more stuff from fairygirl...
hi guys, just posting a link to a gallery of kid portraits that I shot yesterday for those who asked about portraits and the *istD. The lighting was ideal for this shoot and the results were much, much better than the couple that I posted the other day. This little girl is a very unusual looking child, and it was hard to make her look cute. PLUS, boy does she ever have an attitude, she DID NOT want to be photographed and is very intense and totally precocious! She is two years old and was telling her mum to Get Lost! So initially, I had to shoot without flash using a 200mm lens to keep a safe distance from her to capture her candidly. Toward the end, she relaxed a little and I distracted her by bribing her with lollies and picking some lillies out of the water for her to play with, so she became a little easier to work with. Her mum is a good friend of mine who I have shot many times in the past (whilst she was pregnant and when the little girl was a newborn), but this time she insisted on paying me properly and on me treating her as I would a true client as she felt sick of getting freebies from me all the time. It was really nice to be appreciated by a friend! So, she is over the moon with the results, and I was quite happy too, I can definitely see my work with the *ist D improving as I get to know it better... Still, I think there is a bit too much flash on some of those shots toward the end - still learning about flash in a major way, so I expect that this will improve over time... Here's the link: http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/index.html I love this one... http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/pages/IMGP1398.html Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I may soften the effect of the flash? I do have a diffuser over it, but I'm not getting hotspots anyways, which is a great thing. I am just wanting to soften so that it doesn't appear to dominate the entire picture, such as in this shot: http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/pages/IMGP1386.html Obviously, I can't bounce it when I am shooting on location such as these. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Ok, so I am off to Brisbane again in the morning, so may be a bit quiet until Monday - will check my emails in my motel tomorrow night though, so don't go talking behind my back, ok?!? lol... Have a great weekend all! tan.
Re: more stuff from fairygirl...
From: Tanya Mayer Photography [EMAIL PROTECTED] just posting a link to a gallery of kid portraits that I shot yesterday for those who asked about portraits and the *istD. The lighting was ideal for this shoot and the results were much, much better than the couple that I posted the other day. This little girl is a very unusual looking child, and it was hard to make her look cute. She doesn't look very unusual to me, and I do think she's cute, but I guess you meant cute as in kind of fairy-cute(?) or the like. PLUS, boy does she ever have an attitude, she DID NOT want to be photographed and is very intense and totally precocious! She is two years old and was telling her mum to Get Lost! :-) Make a note of this, and remind her about it, when you do another portrait series of her in twenty years. (I'd love to see that.) In between make yourself available for shoots of her at intervals of a couple of years. I think it's a great series of photographs. I feel like I've got a good glimpse of this young lady's personality. (I like the one you picked out too very much.) There are many good shots. Some of my favourites are of the mother and daughter together. A few great ones there. Would have liked to see all of them in colour. There is a (just) a handful that I would personally have left out for a presentation. One thing about the framing: there is a tendency to put the subject in the middle of the horizontal(?) frames, which I think could have been a bit more varied. Also there is a tendency to frame in to half-body shots, as well as - in my taste - cropping the top of her head a bit tight. I think this could have been varied to a greater extent too. If this is your style, I respect that, but as a viewer, I wouldn't mind some more variation. These minor reflections of mine doesn't take away a bit of the fact that both you and the mother, as well as the young lady when she will review them at a later time, have all reasons to be very happy about what you produced. (I am no expert on shooting flash, in fact I too await good advice on the questions you posed. However, I think some of the flash shots could digitally be made a bit warmer.) Good work! Thanks for sharing. Lasse Here's the link: http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/index.html I love this one... http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/pages/IMGP1398.html
RE: more stuff from fairygirl...
If you have the 360FGZ then you could lower the flash out put using the compensation on the flash? Alternatively you could take a projector screen or some white card with you and bounce off that. The other thing you may want to look at is a gold diffuser, stofen do them and they can give pleasing skin tones. Alternatively, you could use contrast techniques in your image editor to adjust things like this: http://www.calcot.plus.com/Pentax/TanIMGP1386.jpg I think that may be closer to what you are looking for? Rob -Original Message- From: Tanya Mayer Photography [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Still, I think there is a bit too much flash on some of those shots toward the end - still learning about flash in a major way, so I expect that this will improve over time... Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I may soften the effect of the flash? I do have a diffuser over it, but I'm not getting hotspots anyways, which is a great thing. I am just wanting to soften so that it doesn't appear to dominate the entire picture, such as in this shot: http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/pages/IMGP1386.html
Re: more stuff from fairygirl...
