Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Day 16, My Brother


IMG_5084.JPG, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

This is my youngest brother Drew. He is a junior at BYU and majoring in International Business. I took this pic as a test shot for my first ever portrait shoot with the full shebang. I bought some lights from a really nice guy on Craigslist, and a backdrop from Ritz . I shot this with two lights with umbrellas and one soft box.

The problem is that I really had to work to clean this up. I had to retouch the creases in the the backdrop. And then some minor crops. This is a test shot and not what I was shooting. I was going to make the best portrait ever for my family. Let's just say that it did not go as planned. First off, having not shot too much with lights, I made some real rookie mistakes. I have a list a mile long for the next time we are together. But after some preliminary fixes the funny shot will be included with the portrait post in few days.

Also, another of Drew, who is available ladies if you are interested, as well as a candid of Drew and my daughter.  I will post the other portraits in a few days when I have time to edit them.

Did I mention that Drew is available?  He even speaks Tagalo and Cebuano!  

IMG_5081.JPG

My Brother and Daughter


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Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV

2 comments:

  1. Bill I think that it is great you are getting into protraits. I always thought you had an atristic flair in your picture taking. Maybe this could be the job you retire with...extra money is good. Anyway I think the compostition of the first picture is fantastic. Too bad you had to spend so much effort cleaning it up but how could you not be happy with it now? Pretty cute family portrait too.

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  2. Thanks Jen, The backdrop was about 3 to 4 feet to small on both sides and about 6 feet to small on the floor. I filled in and tried to mask that in photoshop, and at a glance, I get away with that. But in any type of size, it becomes noticible and very distracting. Next, I placed the lights wrong, the front row is overesposed and the back is under exposed. What I needed for a group this size, were about t more lights and different placement to get rid of the shadows and even out the exposure. The glasses were distracting when they picked up the flash on the kids and my Sister in Law Staci. The chiar leg that came out from my sister Melissa and the chair back behind Miriam should have been masked better. I tried to over compensate and went with a portrait shot to get away with the lack of backdrop when I should have tried a landscape. Anyway, the list goes on, but you are so kind. I will hook up to a computer next time so that I can see the errors on a bigger screen as I am shooting. I will get better, and maybe someday, I can turn this into a self sustaining thing, rather then a very expensive hobby. Thanks so much for looking and commenting, I really appreciate it.
    Bill

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