It was Michael and Gordana who I spotted from afar and decided they would be great for this project. According to their friends, neither are Greek but it didn't stop them getting into the spirit of things!There was a lot of sunlight behind them. I used the flash which produced a pretty milky picture so I brought the blacks down a bit in Photoshop.
F5.6, 1/125, 55mm
7 comments:
I often get presented with opportunities like this: with the light streaming throug the wisp of hairs at the neck. It is most appealing but I am not sure how to capture it best.
Tell me the stats for your image of yesterday and then between all of us we should be able to work up some guidelines for this sort of shot.
I read something about this over the weekend but I can't remember exactly what it said to do. Will look it up.
This is what I was reading but its particularly related to avoiding silhouettes at sunset etc. Don't know how useful it would be here, would probably darked the background a lot.
"When photographing a backlit subject that you don't want to silhouette, you can certainly use your electronic flash to make a correct exposure. However, because I'm not a bitg fan of using artificial lighting outdoors, I've found a much easier way to get a proper exposure and create a more pleasing effect. Let's assume your subject is sitting on a park bench in front of the setting sun. If you shoot an exposure for this strong backlight, your subject will be a silhouette; but if you want a pleasing and identifiable portrait, move in close to the subject, fill the frame with the face (it doesn't have to be in focus), and then set an exposure for the light reflecting off the face. Either manually set this exposure or, if shooting in autoexposure mode, press the exposure hold button and return to your original shooting position to take the photo. The result will be a wonderful exposure of a radiant subject." (Bryan Peterson, Understanding Exposure)
Really ... golly gosh ... or something similar.
By set an exposure I gather they mean select an F-stop and adjust the exposure line to zero. Take a note of both F-stop and s/e, return to your possie, set both F-stop and s/s and shoot. mmm ... okay ... shall give that a burl ...
I don't get it... if the subject is sitting infront of the light, whereabouts would the reflected light be that you would set your exposure on? Does it mean the sides of the face?
I have thought about this overnight. This is what Michaela was on about in the Natural Photography class that I did one Saturday early in May.
There is light coming into (and off of) the face in that situation. You want to take that much lesser light into account rather than the full stream of light directly from the sun. Light reflects from all objects even in the dark once our eyes are aclimatised to it.
So go up to Gordana (as close as you want to get to a stranger) or zoom in if that is more comfortable. Fill the frame with just her face because that is what you are light-checking. Set the aperture for the surrounding conditions, in this case your F5.6. Then flip your s/s wheel until your exposure line is zero. Then go to where you want to take the photo from AND DONT CHANGE the aperture or the s/s but only change the focal length, then take the photo.
Is that about what you meant, Ann?
That's my understanding of what he's saying. I'm reading all this really good stuff but can't remember it when I need it. Think I'm going to have to make some notes in my journal to take away with me to cover various situations that I think I'll come across.
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