I am so happy to be back shooting cast headshots. This time I have 115 youngsters to photograph. We started this afternoon with just a few members of the Pit Orchestra for the upcoming Newtown High School production of City of Angels. I marvel at the fact that no matter how much I might practice beforehand, something goes wrong. So this afternoon, after 2 days of preparation with few glitches, I could not get my Einstein to fire consistently. After the session, I switched from an octabox to an umbrella and had no problems. Once I sat down with my husband to analyze the situation, we discovered the technical problem. I have the luxury of space in the Art Studio I requested for the photo sessions. Something I do not have at home. Since I had the space, I raised the octabox and stood in front of it, but the optical trigger was behind me. The unit seemed to flash. Maybe that was the modeling light or a delayed flash. The odd thing is the photo below was shot with me facing the octabox, two days ago and I shot a similar photo last night. There must a small, but highly relevant blind spot! Regardless, I was getting more dark photos than I was interested in seeing. With the umbrella, the trigger is in front so I do not have the same problem. Just need to workout the intensity of the catchlights.
In the end, my objective is always clear - produce photographs that delight the subject, particularly for teenagers. This is why I anguish over such things. I can never forget that my artistic expression is their reality.
To continue to improve my headshot and portrait photography I bought a doll. I wanted one much larger than this one, but short of buying a life-sized Barbie that I did not want, I couldn't find one to my liking. My husband and younger son seem somehow tortured by this cute little "journey girls" doll. This is Kyla, "an amazing artist." She'll likely pop up from time to time in my 365 work. For now, I wanted to try a silhouette while I was working out the headshot set up. She is photographed with the octabox as the background. With more space, I would increase the distance between Kyla and the background as the octabox is lighting her too much to create as deep a black as we need for a silhouette. Not bad out of the gate, though.
Best wishes!
Today's Photo: Artistic expression
"Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better." Andre Gide
EXIF: Nikon D7100
ISO 100
50mm
f16
1/180
No comments:
Post a Comment