The Good Stuff.

8.09.2013

Portraits.


I made this portrait in Denver. It's from the production I did for Craftsy.com last month. We made a video that's all about lighting portraits in the studio. I used my favorite lighting, one light through an big (six by six foot) diffusion scrim.  A light on the background, and....just for a little spice!, a hair light from the right. What do I really love about the image? Victoria's expression.

Shot on the Sony a99 with the 70-200mm 2.8 G lens. No manipulation or post processing beyond correcting exposure and contrast...

Studio Portrait Lighting


9 comments:

  1. Call me always curious,Kirk. F-stop used? focal length used?
    My guess is likely to be completely wrong... F4? 85mm?

    Thanks.

    Peter

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    Replies
    1. mid-way through the focal lengths of the 70-200mm G. Probably around 105 to 110mm. f5.6 cause I didn't want to embarrass myself by missing focus...

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  2. But Kirk this can't be a good portrait. The skin hasn't been softened, the freckles haven't been cloned out, you can see to much of the whites of her eyes, the catchlights are funny shaped, there is loose hair flying all over the place, it is not composed with the rule of thirds, her head is cut off, there is no vignette. Please don't get me started on the lense you used. I think a 650 f4 with a 1.89 teleconverter from across the airplane hanger would have given you a much better perspective, and who says you actually need to interact with the subject. This expression thing is way overrated. Don 't you read all the forums on how to take great portraits?

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    Replies
    1. Haha! Ed you just made my day! :-)

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    2. It's kind of refreshing to see a picture that pretty much displays the subject "as is" without all the skin smoothing and retouching.

      What a unique style!

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    3. Great work....finally a natural looking portrait.

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    4. Why do beautiful women always look at you that way?

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    5. Yeah she looks terrible doesn't she - oh, hang on, let me put my glasses on.... Wow! Beautiful girl, beautiful lighting, great photographer = WOW image of the day.

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