|

Caption: African
American Girls
Technical data: Photo taken with a tripod mounted Nikon SLR film
camera and Nikkor 85mm f1.8 lens using existing daylight. Approximate
exposure 1/125 second at f11 - Fuji Sensia 100 transparency film. No
lens filters were used.
Film was scanned using a Minolta
Dimage series film scanner. Photo file was routinely optimized using
Photoshop; levels and curves, color balance, sharpening, cropping and
dust spot removal using clone tool. I use a Mac for all photo
processing.

Comments: This photo was made on a sunny day at mid-day; perhaps
the worst conditions for photographing people because of the harsh
facial shadows. I tried the usual cure for this, fill-flash, but after a few
frames I realized I wasn't keeping up. The girls were so animated and
spontaneous that even the one-quarter or one-half second flash
"recycle" (recharge) time was taking too long. I was missing the boat.
I quickly moved the girls into
bright shade on the north side of a building where I could make
pictures faster without waiting for the flash to recharge between
shots. I made a few good pictures before the spell was finally broken.
I use short telephoto lenses with
people because I like to get very close and personal with my subjects.
And I want my pictures tightly cropped. But this style of photography
makes for fairly high magnification, shallow depth of field shots. This
means that the apparent zone of sharp focus is short (the distance
behind and in front of the point I focus on, that appears sharp, is
quite small). Because you gain depth of field with smaller apertures I
stopped down to f11 for this picture and kept all the eyes and faces in
focus.
<< Back to Photographing
Children

Contact
Us | Site
Map
Tutorials Home
| Photos | Order | Pricing
| About Us | New
Photos | Links
| FAQ
|