Hannah....

Well, I had a portrait session yesterday - a real paying job! I had my new monolights but ended up not using them because of a screw up by B&H so my trusty 580 Ex and Gary Fong were called upon. As it turned out, I would have frightened the subject. These were taken to send out with a save the date card for Hannah's Bas Mitzvah (yes, that is correct - she is adopted from China and she is a Bat Mitzvah!) I took about 50 images and had 25 to show the parents - 50% of good images made me pretty happy!

The other thing I did - in error - was I used my camera for something else and forgot to put it back in RAW + JPG and so they were all shot in JPG. I am making up a check list so that I check my camera settings. There is no PS on these yet.

My personal favorite:

Hi Kathy,

What a lovely set of subjects. You have made a sensitive picture with a lot of special feelings emanating form the care and treasuring Hannah is showing us. The lighting on her face is gentle.

I do have some questions though on the lighting, but this could be the fact this is non-processed. The hair on her right side is without detail on this MacBook Pro screen. The nose appears to have lost highlight detail. However, these points may not be valid and RAW processing might have ameliorated this.

I'd have liked a larger image so we can come in to the center ourselves and not be robbed of that choice. Yes this is the most important part of the image, but the same picture in the center of a dark whole page with the light in the center, for example, would add power.

This is not to say that this is what you should do, but rather a possibility to think about to contain all this love and pride. This is not merely a portrait but a whole universe of kindness and pride.

One extra thing the b.g. green color is distracting even though it matches the eyes of the cat. The blue sweater is perhaps also not optimum for the coloring of the cat and Hannah's face.

Asher

Best choice I had to work with

I had 4 tops for wardrobe - I asked for plain colors since teenagers like al lthat writing on their shirts. The other colors were not good - Bright Orange Red and a pale color beige which would have washed out.

Good point about the hair detail - the green is from the trees. She was sitting on a window box seat for the photo. Light was a challenge since the living room window faced west and it was morning. I shot in the family room to get light from the east.

I have lots to work with here, even without having shot it in RAW. That won't happen again! I will play with some retouching. The mother liked 10 of the 15 I put on my gallery.

An old hack wedding guy I met a few weeks ago said something interesting to me. He said "sometimes, good is good enough". I am still learning about what is good.

Thanks for helping me to learn!

Kathy Rappaport said:

An old hack wedding guy I met a few weeks ago said something interesting to me. He said "sometimes, good is good enough". I am still learning about what is good.

Click to expand...

The old hack is quite right for what he does but that is not a path for growth. "Good enough" will reliably put a generous loaf of bread on the table!

You, by contrast, are extending your reach and will leave the old hack way behind you and have caviar too!

Asher

My goal...

Is to make the best pictures possible. Maybe even have an image of mine on the cover of some magazine! I love the learning possibilites here. Thank you, Asher for providing us with this wonderful place to get nourishment.

Here is one that I grabbed at the right moment. Mom said - I have no make up on and I look terrible. I never expected to have any photos taken of me. So I fixed her makeup in Curves and Levels. She is ordering a gallery print on canvas!

Hi Kathy, a beautiful portrait, although posed, she looks perfectly comfortable and at ease with you and your lens, you must have a way with people ( which helps when your shooting them!!).

The distraction for me is the cat, it seems like it doesnt belong in the picture, I think this may be to do with the stark contrast of skin colour of the little girl, and the sharpness maybe of the cats fur, I would be inclined to play with the levels, and do a really nice b&w conversion, however, I bet the mother is totally thrilled with this portrait, and was worth every penny/cent she paid you.

Emma James

That cat...

Was her requirement. A photo with the cat. As you must know, cats have a mind of their own. No choices. Unlike a dog, they don't obey, sit or stay! They have to be tightly held...