B&W Portrait

Another from the session, but this time the subjects are headed in the opposite direction. However, as you can see, I again tried to keep the sun off their faces by locating it behind them. You’ll notice a touch of blow out on the hair and white dress, but after lots of experimentation, and studying resulting final prints, at this degree of blow out I let it go. There are times when it doesn’t work, though, and I often trash a shot that is otherwise a keeper due to this. My advice in minimizing the overall effects of blowout — during shoots where it’s difficult to avoid it: try to locate a darkish background behind the subjects so that the blowout doesn’t blend in with highlights in the background.
–Eddie.

This image comes from the same session I posted about yesterday, and from the same end-of-session portion of shooting. You probably notice that the girl is facing in the same direction as her mom and her brother were in yesterday’s image. One of the ways that I make shooting outdoors in sunny conditions easier on myself is to always stay on the shady side of the subject. That way the sun highlight’s the shoulders and hair, keeps the sun out of the subject’s eyes, gives the face even lighting because it’s illuminated by indirect light, usually the sky or a bright reflective object in front of the subject (building, sand, etc.). Also, for those who find it difficult to imagine how one goes about constantly taking meter readings using manual mode outdoors with active kids… using this method cuts down on remetering drastically. Staying on the shady side keeps the exposures quite consistent indeed. Does that mean I never shoot with the subject facing toward the sun? Hmm, I wouldn’t say never, but I very rarely do. Ü

Tech: Handheld Fuji S2, b/w Fine JPG mode, ISO 100, ORG tone, Standard sharp, 85mm lens, f2.4, 1/1400th sec.

–Eddie.

My favorite part of a family portrait session is toward the end. No, not because it’s almost over! But, by then I usually feel somewhat confident that I’ve captured what the clients were hoping for. And capturing what the clients hope for often comes, unfortunately, at the price of letting go of at least some degree of spontaneity. Of course, ideally I would have the entire session be nothing but spontaneous. But, in order to get various desired groupings and “must-haves”, there will be some delibrate orchestration. But toward the end of a session, it’s especially enjoyable to just let everyone carry on as if I truly were not there at all. It happens that some of the most appealing images come from this portion of the shoot, which was true for this session of mine with a family of four. One of my aims is to make this part of a family session take up a larger and larger pecentage of the session time, until eventually the whole session takes place in this way. Okay, so I’m dreaming. Ü–Eddie.

Until our new blog-style front page is up and running full speed, please check out our current posts.
Thank you!

–Eddie.

This entry marks the beginning of a new site for b&w portrait photographers. Please bookmark this page, because in the very near future we’ll have all kinds of action going on here specifically aimed at the serious b&w film and digital portrait photographer.
–Eddie.