Some very nice shots! Please explain how you select lenses i.e. 90mm through 200mm seem to produce good portraits in the right situation. You mention 200mm for safe distance. Which others did you use? - Original Message - From: Tanya Mayer Photography [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 3:14 AM Subject: more stuff from fairygirl... hi guys, just posting a link to a gallery of kid portraits that I shot yesterday for those who asked about portraits and the *istD. The lighting was ideal for this shoot and the results were much, much better than the couple that I posted the other day. This little girl is a very unusual looking child, and it was hard to make her look cute. PLUS, boy does she ever have an attitude, she DID NOT want to be photographed and is very intense and totally precocious! She is two years old and was telling her mum to Get Lost! So initially, I had to shoot without flash using a 200mm lens to keep a safe distance from her to capture her candidly. Toward the end, she relaxed a little and I distracted her by bribing her with lollies and picking some lillies out of the water for her to play with, so she became a little easier to work with. Her mum is a good friend of mine who I have shot many times in the past (whilst she was pregnant and when the little girl was a newborn), but this time she insisted on paying me properly and on me treating her as I would a true client as she felt sick of getting freebies from me all the time. It was really nice to be appreciated by a friend! So, she is over the moon with the results, and I was quite happy too, I can definitely see my work with the *ist D improving as I get to know it better... Still, I think there is a bit too much flash on some of those shots toward the end - still learning about flash in a major way, so I expect that this will improve over time... Here's the link: http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/index.html I love this one... http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/pages/IMGP1398.html Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I may soften the effect of the flash? I do have a diffuser over it, but I'm not getting hotspots anyways, which is a great thing. I am just wanting to soften so that it doesn't appear to dominate the entire picture, such as in this shot: http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/pages/IMGP1386.html Obviously, I can't bounce it when I am shooting on location such as these. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Ok, so I am off to Brisbane again in the morning, so may be a bit quiet until Monday - will check my emails in my motel tomorrow night though, so don't go talking behind my back, ok?!? lol... Have a great weekend all! tan.
Re: more stuff from fairygirl...
On 11 Mar 2004 at 19:14, Tanya Mayer Photography wrote: This little girl is a very unusual looking child, and it was hard to make her look cute. What's this thing about cute? Everyone who's had children know what they can be like when they are two years old and discover that they actually can have a say in things. Most notably the word no. PLUS, boy does she ever have an attitude, she DID NOT want to be photographed and is very intense and totally precocious! She is two years old and was telling her mum to Get Lost! LOL. Sounds like a true toddler to me. When I looked at the pictures, I could sense the attitude in that kid. She's probably going to be a little monster for a while, and then catch up with cute when it suits her. I'm not a portraits photographer, but your photos tell a good story about a young person. For that reason, I really like them. I can't tell you much about techniques and stuff, but as for capturing the nature of a strong-headed toddler, I'm impressed. Cheers, Jostein -- Photos at: http://www.oksne.net --
more stuff from fairygirl...
Hi Tanya, Nice work with the child portraiture. Shooting kids that age is never easy. I could see how the little model and the photographer got more and more comfortable with one another as the shoot went on. It was quite noticable in the quality of expression in your photographs. The flash problems you describe are much less of a distraction to me than the backgrounds of most of the pictures I'm the first to admit that I am no expert with flash but there are simple flash attachments that will help soften the light. These can be attached with velcro right on to the flash... and they are not overly expensive... Back to the backgrounds. I think the shots that show background would benefit from a much shallower depth of field. If these were shot with a longer lens and opened up to F2.8 or something like that, the background would really soften up. I think you would be much happier with some of the results. I don't know what lens you used here (maybe your 28-200.) The problem with these zooms is that they are relatively slow lenses and you begin to lose the ability to really soften the backgrounds. The background is also a little hot for my liking. I suggest moving around as much as possible to get the subject in a position that has a more pleasing background. Other than that, keep up the good work... Vic
RE: more stuff from fairygirl...
On Thu, 11 Mar 2004, Rob Brigham wrote: If you have the 360FGZ then you could lower the flash out put using the compensation on the flash? Does the exposure compensation trick work with the *ist-D? Kostas
RE: more stuff from fairygirl...
