Halloween Portraits

[Nikolai Sklobovsky]

It's been a long and good tradition (though fading a tad) to dress up for Halloween at my place of work. There are management sponsored contests, potluck, etc.
This year was no exception, and I used it as an excuse to test (again) my portable studio setup.

For technically curious: the setup consisted of a dynatran rack with a white collapsible backdrop, two Sunpacks 555Ex Auto controlled by PocketWizards. All pictures shot with Canon 30D (+ PW transmitter) and EF-S 17-85 IS USM. Full manual ISO 200, f/4.5, 1/125s. I used Sekonic ligthmeter to dial the manual flash power.


Here are a few shots. I shot in RAW and simply converted all to JPEG (I had a very busy day and didn't have time to do anything fancy).

A Pirate:

http://nik.smugmug.com/photos/107096032-L.jpg

A Prisoner:

http://nik.smugmug.com/photos/107095415-L.jpg

"Shaq" (guy is actually about 7', prolly 250lb or more):

http://nik.smugmug.com/photos/107092588-L.jpg

Two Pirates:

http://nik.smugmug.com/photos/107095750-L.jpg

The rest is here: http://nik.smugmug.com/gallery/2078286 (http://nik.smugmug.com/gallery/2078286)
Enjoy shooting your coworkers (and getting away with it:-)!

[Asher Kelman]

Very enjoyable Nik!

I hope no get's hurt by pirates! Who else has pictures?

Asher

[Nikolai Sklobovsky]

Thanks Asher!

In facts, those pirates were really bad seeds.

They were hurting rock stars:

http://nik.smugmug.com/photos/107094692-L.jpg

poor prisoners:

http://nik.smugmug.com/photos/107095956-L.jpg

and even themselves:

http://nik.smugmug.com/photos/107095599-L.jpg

Luckily, Halloween is over and we all can safely get back to ship... errh, office :-)

[Cem_Usakligil]

Ahoy you bilge rat!

Shiver me timbers! Me likes the pictures of those beauties cutting the throats of them scallywags.
Savvy!

Looks like a nice bung hole that company of yours over there matie.
I'd love to drop anchor in your lagoon.

LOB: Lots of Blargh!

Capt'n Cem
(Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum)

[Nikolai Sklobovsky]

Thy schooner is always welcome in me harbor:-)

[Nicolas Claris]

Here's my take, while in L.A. visiting Asher (and meeting good and interesting people) we went to the evening Parade, you may see some snapshots there, all 3200 ISO, 70_200 IS ƒ 2.8 handheld...
http://clarisorganisation.free.fr/Halloween/


[EDIT] At Asher's request, here is one of them:
http://clarisorganisation.free.fr/Halloween/bin/images/large/_G8A6916.jpg


Seems to require a flash player!
[EDIT] yes but who hasn't a flash player today? If you're not one of the 700 millions that have it installed, get it free there:
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/

BTW and FYI this flash slideshow has been made directly with Adobe Lightroom...

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hi Nicolas,

Apparently, it was a very enjoyable parade ;-).
I particularly liked nrs 1, 5 and 6 even though they are not very sharp. The expression in the eyes of your subjects make up more than anything for the loss in IQ IMHO. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,

Cem

[Asher Kelman]

The I.Q.? The slight OOF nature in some cases, gives, perhaps, the immediacy and personality that makes things real!

Asher

[Cem_Usakligil]

The I.Q.? The slight OOF nature in some cases, gives, perhaps, the immediacy and personality that makes things real!

Asher

Just for clarity's sake let me reiterate that I wasn't complaining about the IQ in the images of Nicolas at all. Au contraire, I meant exactly what you have written when I referred to the expressions in the eyes of the subjects and the feeling it evokes.

Having said that, when does the IQ becomes an issue, if at all? Referring to the on-going discussion threads about photography and art here (http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1438) and here (http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1410), I am curious if one would/could classify a simple, OOF, shaky, in short IQ-wise inferior snapshot taken by a casual photographer as emotion-evoking (IMO definitely possible) and maybe even as art (to which I don't have an answer yet but I'm leaning towards no right now)?

Regards,

Cem

[Nicolas Claris]

Hi Nicolas,

Apparently, it was a very enjoyable parade ;-).
I particularly liked nrs 1, 5 and 6 even though they are not very sharp. The expression in the eyes of your subjects make up more than anything for the loss in IQ IMHO. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,

Cem
Thanks for your kind words Cem, sometimes I like that blurred effect that we can get with low speed, it brings movement and life. Is life always chrystal clear?
Anyway, that was a delightfull moment shared with Asher and our wives.

I'll be back!