Walt, don't concern yourself with this now, but file it away to think about after this shoot.
Shooting in your bar area is very likely going to have you beginning to appreciate why additional lighting is often really useful in creative portraiture. You'd like to highlight your subject--after all, she's the point of the shot--but you don't want to lose the context (the bar surroundings). So you really want to literally spotlight your subject in a way that doesn't overwhelm the subtle bar downlights and undercounter accent lights, plus colourful reflections from glassware and all. A good way to do that is to setup a small flash source, like a small softbox, to one side of your subject casting a pool of light centered on her face. With camera on manual you set the aperture to expose for her face, then set the shutter speed to expose for the background illumination, but about 1 stop less than for the face. A very different way to get almost the same effect is point a colour-corrected LED array (preferably with extra diffusion) at your subject's face and increase the brightness until her face is slightly brighter than her surroundings (approx a stop). Then expose for her face and shoot. The LED approach will require much higher ISOs or wider apertures and she may have to hold still to avoid motion blur. You've probably seen this one before, something similar that I did in a restaurant bar with crappy light: http://www.flickr.com/bruce_m_walker/7395068796/in/set-72157630179005076/lightbox/ On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 1:58 PM, Walt <ldott...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 2/27/2013 12:37 PM, John Sessoms wrote: >> >> From: Walt >> >>> Thanks, Dave. >>> >>> That's a habit I finally broke myself of by setting the instant review >>> to one second. Chasing butterflies with a 50mm manual prime also helped >>> a lot. >>> >>> As for the talking, that shouldn't be a problem. She's a pretty engaging >>> person. >>> >> >> I like to check the histogram on the first couple of shots, just to make >> sure I'm not screwing everything up. After that, there's no need to chimp >> unless you get a big change in the light (at which point it's good to check >> the histogram again). >> > I'll definitely check the histogram from time to time and will probably > bracket most of my exposures. The bar area is a real pain in the ass when it > comes to lighting, so I'll probably have to do a bit more chimping in there, > but the pool room (which has recently been painted a much warmer color) > should be a breeze. > > Thanks! > > -- Walt > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. -- -bmw -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
