How
I Made This Photo
Here
is another photo from my Duck
People series. As the subject and I began
discussing the setup for the photo, I realized
that it might be cool to position the duck in
the foreground. But doing this could easily remove
the emphasis from the woman. So I placed the
duck on a table, off to one side, and made mental
notes to throw it out of focus and crop it a
bit during shooting.
-crop-co.jpg) The
background is a cloth containing brown and other
warm tones. It was lit to vary its
range of brightness. l have always liked this
kind
of a background.
It is unobtrusive and pretty much neutral enough to work well with most skin
tones and clothing.
I placed the subject between the backdrop and the duck. Her main light was positioned
to camera left, and her fill light to camera right. I was careful not to let
any of that illumination fall onto the backdrop or the duck, both of which were
lit separately. My other concerns were that her bright shirt not be over lit,
but that some extra light fall onto her beautiful Dennis Peabody dichroic glass
jewelry. The results were fine-tuned using
Photoshop.
I wanted the subject looking at the duck, contemplating it. We tried a number
of facial expressions and hand/body positions. What interests me most about
this pose is how her slightly closed eyes intensify her gaze, and the way her
long slender fingers gracefully hang in the air.
|
 Amateur
or beginning photographers often ask me what sort of 35mm
film or digital camera they should purchase. They often
want something very simple to use, since they shoot only "snapshots".
I usually suggest they stick with a higher end amateur
camera, rather than settling for something with a non-removable
zoom lens and limited user settings. I explain that cameras
accepting a variety of lenses and allowing the user to
vary the settings, give the photographer infinitely more
shooting possibilities. And, I remind them, these cameras
can still be operated in auto mode, thus providing the
photographer with true "point and shoot" capabilities.
Then, once their comfort level is high enough, the shooter
can start taking more control of the camera himself.
A
JOKE ?
A major airline recently introduced a special half-fare rate for wives who
are
accompanying their husbands on business trips. Anticipating some very
valuable testimonials, the publicity department of the airline sent out letters
to all the wives of businessmen who used the special rates, asking how they
enjoyed their trip.
Responses are still pouring in asking, "What trip?"
|
A
NEW ADDITION - No,
not a baby. However, I had always wanted to move
my four foot lightbox into my main office, but never
imagined
there would be enough room. Determining to find
a way, I sat down at my desk, resolving not to
move until I had a solution. I visually surveyed
the office; north to south, east to west. I thought
hard. Then, EUREKA, it came to me. There was an area
where a table, with the lightbox on top, could be
placed over a bunch of my
photo equipment bags. That meant the office's small
amount of precious unused space would remain that
way. I
cannot tell you how happy I was to finally figure
this out!!