So sorry! I forgot to include the technical stuff! Most of them were shot on AV at around f4-f6.7. I didn't open my lenses too wide as she was moving around to much and it was difficult to keep her in focus. Also, I actually had too much light and could only sync at 1/150th, so I needed to stop down as far as I could to avoid overexposure. Lenses - I used the Tamron 28-200 for a few of them (all would have been around the 135-200mm mark), but most were shot with my Tamron 135mm f2.5. It is an old, heavy all metal manual lens. I LOVE this lens to death, it yields beautiful results. It is a little soft between f2.5 and f4 but that is actually perfect for the portraits that I shoot. Does anyone know anymore about this lens? I have no idea about it - it was one of my first every photography related Ebay purchases and it was a pure fluke as I really had no idea what I was bidding on at the time. Would love to hear if anyone else has any experience with this lens? tia, tan. -Original Message- From: Hal Sandra Davis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, 11 March 2004 10:08 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: more stuff from fairygirl... Some very nice shots! Please explain how you select lenses i.e. 90mm through 200mm seem to produce good portraits in the right situation. You mention 200mm for safe distance. Which others did you use? - Original Message - From: Tanya Mayer Photography [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 3:14 AM Subject: more stuff from fairygirl... hi guys, just posting a link to a gallery of kid portraits that I shot yesterday for those who asked about portraits and the *istD. The lighting was ideal for this shoot and the results were much, much better than the couple that I posted the other day. This little girl is a very unusual looking child, and it was hard to make her look cute. PLUS, boy does she ever have an attitude, she DID NOT want to be photographed and is very intense and totally precocious! She is two years old and was telling her mum to Get Lost! So initially, I had to shoot without flash using a 200mm lens to keep a safe distance from her to capture her candidly. Toward the end, she relaxed a little and I distracted her by bribing her with lollies and picking some lillies out of the water for her to play with, so she became a little easier to work with. Her mum is a good friend of mine who I have shot many times in the past (whilst she was pregnant and when the little girl was a newborn), but this time she insisted on paying me properly and on me treating her as I would a true client as she felt sick of getting freebies from me all the time. It was really nice to be appreciated by a friend! So, she is over the moon with the results, and I was quite happy too, I can definitely see my work with the *ist D improving as I get to know it better... Still, I think there is a bit too much flash on some of those shots toward the end - still learning about flash in a major way, so I expect that this will improve over time... Here's the link: http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/index.html I love this one... http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/pages/IMGP1398.html Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I may soften the effect of the flash? I do have a diffuser over it, but I'm not getting hotspots anyways, which is a great thing. I am just wanting to soften so that it doesn't appear to dominate the entire picture, such as in this shot: http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/pages/IMGP1386.html Obviously, I can't bounce it when I am shooting on location such as these. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Ok, so I am off to Brisbane again in the morning, so may be a bit quiet until Monday - will check my emails in my motel tomorrow night though, so don't go talking behind my back, ok?!? lol... Have a great weekend all! tan.
Re: more stuff from fairygirl...
Tan, A good job of portaiture, that. WRT your request for suggestions about flash Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I may soften the effect of the flash? I do have a diffuser over it, but I'm not getting hotspots anyways, which is a great thing. I am just wanting to soften so that it doesn't appear to dominate the entire picture, such as in this shot: my preference when a portrait subject is in the shade, but the background is fully lit, is to let the background overexpose about a stop. This prevents the ambiguity of lighting where the shadows in the foreground of the shot are brighter than the sunlight in the background, which draws attention to the presence of the flash. Simple as that, and the same thing applies when the outside world is visible through an open window, it should be brighter by at least a stop otherwise it doesn't look natural. regards, Anthony Farr
Re: more stuff from fairygirl...
What's the GN of the flash at 1/4000 sync though? S Bruce Dayton wrote: Hello Tanya, Not sure if you are aware, but the *istD coupled with the AF360FGZ can do high speed synch at up to 1/4000. Set the flash mode all the way to the right (HSS) and set the camera to wireless/HSS. Once you do that, you can use all of your shutter speeds. That, along with flash compensation, is the big reason to use the AF360FGZ right now. HTH, Bruce Thursday, March 11, 2004, 6:33:07 AM, you wrote: TMP So sorry! I forgot to include the technical stuff! TMP Most of them were shot on AV at around f4-f6.7. I didn't open my lenses too TMP wide as she was moving around to much and it was difficult to keep her in TMP focus. Also, I actually had too much light and could only sync at 1/150th, TMP so I needed to stop down as far as I could to avoid overexposure. TMP Lenses - I used the Tamron 28-200 for a few of them (all would have been TMP around the 135-200mm mark), but most were shot with my Tamron 135mm f2.5. TMP It is an old, heavy all metal manual lens. I LOVE this lens to death, it TMP yields beautiful results. It is a little soft between f2.5 and f4 but that TMP is actually perfect for the portraits that I shoot. TMP Does anyone know anymore about this lens? I have no idea about it - it was TMP one of my first every photography related Ebay purchases and it was a pure TMP fluke as I really had no idea what I was bidding on at the time. Would love TMP to hear if anyone else has any experience with this lens? TMP tia, TMP tan. TMP -Original Message- TMP From: Hal Sandra Davis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] TMP Sent: Thursday, 11 