Other people's faces

[klips]

I was trying to avoid a generic 'my finished portraits thread' but it appears that I've failed. Ah well. Instead, I'll try to give a good description of the conditions, how I was shooting and why.

First mission: Frolicking at the Front

The Front Cafe/Gallery is a great place. The staff are lovely, the coffee is reasonably priced (although not that good, now that Andy's gone), they have free wireless and, most importantly, a lot of my friends hang out there. There are often musical events, and today was no exception with a fundraising concert happening and some of the more popular local groups came out to support. Based on this, I wanted to capture the relaxed mood that was happening. This would mean candid shots, so I wanted to avoid the flash and went to my trusty 50mm 1.8 II. I shot mostly manual focus and entirely manual exposure, usually 1/20, 1.8, 800.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2125/2482305549_dd542de5d5.jpg
Andi is a lovely girl with a lot of attitude and a golden voice. Her band (The Andi and George band (www.andiandgeorge.com)) were headlining.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3079/2482305083_eb952d0533.jpg
This shot needed shallow DoF, so got in close and dropped the aperture. Very happy with it.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3028/2482303235_60e221d763.jpg
This kid was just *so* cute.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2366/2482304167_a00b8dbe5f.jpg
It wouldn't be an update from me these days without a little bit of off-camera flash :D Vivitar 285HV on 1/4 power to the right, so that there would be some 'stopped' motion, and 1/2 a second to get some mad fire trails.

I'd love feedback, especially the type where you tear my work to shreds and tell me how to make it better, what I need to work on and give me challenges which give me somewhere to go from here. Or just tell me I'm awesome, that works too :D

[Nike]

I'm sorry klips, but I think these are fantastic and you did a great job capturing the atmosphere - I absolutely love these! :)

I think it's a very good idea to write about the circumstances you took the photos and your goal with these.

The light in the first two is very beautiful, and I think also the composition of the shots is very good. I like the mimic of the girl in the firstportrait a lot, too. It's so vivid! And I dig the idea of showing a detail of hands, too. Hands carry so much expression, too.

The child is really cute, but I think a somewhat closer framing and a more blurred background and it could help it. With kids, lower angles often help the photos as well.

The last one I totally dig. You've caught her in the perfect moment, and I love the motion displayed here. The colors are beautiful, too.

I hope you'll show us more! :)

[Grumbledook]

I agree about the third one of the kid, that you should get down lower to the same eye level

Nice to see your set up for the fire spinning, was pissing about with trying to do the same at a party I was at, not taken them off the camera yet but was having issues with my wireless triggers.

[klips]

Thanks guys, there will be more. I'm trying not to stay stuck on primes, but they're just so much fun!

GD: what kind of triggers, flashes and problems?

[Grumbledook]

cactus trigers, vivitar 285hv and drunk at a party problems ;]

[klips]

So have you sorted them out now in the cold harsh light of sobriety?

[klips]

Second mission: I went to a fancy dress party and it had to start with 'A'. I ended up going as an 'anarchist' (or arsonist, or even double points from an aerosol artist as I had spray cans and everything). I wanted to recreate this (sadly enough it was because I liked one of the photos of me on facebook, and I felt like a new profile picture) and figured I should shoot it well if I was going to shoot it at all.

I decided to shoot it in my lounge room, as I'm too slack to shoot anywhere else. I was in front of a green wall and wanted a black bakground, which meant that I had to try to prevent flash from spilling onto the wall if possible. I did this by using a black CD case in between the wall and the flash (a.k.a. a 'gobo'). It also meant that my front light would have to be raised, as any frontal light would go straight towards the wall and that would be a problem. I put the flash up about 7' and then just played for half an hour.

It was also my first time shooting tethered, and I must say that I love it. 3" screen vs 13" screen... hmmm, hard call as to which I prefer using. Not. Slows things down for me a bit but that's life.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2332/2507743463_78f97e005c.jpg

[klips]

Shooting for the Gadjo Family, a local performing troupe. This is Pablo, who is a lovely bloke but can looking creepy if he wants to. I was trying to get nice even lighting and so doing a rotated clamshell, but one of the flashes didn't fire. It ended being my favourite shot of the night.

Technical: f/9, 430EX at half power (I think) into an umbrella about 2.5 metres away and a bit to the right.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3014/2587121666_6be56648ff.jpg

[purplerose]

Very well done. :)

[klips]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3260/2681706187_c80929101c.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3257/2679350717_6debde2ce2.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3086/2682496690_e66d82e966.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3231/2663918654_9df679c9d9.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3237/2661083098_ba0a0cd1d5.jpg

[Jaffa]

On your last post, the fourth is DEFINITELY my favorite. Lighting, attitude, pose, and vibe are all totally fun and great. Three is second, though the lighting is a bit weird seeing him so bright, and having the background sunny as well-- but not much you can do about weather.