Yesterday catch...[300mm f/2.8]

Yesterday I was priveleged to catch this shot with my 300 lens. It is the first time I have had the opportunity to use this lens since I bought it a few weeks ago.....and what a lens it is, almost as sharp as my 85 1.2 lens.... Unfortunately, I clipped the hair in the second one, but it happened so fast I just had t press the shutter....





The bonus of having a telephoto lens...

I love taking long-range portraits (more like candids) with my 300mm. Nice captures.

Hi Barry

Beautiful shots of a very pretty girl, the light is lovely on her hair and you've captured the movement in her hair perfectly, I like the thoughtful expression, a lovely natural shot.......well done you, and well done your new lens!

Hi Barry,

as I am just about to buy this lens I am wondering where you purchased yours & for how much.

Cheers,

Paul

EF300 f/2.8

Hi Paul,
will send you PM.

Regards,
Barry.

Many thank Jan, yeah, I was very happy with these shots as well. She is very pretty, one day I'm sure she will be a heart breaker..... the lighting and the moment were perfect.

Is your keyboard floating yet? I hear you've had some rain of late....

Hi Barry

Luckily for us we're a long way from the flooded areas, today is the first dry day I can remember for a while, so I'm going to make the most of it and get out into the garden shortly, thanks for thinking about us though.......

Barry Johnston said:

Many thank Jan, yeah, I was very happy with these shots as well. She is very pretty, one day I'm sure she will be a heart breaker..... the lighting and the moment were perfect.

Click to expand...

Hi Barry,

The girl and the moment are wonderful. The capture was great. As it is the picture is special and I like it.

Let me gently question one aspect, the lighting.

I'd prefer to modulate the relative harsh shadow areas. For this, if possible I'd use one or more of the following:

• A white reflector/ card under the face at 45 degrees or to the girl's right side
  
• Minimal fill flash on or off camera
  
• Lightening of the shadow areas in photoshop, LR etc.

It might be worthwhile to explore post processing of the shadow areas.

Asher

Asher
is this in the direction you did indicate?

I didn't realize that France has a "Superman" but you whizzed from the sky, Nicolas and came to the rescue so fast! I like the version. You brought out the picture's beauty more.

You did this without, IMHO, taking anything away from the magic!

Barry, is this withing your vision?

Asher

Asher, you're too kind!

So, here is another attempt on the other pic, this little girl is so cute and the shot so good, just neede imho some PP…



oh and maybe a crop too…

Nicolas,

I'm impressed that you even revealed the shadows of the loose hairs. I'm glad you didn't remove them as they inform us more on the girl.

Asher

Here is the workflow:



then run my sharpness action (layer at 30%), flattened and midtone level at about 1.1

Nicolas,

Where is that dialog boxx from, in English?

Asher

Sorry it is from CS2 French version…
It is the "shadow highlight" from "image" menu

Mmmmm... Interesting interpretations !!

Mmm, interesting interpretations here, amazing what pp'ing can do.

However, after post processing, do you not think that the photo has lost much of it's impact ? It seems to me that the original has much impact which seems to be lost in the post processing, although the original could be 1/2 stop under exposed.

I'd certainly like to hear some more comments on this.... what do you guys think ?

As this was a candid shot using my newly acquired 300mm telephoto lens, there wasn't time for to use any reflectors or fill flash of any sort....and she was a little distance away.

Barry.

Hi Barry & Nic

Very interesting to see this demonstration, I think I prefer Nic's version, but I'm not aware what her hair colour actually is, Nic's version looks wonderful although her hair colour is much lighter....but there again we can see more detail in her lovely face with the harsh shadow softened.

We had friends visit last weekend with their new baby who has been poorly, they didn't want me to use flash on her, so the resulting photographs had heavy shadows, despite using a gold coloured reflector. I have just tried Nic's technique and they're looking loads better, so thanks for this Nic, I'm going try it on a few more, will post my results in the next few days......

Barry Johnston said:

Mmm, interesting interpretations here, amazing what pp'ing can do.

However, after post processing, do you not think that the photo has lost much of it's impact ? It seems to me that the original has much impact which seems to be lost in the post processing, although the original could be 1/2 stop under exposed.

I'd certainly like to hear some more comments on this.... what do you guys think ?

As this was a candid shot using my newly acquired 300mm telephoto lens, there wasn't time for to use any reflectors or fill flash of any sort....and she was a little distance away.

Barry.

Click to expand...

Hi Barry,

When one says the image is 1/3 stop under exposed, that's an overall judgement based on the needs of the camera based on limites of black and white points. In this case, however, the distribution of the tonalities is in question. A chip processor by Texas instruments has been provided to HP and Kodak to deal with this in digicams. However, Canon does not deal with this AFAIK.

In your picture the girls expression is not impaired according to a number of people I've shown it to. Nicolas' PP has removed darkness and brought out more of the girl's beauty. There's stil the concept of being in the harsh light.

Still, it's only your vision as an artist that must be satisfied not ours.

My view is that the photographer-artist must keep true to their vision and intent. So it's up top you to consider these versions and let it stew and then revisit your consideration. It might be that some aspects of Nicolas' attempts might work better for you. Simply adding the version on top of your original in photoshop will permit a percentage of the proposed versioning to be added. You might find for example that just 30-70% of the upper layer could add something that pleased you. Of course if it doesn't then the changes are not ever approriate.

In any case your picture is an excellent opportunity for us to look into subtle changes in shadow areas and impact on the sense of the picture.

So thanks again for sharing!

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Still, it's only your vision as an artist that must be satisfied not ours.

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A B S O L U T E L Y
I cannot agree more!

A stated by Asher, my attempt goal is only to show a technic…
If it can help, I'm happy!

Janet and all, be carefull with "Light and shadow" you have to check that both pulling whites and pushing darks is not producing halos… (this can be reduced while reducing midtones contrasts).
Color correction is also interesting, though I think I pulled it to much on these pics…

A really powerful tool!

janet Smith said:

We had friends visit last weekend with their new baby who has been poorly, they didn't want me to use flash on her, so the resulting photographs had heavy shadows, despite using a gold coloured reflector. I have just tried Nic's technique and they're looking loads better, so thanks for this Nic, I'm going try it on a few more, will post my results in the next few days......

Click to expand...

Hi Janet
I can understand that the parents didn't want you to use your flash…
But you could have use bouncing to the wall behind you or reflector, it would then have not been dangerous for the baby…
Maybe a doctor here could confirm this? Professor Asher?

Hi Nic

Yes, I did use a reflector, and said I thought bouncing the flash would be fine, but they were not happy to have flash used at all, so I did my best without. I think under the circumstances the results just with natural light from the window + reflector are quite good, will post them soon....

Thanks for your help, as always, much appreciated.

Nicolas Claris said:

Hi Janet
I can understand that the parents didn't want you to use your flash…
But you could have use bouncing to the wall behind you or reflector, it would then have not been dangerous for the baby…
Maybe a doctor here could confirm this? Professor Asher?

Click to expand...

What The Duck #49 ...




Robert (not a doctor)

Hi Robert

Nice one!

My Vote

Barry,

My vote is for the original versions of your photos. The other versions scream manipulation. I'm a believer that "just because we can alter things in Photoshop doesn't mean we should. I love your originals. That also appears to be a great lens.

Mike