Hi Paul, thanks for the comments There's no way I'd get her to sit still long enough to set up off camera flash, so on camera it had to be.Hi Tim - perfectly on theme! She looks very happy and so should she be - she's allowed to wear crazy hair!
Avoiding red-eye and glasses reflections is not easy with on camera flash. And shadows in general can be quite obvious, although you've done well on that here. Likewise there aren't some of the telltale specular highlights (the advantage of shooting kids is their skin isn't greasy like ours!)
So all in all, I think you've done really very well given the challenges of on camera flash. Best bet though is to try to get it off camera. 45 degrees to subject and high up is a decent starting point but even bouncing it off a wall and/or ceiling is a bonus. If you're bouncing it when on camera, make sure you shield any flash from directly hitting the subject - you want all of the light bouncing off the wall/ceiling. Something like this can be had a for a couple of quid from amazon etc: http://www.gadgetinfinity.com/conical-snoot-for-portable-flash-in-zigzag-gold-on-silver.html (best to get white interior, though).
I found it required a bit of experimentation, but it's worth it! Have fun and good capture for this theme
Hi Carl. I would assume it'l be restored at some point, otherwise it would have been scrapped by now, but for now it's sitting around unloved.Wow! Like the colour in Abandoned and real decay in evidence. Hopefully due for restoration. A very nice portrait for Happy Tim - like all that hair flying around and that slightly off-centre comp. I wondered about that issue you raised about flash shadowing under the eyes and have just read Paul's response. Very interesting - may even invest in one of those gadgets but am trying my hand at off camera flash and am quite pleased with the results. Anyway, a couple of really good shot Tim.
Hi Rob, I've done a little off camera flash (miniature) and would have loved to try it with Samantha, but there's no way she would have sat around long enough to set it upHi Tim, nice efforts for both abandoned and Happy. I feel your pain with regards to reflections in glasses and flash. Getting the flash off camera is a good way to overcome it...and opens up a whole new world of photographic techniques!
Cheers Allan. You're right, no trains (not even on teh bookshelf), although I did take her all the way across London on the tube yesterday, in that get up, for London Anime & Comic Con.Hi, nice pic of your daughter you are bound to get shadows I don't know why you are being so hard on yourself they are not too harsh so they are only what I would expect
I have looked all over the pic and have failed to spot anything train related slacker
Happy - Love picture certainly looks happy
Cheers IanWell, abandoned is definitely a grower. The more I look at it the more I like it and would probably agree with a previous comment about perhaps getting even closer in.
Happy: an excellent take all things considered and a very happy, interesting subject (great smile and the colour adds to it).
Lighting is certainly a weak point of mine so can't crit the flash at all.
Well done on both
Thanks Gary. Not sure that I was all that careful, just added a defuser and pointed the light up at about 45', standing back far enough to try to get some light on her face.Hiya. Nice shot for Happy looks a great outfit. As said above shadows are not that bad for me. I would imagine careful bouncing here as with all that hair over her face she may as well have been wearing a hat. You did well !
Gaz
Abandoned, Yup, I see to have gotten some kind of reputationHi Tim
I like your approach to Abandoned ... just a corner of something (to do with trains no doubt) ... getting in on some detail, abandoned wood & metal.
Happy .. that's cute. Looks perfectly lit to me ... some use a reflector to bounce light up into the face (no that I know about such things).
Cheers Emma. I agree, close in for Abandon was the way to go.I love your abandoned shot - getting in close really worked - nice composition and I like the inclusion of the numbers on the LHS. Great textures.
Happy is a fun shot, too - I love the back story.
ThanksGreat colourful happy shot.
Yup, @d00d has suggested a reflector and I think he's right.nice take on abandoned,
happy is interesting the face imho needed a slight lift with light, other than that nice capture
Cheers Lee. It is a great colour isn't it, shame she's not allowed to wear it that way to school.Liking your Happy picture, love the hair colour,
Ta Susie. Take a look on my flickr for a shot of her in full (+ her cousin and brother).A super bright cheery Happy shot Tim ...excellent for the theme, your daughter looks smashing in her wacky headgear.
