Sunday, April 12, 2009

Julie (89/100) - the stockyard cook


Dave hails from Lockhart, a small town in the central west of NSW. He is tall, skinny and sinewy: a toiler in the classic mould. When I told him I had taken some photos of him and could I use them, he wondered why he had been blushing!

These are my first posted portraits from the 450D that I bought Thursday evening. As you can see, I need to work more on the white balance. These may have had a better background if I had used Av instead of P. It feels as though I am back to square one with the technical aspects of the camera. Have to RTFM as this week progresses ...

I have also posted a story of Dave's kitchen on Sydney Eye.

5 comments:

Julie said...

mmm ...looking at them here, I think the 2nd image is the better photograph. For some reason though, I wanted to run with the landscape version as the feature image.

Ann said...

I prefer the first one because you can see his eyes and the character in his face. I have to push myself to got out with the camera again. Going to Opera House tonight but not sure I can be bothered lugging the camera around. The colour doesn't bother me too much, it adds warmth. What's the light source?

Julie said...

Ah ... this returns us to the discussion about just what we consider a portrait to be. Later in this series, I am preparing a post where the feature photo is feet: this is what, to me, defines the subject. I suspect she would see it that way. too.

There is no post-processing in any of these. They are exactly as captured by the camera. The style I defined with a lot of sharpness together with medium contrast, saturation and colour tone. I will leave this as my standard and try to modify it for Portrait and Landscape.

Generally, I have stopped taking my camera to shows at the OH. For starters, the audience tends to be beige; they make you stow it with the attendant; and, I would need a tripod.

Julie said...

Sorry: light source ...

The light came from the afternoon sun (about 3:30 with me facing west; and also, from the fire he was stoking. Nothing artificial.

bitingmidge said...

If you can do that without RTFM, I am shuddering at the thought of what you will be doing by the end of next week.

A beauty.

If the sun doesn't come out soon I'll have to do a "best of" series on the Sunny Coast!