Another For the Family
by Graham Leggate on Dec.16, 2009, under Photography
No new landscapes… just a quick portrait of James, who turn 6 months old on Saturday.
For those who might be interested. The setup to do this type of shot is pretty straight forward. This was shot using the D90 with an 18-105, at around 48mm, f/5.0, 1/800 at ISO 1000, I was also shooting using spot metering. The photo was taken on the dining room floor, which has a pair of glass doors facing north west, so shooting in the afternoon is preferable. I use a black sheet as the back drop, which is draped and clamped to the back of the dining room chairs. I have a trusty reflector on hand to help get rid of any hard shadows, fire off a few shots… and hey presto you have some portraits… well nearly. Work a little digital dark room magic, get the blacks black, increase the colour saturation a little, get the skin softer and sharpen a few features, then you are ready to print.
December 16th, 2009 on 11:47 pm
Graham,
Thank You. EXCELLENT Picture. Cheeky and chubby contentment.
Keep them flowing.
Regards,
Brian.
December 17th, 2009 on 5:20 am
Wow!! gorgeous.
December 17th, 2009 on 9:26 am
Hey… great looking photo. Looks like you are now the portrait man!!!
December 17th, 2009 on 11:03 am
Really good studio shot Graham. Love the lighting especially the catch light.
December 20th, 2009 on 2:55 pm
Thanks Matt and Kheng. I was pretty happy with the 15 minute shooting session. Was good results for the effort.
Thanks Naina… the little man is gorgeous… apparently he looks a lot like me
Thanks Brian. I will post a couple of other shortly. Let me know if you want any for printing and I will send you a larger and sharper copy.
December 20th, 2009 on 8:40 am
Hi Graham
Great portrait and clever use of some technical equipment ( chairs etc ).
My only downside comment is there’s a bit to much reflection in the eyes, I can almost see you taking the shot.
Nice work .
Cheers
Merv.
December 20th, 2009 on 2:52 pm
Thanks Merv. It’s great having an array of studio equipment at hand… chairs, tables, clamps from the shed, bed sheet, towel, oh, and the best lighting source of them all, the sun
I agree with the reflection in the eyes. I had a few other good shots too, which had less eye contact, which were still quite engaging without the reflections. So I might finish processing them to post for my family in the UK.
December 22nd, 2009 on 7:17 am
Just bumped into your blog and thought Id say “Great Job”. Love the technical explanation as to how you got this image…with Xmas just over the horizon I may have a crack at my young nephew!
December 22nd, 2009 on 7:58 am
Graham, thanks for dropping by and thanks for the comment. I was quite surprised at how easy it was to set this type of shot up, a hell of a lot easy then syncing flashes, etc.
January 4th, 2010 on 7:19 pm
your photographs always look so effortless i appreicate how much you put into each one, awesome portait
January 11th, 2010 on 7:58 pm
Thanks Chloe. I am quite enjoying doing portraits at the moment… unfortunately they are for the rich and famous, but they are cute and fun