my [JOE] blog: the dailies of a portrait & documentary photographer. who doesn't take pictures.

Caroline & Will portraits

This is some text prior to the author information. You can change this text from the admin section of WP-Gravatar Joe is a photographer born and based in New Orleans. He specializes in portraiture and documentary projects. During the day he works for a cargo agency specializing in humanitarian aid and relief. Read more from this author

Here are some shots I did a few weeks ago of Caroline and Will. As a lucky break for us, we caught everything while it was still pretty. That night all the greenery making up the background froze and died. It was hard to believe in less than twenty-four hours the Sun was gone, they sky was grey, and everything else was brown.

Here is some just-for-photographers info: More and more I find myself studying light and lighting, not to implement off-camera strobes and flashes, but to try to manipulate the natural light that already exists. I don't mean to insinuate I'm an "available-light" snob, on the contrary I'm a firm believer that the best light is any available light...or however that clever saying goes. But my real motive is to be able to get the best results with just a camera, be it a full 21 megapixels or my iPhone, because that's where I catch myself the most. I often find this provides a more candid view of people; not to mention the opportunities you'd forego by not having your entire lighting trailer present.

It was with this philosophy the below images were made.

The "strobist" stuff: I put the Sun in the background to eliminate its harsh shadow, and then I exposed for their face letting the sky (which was mostly out of the frame) blow out. While testing the location, I noticed that there was a large, white, triangular gable high camera-left. This acted as my key light by bouncing light from the Sun down at a nice 45/45 on my subject's face. What I didn't notice until after is the fence they're standing next to provided a nice catch-light in the eyes. Very cool. And totally on accident. I used the far end of a 70-200 @ 5.6 & 1/400 shutter. I often like to shoot portraits with a very thin depth of field, but when I have more than one person in the frame I rarely do anything bigger than 5.6.

Also, it makes it a little easier to not mess up.

ISO 400.

Out-takes:

Here's an out-take that had too much sun-flair in it.  The original image was very pale, but I was able to put some contrast back in.  It turned out to be a decent shot of Caroline ...uh, saluting me?  And that's Will hiding behind the huge sun-flair.  Silly boy.

About jOe

Joe is a photographer born and based in New Orleans. He specializes in portraiture and documentary projects. During the day he works for a cargo agency specializing in humanitarian aid and relief.