WEEKLY INFORMAL CHALLENGE 212: "Portrait"

[norbertf]

Hmm, interesting discussion.
I always thought that just the picture counts and not the gear, after all how did the great photographers of the past produce great photos with their antediluvian boxes?
But obviously I am biased not having any expensive camera, on purpose because I do not want to spend the money and think that small is beautiful - also in cameras.

At the same time I greatly admire what good artists can achieve with great modern tools.

[jdonnelly]

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This is more of a candid than a portrait, but hey, I like it!



Hope y'all are having a great week-end ...... I know I am!

Janet

[john_lamb]

A vetreran Mariner.

http://www.pbase.com/image/155499552

[timbg]

A candid portrait: http://www.pbase.com/timbg/image/155501113

[1designguy]

I decided to take Miles this afternoon (after soccer and a birthday party) to downtown Kingston Springs & find a spot on old Main Street in the shade with some reflected light. Light was from a windshield of a parked car. Everywhere else was blistering bright. I shot at f/7.1 to get enough of him in the focal plain with the lens fully zoomed out to 105mm.

[1designguy]

A little elaboration on the suggestions based on the discussion this week about this challenge topic.

1. The topic itself is simply "Portrait".

2. The suggestion was to take a portrait that you would be proud of.

Pretend you are entering a contest and you want to win

3. Other ideas were for thought and consideration (to give the participants things to consider)...

challenge yourself as much as you can with this

a.

using long focal lengths, for example 85mm, 135mm, etc.

-Most often when shooting portraits we work in a more intimate range (distance from camera to subject). Many photographers work with 50mm and wider allowing closer interaction with the subject but not so wide to distort the subject. Working closer to (and in) the telephoto range forces us to do three things. (1) Compose tighter details (smaller parts) of the overall subject, (2) distance ourselves from the subject and (3) increase isolation of the subject from the surroundings (unless the distance is far greater than provided in the more intimate range). This is just simply a "think outside the box" suggestion for most of us.

b.

or wide apertures such as f/2.8, f/4 etc.

-This is another element in the "triangle of depth of field" (ISO, shutter speed and aperture). Aperture is measured in ‘f-stops’. Moving from one f-stop to the next doubles or halves the size of the amount of opening in your lens (and the amount of light getting through). (Keep in mind that a change in shutter speed from one stop to the next doubles or halves the amount of light that gets in also – this means if you increase one and decrease the other you let the same amount of light in – very handy to keep in mind). Given f/stop smaller numbers and smaller apertures (where less light gets through) have larger f-stop numbers (ie.- f/2.8 is in fact a much larger aperture than f/22).

All of this is getting to photographic tool of Depth of Field (DoF) -DoF is that amount of your shot that will be in focus. Large depth of field means that most of your image will be in focus whether it’s close to your camera or far away. Walter was simply suggesting that you experiment with shallow DoF. No matter what the widest aperture your lens(es) offer(s), if you select the widest aperture (smallest f-stop number) and work as close to the minimal focal range, you will get a shallow DoF and isolate the subject more. It can be a little confusing at first but a good way to remember it is that small numbers mean smaller DoF and large numbers mean larger DoF.

c.

use natural lighting, reflectors, studio lighting, etc.

-Simply put it is a good way to experiment. If you always use a flash, try using ambient/naturally available light. If you haven't tried reflecting light, see how it works for you. If you have an opportunity to use the more controlled lighting of a studio, give it a try. If you always use studio lighting, try it without it.

Several people suggested that the Weekly Informal Challenge might be a good place to work out "more technical" challenges. I don't think we will do technical only challenges but I would like to always include that element as an option to offer another layer of challenge to it. We do not want to exclude anyone here on Pbase ever based on equipment but want to encourage experimentation with whatever equipment you use. Please always feel free to contact us with your suggestions.

[herb1rm]

http://www.pbase.com/herb1rm/image/155522192

[lynnh]

Thank you to Scott and Walter for giving us some helpful tips for this Portrait challenge. Unfortunately, I didn't have a subject (or victim) to photograph this weekend... except for the cat. Getting him to hold still for a photo is a challenge, in itself.

[jolka]

Portrait of Tomasz