Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Julie (87/100) - Voice Master Class: second sop


You have met Margaret before in this project. She has a wonderfully clear, bell-like sound and clearly ennunciates the lyrics. She is a brick and up for nearly anything, even people poking her in the back and the side should her lungs droop, mid-phrase! I would have liked to use the closeup for the feature shot, but crook focus. One of the many things I learnt during the MasterClass shoot, is that it is useless to try to capture the halo of natural light when your subject wears glasses! I still think that flash without a diffuser is way harsh. I came away from the shoot with 152 shots and am convinced I did not take enough. In actual fact, I simply did not take enough GOOD shots.

10 comments:

Ann said...

I really like the colouring of this shot, it has a lot of warmth. You got the focus pretty well too. Well done.

Ann said...

PS were you working with the diffuser or natural light.

Julie said...

The main shot was straight flash on a tripod as was the last shot. The second shot was hand held diffuser. The middle small shot was hand held, no flash at all just trying to get the fall of the natural light through the window over behind the piano.

Check your bank balance! Kev's bluebird just pooped into mine!! Yeh hah ... no bread'n'slops tonight, Josephine.

Ann said...

You can really see the difference with the tripod. I really should get one, its just the thought of lugging it around (no car). What one do you have?

No bluebird for me yet. This will be the first one of any of the handouts that I'll get and I still don't quite believe it - won't until I actually see it. I've already spent it several times over.

Julie said...

Drats! I was going to do a general post about my two tripods. Will try this evening after dinner with my son. I sling it over my shoulder. Often when I go on expedition, I go by public transport; certainly into the city. It is not so much the weight as the slipping off the shoulder and constantly hitching it up. It is also a bit of an issue to get it out and lengthen and tighten the legs. You feel like you are on display and that you are fumbling. However, most people are like Rhett Butler.

I know how you feel about the bluebird. I never seem to qualify for anything: no concessions, no nuttin. However, there it sits in my bank balance as bold as brass!! That will go a long way to getting the d-slr that I have been slobbering over.

Ann said...

Which one are you getting?

Julie said...

The 450D which is packaged with a 18-55mm and a 55-250mm at the moment and they want $1400 for it. Not sure which way to go with the lenses: just get the body and chose one lens seems to be what I am hearing from others. Now that I am back with the 12x optical lens it is making me sloppy. When I had the 40D that Kirsten now has, I had to be much more selective and closer with my shots. My guess is that the package (which seems quite good eerily) is because the new 500D comes onto the AU market in May.

Ann said...

That is a good price. I was looking at a review of the 500 the other day. If you want to go with one lens, have a look at reviews of the Tamrons (18-250 which I have, and 18-270 which I wish I had). I really like mine although now I'm trying more things it does have limitations with aperture etc, only goes to 3.5 or something at wide angle and when zooming usually not below 4 or 5 so I can't blur the background as much as I want. But for me as a traveller its a good all purpose lens. DPreview has some good in depth reviews. After having a long zoom, I can't go back to a shorter lens. A lot of people swear by 50mm prime.

Ann said...

I paid about $2000 for my 400 and lens about 2 years ago.

bitingmidge said...

FWIW, I'd also go for the 18-200 ish if I could only have one lens.

Don't fall for the trap of using it to compose shots though, the different focal lengths give very different results. Work out what you are trying to achieve and select a focal length, then "walk into" the shot.

I'm not sure if Mr Rudd will give us any money either, but we bought a new tent in case he does!