayna Cain Contact Dayna Cain Dayna Cain's Gallery |
Yep, you covered it. I like the small amount of color saturation and the overall warmer tones. I like the contrast in the softness of her skin and the sharp detail of her hair and eyes and to answer your question "why the question?", the answer to that is easy. I simply just wanted to know. You shouldn't have assumed I don't like the lighting. I like it very much. The shot does look very casual but sort of high key glam at the same time. Nice combination. You are lucky to have someone to model for you that is a natural. I have a niece that is such a natural in front of the camera that I would love to spend day after day just taking photo's of her but she is getting married Dec 21st, is working her butt off in college becoming a Registered Nurse and working as a Pharmacy Tech that posing for her Aunt Dayna has become pretty low on her list of priorities. lol I am not a good "people" photographer but I sure as heck would like to become one. Thanks for your time and the response to my question.
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Richard Lynch |
Well, I thought there was something driving the "smart*ss" comment so I had to assume it was the light because you seemed concerned about it. Over-all I was very pleased with the shoot... It is hard for me to separate out the better pictures of her, because I even find some of the mistakes to be outstanding. It is just a joy to be able to share our interests. I see that only expanding over time as she does design and makeup, and I have plans to expand photo tours and modeling shoots. We struggle a little with language because my Romanian isn't very good and her English is only a bit better. But when we take pictures, it is a seamless communication, intuitive, and fun. When we shoot other people, she's actually taken the camera out of my hands a few times... When she does, I concentrate on the lighting. For a long time people were my least favorite subject, mostly because they moved and I just didn't have the right equipment. One of the first times I shot Carmen, she surprised me by taking me to a restaurant where she worked as a belly dancer... The Sigma camera I had with me was wonderful for many things, but not low-light. I hadn't brought an external flash because she didn't tell me where we were going. But I've shot concerts with it, but it is FAR better to shoot low light and people with my Canon 7D. I use the same lenses (purchased for the Canon mount) that I used with the Sigma, and that helped my cross over. But I still keep the Sigma for digital Infrared, and some special equipment I use.
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