This following portrait of my daughter is the result of inspiration I got from a portrait I've seen of the Italian actress, Christiana Capatondi. The portrait was taken by top photographer, Douglas Kirkland and you can read about him and view his portrait by clicking HERE. What I liked most about Douglas' image was the crispness and beautiful black and white tones. Then there is also the sharp focus on the eye and shallow depth-of-field, which I think is the greatest elements of portraiture.
Even though my compsition may not be as elegant as his, I think or rather hope, that I partly obtained similar crisp tones. My shot was taken by setting the widest aperture on my lens, which at f/1.4 left only the focus point sharp, and everything else soft and out of focus. (Remember the smaller the F/ number; the larger the aperture, and the shallower the field of focus or depth-of-field)
In taking the image, I dialed in minus (-) 2/3rds of a stop using my camera's exposure dial. A solo speedlite was positioned on a stand directly in front of her and triggered with my (very inconsistent) Pocket Wizards. I therefore used the Speedlite to literally "kick" my subject from the background. In other words, the camera was set to underexpose the scene slightly while the speedlite was used to "lighten up" the key subject. That easy!
"Minnette"
ISO 100, 1/2500 sec at f/1.4. Minus 0.7 exposure compensation, aperture priority, multipattern metering. Canon 7D, Sigma 50mm EX lens. In post editing, I did not do a lot apart from using Nik Silver Effex to do the black & white conversion by first using a green filter and then the standard filter.
This second image, obviously a colour image, was taken in our garden. I also used a single speedlite from a stand and angled it towards her face and slightly more to the away side of the camera (her right side). To concentrate the light even more, I manually zoomed the flash head to 105mm. Slightly tilting the flash head to soften the light. However, a hard nose shadow was indeed edged on the camera's side, but I was able to blend it in by using the patch tool in Photoshop.
To take the shot; I set the exposure in Manual mode and gradually stepped down the shutter speed until I got a good balance between her and the the sky. At 1/5000th of a second, the shutter speed was fast enough to render the sky and background with sufficient colour and detail, but it was too fast to expose the model. This would have resulted in her being underexposed. Therefore the Speedlite. Throwing a concentrated beam of light at her "kicked" her out from the dark claws of underexposure. Simple strobism.
"Minnette 2"
ISO 100 1/5000sec @ f/1.8. Manual mode, Multi-pattern metering. Canon 7D, Sigma 50mm EX lens. In post editing, I softened a hard edged nose shadow by using the patch tool. Slightly enhanced the contrast by using levels and Nik color effex' tonal contrast and masking some details back.
Penny for your thoughts
I personally like the black & white image. Not neccesarily beause it is black and white, but simply because it is so overwhelmingly authentic and if you are able to look at it in full resolution you can't help to stare at it for minutes at a time. The colour image may be more sophisticated in terms of technical aspect, but to me the authenticity of her expression, the simplicity, crisp tones and shallow depth of field makes me prefer the black & white.
Now, it's time to hear from you...
Someone once, very wisely, said that if he wants to photograph a models clothes he uses colour, and when he wants to photograph a models soul he uses black and white. When doing portraits I find that the colour distracts me from the essence and spirit of the model whereas in b&w the distraction is gone and you just see the life within.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that sounds like I am over spiritualizing the matter, after all it's just a photograph... but then isn't true art almost spiritual?
I prefer the black & white image. The light is stunning and I like the hand being a little out of focus, with the main focus on her eyes.
ReplyDeleteWell said Photophile.I see it just like that. I too prefer black & white portraits. Especially if you get to capture something about your subject that shows in the eyes and the expression.
ReplyDeleteIf it wasn't for the diversity that colour yield; I could have been a complete purist.
... and I almost forgot, the b&w of your daughter is beautifully taken! Well done, I love it!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos, have a nice day Radka.
ReplyDeleteThanks
ReplyDelete