The Daily Photo series focuses on the two or three key creative choices, in terms of composition and processing, that go into creating an image. Specific technical details about the shot have been left out — you won’t hear me talking about tone curve adjustments and whatnot unless it was a key component of the end result.
Leslie poses in front of the door to La Condesa on a cold, overcast day.
Exposure
- Shutter: 1/250
- Aperture: f/2
- ISO: 400
- Camera: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III
- Lens: Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM
Composition and Processing
- I really liked the planks of wood in the door to La Contessa. With Leslie in a sweater and coat due to the cold air, the light tones of the wood contrasted nicely, while matching well with her hair and skin tones (although not exactly– she’s a bit more on the red side).
- In post I left some red in the cheeks and making her skin pale. Along with the way Leslie is dressed, that reinforced the idea that it’s kind of cold in this shot.
- This was one of several test shots I do at the beginning of the shoot. Those are usually just to get an idea what the subject’s range of expressions is, but sometimes I get something worth working on. In fact, this is in-between two faces I asked Leslie to make. It’s always a good idea to keep the shutter going — you never know what you might get (and often these unexpected catches have a more natural look to them).
- Unrelated to the composition, but if you happen to shoot in front of a restaurant door, make sure you have a spotter to watch for people trying to leave the building. I’ll leave it at that.
Original:
April 21 2009 | Photography | No Comments »
The Daily Photo series focuses on the two or three key creative choices, in terms of composition and processing, that go into creating an image. Specific technical details about the shot have been left out — you won’t hear me talking about tone curve adjustments and whatnot unless it was a key component of the end result.
Jamie looks through a backlit red mesh. I suggest looking at the larger version to see the pattern, as it might not show at smaller sizes.
Exposure
- Shutter: 1/125
- Aperture: f/16
- ISO: 800
- Camera: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III
- Lens: Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM
Composition and Processing
- I put a 4′ x 8′ white foamcore board a few feet behind Jamie. I then suspended a fairly fine red mesh from a boom in front of her, and had Janus Anderson stretch the mesh tight to remove any kinks and folds. The sun was coming in from behind Jamie, to camera right. The idea was to catch the mesh in the light but not Jamie — I wanted the pattern to appear but thought it would be harder to see if Jamie were in the hard light too. Ultimately I had to bring her forward for DOF issues, but the angle of the sun made the impact on her minimal. I used the white foamcore to create more contrast with the Jamie, since her hair was dark (I didn’t want to lose her into the background, although black might have afforded an equally interesting look).
- DOF was problematic for this shot, even at f/16. I wanted both Jamie and the mesh to be sharp, but while I shot several variations of this where I manually adjusted the plane of focus, I could never find one that got them both perfectly. That probably wouldn’t have mattered if I hadn’t later decided to crop so tight.
- There are two Lightroom gradients in use here. Most of the red from the original mesh didn’t show, so I went with something stronger. I actually tried several color combinations for this, but ultimately settled on something that was (more) complementary to the original light and Jamie’s skin tones.
Click on the image to see the larger size.
Original:
March 19 2009 | Photography | No Comments »
