Good evening and welcome to the show.
Today we had a break from the Olympic madness thats has gripped the city and escaped to the park. Of course, with me, I had my trustee Canon EOS 450D. The morning was a bright and sunny one but as usual the clouds crept in by lunch time but luckily we managed to avoid the rain by seconds as we headed back to the car.
After attending a talk, on how to improve your photography skills in regard to portraits, on Saturday I was inspired to try something a little different from what I was used to. I tried to get as much light in the lens as possible and opened the aperture as wide as possible. I had the ISO set to 400 and ,using full manual mode, I set the shutter speed to a relatively slow speed of around 1/200 of a second. This resulted in the images looking washed out and over exposed. But this is what I was chasing. I would have preferred to use a lower ISO but the light was so unpredictable that I was forced to compromise with these settings in order to avoid constantly fiddling with the settings every time the sun disappeared behind a cloud. One last note, due to lack of space on my card I was forced to shoot in L instead of L / RAW that I usually use. New card needed I think.
Once home I opened the files up in photoshop and tweaked with the Brightness, Exposure and the Hue / Saturation settings to bring out the picture I was looking for. This has resulted in the backgrounds being bathed in light along with certain points in Kara's hair and skin but the colours being vibrant and powerful. For the first time I am very pleased with my days shooting. Personally speaking, I think my skills are improving.
Today we had a break from the Olympic madness thats has gripped the city and escaped to the park. Of course, with me, I had my trustee Canon EOS 450D. The morning was a bright and sunny one but as usual the clouds crept in by lunch time but luckily we managed to avoid the rain by seconds as we headed back to the car.
After attending a talk, on how to improve your photography skills in regard to portraits, on Saturday I was inspired to try something a little different from what I was used to. I tried to get as much light in the lens as possible and opened the aperture as wide as possible. I had the ISO set to 400 and ,using full manual mode, I set the shutter speed to a relatively slow speed of around 1/200 of a second. This resulted in the images looking washed out and over exposed. But this is what I was chasing. I would have preferred to use a lower ISO but the light was so unpredictable that I was forced to compromise with these settings in order to avoid constantly fiddling with the settings every time the sun disappeared behind a cloud. One last note, due to lack of space on my card I was forced to shoot in L instead of L / RAW that I usually use. New card needed I think.
Once home I opened the files up in photoshop and tweaked with the Brightness, Exposure and the Hue / Saturation settings to bring out the picture I was looking for. This has resulted in the backgrounds being bathed in light along with certain points in Kara's hair and skin but the colours being vibrant and powerful. For the first time I am very pleased with my days shooting. Personally speaking, I think my skills are improving.
If you have any comments (good or bad) then please do put them down as I welcome criticism, it's the only way to improve.
Till next time....
The Voice has spoken
Hi Adrian!
ReplyDeleteOn-topic: Those are really nice shots!! I mean there are clearly areas where the highlights got out of control :P but it seems like they`re not so annoying. I think it`s because of Kara. She`s too pretty :)
Besides, the colors look really nice. I would make some critics too, but I`m just at the beginning.
Off-topic: I made some study lately about professional photography and post editing as I want to improve my skills too. I`m thinking of taking some various photos (landscapes, portraits, urban, architecture, indoor etc.) to create a short portfolio and then launch them on the internet maybe even on my own web. I don`t know yet if I`m better with landscapes, portraits or so on but as I will do this I think it will come out at some point.
Thanks Alex good to know you like them. Go and do it, take your camera everywhere you go. to work, shopping, even if you just go for a relaxing walk and dont intend to take any pics take your camera. You know what they say, Practice makes perfect. Let me know when you get a website or photo blog going Ill be sure to check it out.
DeleteLovely shots, especially the last one. She's beautiful :)
ReplyDeletesince I have started project 366 I take my camera everywhere except work (would not got down to well) park, shop, walk. You do view the world different and my skills and finished projects have improved hugely this year
ReplyDelete