Cheers Jill. I will look into reflectors though, for next time.Great spot for Abandoned, it looks really old and decrepit with the wood crumbling and the lichen growing on it. Poor thing hasn't been looked after for a number of years I would guess.
And she certainly looks Happy. Love the addition of the wig and the shadows look normal to me too
Ta bossHappy, another cracking shot of your daughter Tim
Cheers Jon. That shot for abandoned is one where I felt that keeping the colour was important.Happy - really nice capture and she does, definitely, look happy !
Abandoned - love the framing and the capture of the detail - the greens really add to it as well
Thanks DK. The cropping of the wig was a deliberate choice from a larger shot. I thought it added to the composition (without doing that, with that much hair the composition would have had to be a lot more central).Hi Tim
Abandoned - I love the detail of the decaying wood and the angled bracket flowing across the frame, nice colors too
Happy - Love this photo, made me smile myself when I saw it when updating the sheet, the wig is clipped but that works for me as the composition is good and strong as is, like it
Thanks LizAbandoned - great composition, colours and detail.
Happy - Lovely 'happy' portrait and wonderfully colourful.
Liz
Cheers Chris, she is quite photogenic. I'm not sure the eyes are as sharp as they could be, but f/1.4 is quite shallow.Looks fine to me, nice details and focus on the eyes, I had a cat shot in mind as a back-up plan this week.
Yeah rightReally like that Tim lovely colours and as for trip hazard you should look where your going........
She does blend in well...Apart from a patch or two of ginger and the merest suggestion of white in the paws and whiskers, moggy would be hard to detect so well camouflaged. A very nice take on the theme Tim - I like it.
Buggers aren't they. And honestly, why stairs....Hi, one of our cats does the same thing nearly trod on it a few times, she certainly blends in well
Stealth cat, I like it, good idea Tim
I would have taken our black cat, but I couldn't find himI like how it's fur fades into the LHS.
Nice muted colours lend themselves to the theme.
I'd like to the the SOOC.
Cheers.
Hi Tim ....a good choice for the theme, I like the softness around the edges of her fur, it really helps to blend her in.
Beautiful cat blending into the BG.
Blimey, she does blend into the stair carpet, not sure I could handle that at lome I would be tripping over it all the time !!!
Thanksgood idea Tim, nicely took and processed
Cheers Mandy. I think I should ahve done better with Abandoned... Happy is a nice shot (she doesn't normally like being photographed).Abandoned - there's deffinatly something about the image, that keeps me going back to look at it.
Happy - I really do like that purple hair, good shot for the theme.
Camouflage - she does blend very well into that carpet, I do like the pov on this image.
Thanks Steve.Abandoned - I like how even a small part of something bigger can tell a story, nice angle and colours.
Happy - Love the purple hair. I don't know enough about lighting to crit but it's been good to read the comments about the lighting as it's something I want to work on myself.
Camouflage - She really does blend into that carpet, I like the shallow DOF.
The second is the better image by a long way, but I had the pinhole so you lot will have to suffer some images from it.For me... the first one is in BIG danger of nearly being in focus
The second one is a lovely image, really liking the composition and the colours on that one
And as DK says, it's even in focusHi Tim. I prefer #2 for the steam and general composition - especially like all that old rolling stock awaiting refit.
I cheated and bought a premade one, but this is the idea behind a pinhole 'lens'I don't know anything about pinhole photography; didn't even know there's such a thing, so I can't comment on #1. Which also means I prefer #2, since that I can understand. Nicely taken with lots of details (like the smoke, and all the red gizmos and signs, and the detailed weathered look on the green train) that all add up for the theme.
I see. It's funny how people always gravitate towards pre-technology days. Thanks for the link!I cheated and bought a premade one, but this is the idea behind a pinhole 'lens'
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Pinhole-Lens-for-Your-SLR-Camera
Basically you have no lens, just a lens cap with a hole in it.