March 2004 10:08 PM TMP To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TMP Subject: Re: more stuff from fairygirl... TMP Some very nice shots! Please explain how you select lenses i.e. 90mm through TMP 200mm seem to produce good portraits in the right situation. You mention TMP 200mm for safe distance. Which others did you use? TMP - Original Message - TMP From: Tanya Mayer Photography [EMAIL PROTECTED] TMP To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] TMP Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 3:14 AM TMP Subject: more stuff from fairygirl... hi guys, just posting a link to a gallery of kid portraits that I shot yesterday TMP for those who asked about portraits and the *istD. The lighting was ideal for this shoot and the results were much, much better than the couple that I posted the other day. This little girl is a very unusual looking child, and it was hard to make her look cute. PLUS, boy does she ever have an attitude, she DID NOT TMP want to be photographed and is very intense and totally precocious! She is two years old and was telling her mum to Get Lost! So initially, I had to shoot without flash using a 200mm lens to keep a safe distance from her TMP to capture her candidly. Toward the end, she relaxed a little and I TMP distracted her by bribing her with lollies and picking some lillies out of the water for her to play with, so she became a little easier to work with. Her mum is a good friend of mine who I have shot many times in the past (whilst she was pregnant and when the little girl was a newborn), but this time she insisted on paying me properly and on me treating her as I TMP would a true client as she felt sick of getting freebies from me all the time. It was really nice to be appreciated by a friend! So, she is over the moon with the results, and I was quite happy too, I TMP can definitely see my work with the *ist D improving as I get to know it better... Still, I think there is a bit too much flash on some of those shots toward the end - still learning about flash in a major way, so I expect that this will improve over time... Here's the link: http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/index.html I love this one... http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/pages/IMGP1398.html Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I may soften the effect of TMP the flash? I do have a diffuser over it, but I'm not getting hotspots TMP anyways, which is a great thing. I am just wanting to soften so that it doesn't appear to dominate the entire picture, such as in this shot: http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/pages/IMGP1386.html Obviously, I can't bounce it when I am shooting on location such as these. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Ok, so I am off to Brisbane again in the morning, so may be a bit quiet until Monday - will check my emails in my motel tomorrow night though, so don't go talking behind my back, ok?!? lol... Have a great weekend all! tan.
Re: more stuff from fairygirl...
Hey Tan! You are good. Your clients are fortunate to have you. I did not go through them all - I stopped on 1398. You can discard the rest, this one alone tells the whole story about the young lady. Cheers! Stan Tanya Mayer Photography wrote: hi guys, just posting a link to a gallery of kid portraits that I shot yesterday for those who asked about portraits and the *istD. The lighting was ideal for this shoot and the results were much, much better than the couple that I posted the other day. This little girl is a very unusual looking child, and it was hard to make her look cute. PLUS, boy does she ever have an attitude, she DID NOT want to be photographed and is very intense and totally precocious! She is two years old and was telling her mum to Get Lost! So initially, I had to shoot without flash using a 200mm lens to keep a safe distance from her to capture her candidly. Toward the end, she relaxed a little and I distracted her by bribing her with lollies and picking some lillies out of the water for her to play with, so she became a little easier to work with. Her mum is a good friend of mine who I have shot many times in the past (whilst she was pregnant and when the little girl was a newborn), but this time she insisted on paying me properly and on me treating her as I would a true client as she felt sick of getting freebies from me all the time. It was really nice to be appreciated by a friend! So, she is over the moon with the results, and I was quite happy too, I can definitely see my work with the *ist D improving as I get to know it better... Still, I think there is a bit too much flash on some of those shots toward the end - still learning about flash in a major way, so I expect that this will improve over time... Here's the link: http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/index.html I love this one... http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/pages/IMGP1398.html Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I may soften the effect of the flash? I do have a diffuser over it, but I'm not getting hotspots anyways, which is a great thing. I am just wanting to soften so that it doesn't appear to dominate the entire picture, such as in this shot: http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/pages/IMGP1386.html Obviously, I can't bounce it when I am shooting on location such as these. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Ok, so I am off to Brisbane again in the morning, so may be a bit quiet until Monday - will check my emails in my motel tomorrow night though, so don't go talking behind my back, ok?!? lol... Have a great weekend all! tan.
Re: more stuff from fairygirl...
Hello Steve, Keep in mind that you are doing fill flash in daylight for portrait distances. It is low, but adequate. I've got a couple of hundred shots of weddings under my belt to be satisfied with it. -- Best regards, Bruce Thursday, March 11, 2004, 6:04:06 PM, you wrote: SJ What's the GN of the flash at 1/4000 sync though? SJ S SJ Bruce Dayton wrote: Hello Tanya, Not sure if you are aware, but the *istD coupled with the AF360FGZ can do high speed synch at up to 1/4000. Set the flash mode all the way to the right (HSS) and set the camera to wireless/HSS. Once you do that, you can use all of your shutter speeds. That, along with flash compensation, is the big reason to use the AF360FGZ right now. HTH, Bruce Thursday, March 11, 2004, 6:33:07 AM, you wrote: TMP So sorry! I forgot to include the technical stuff! TMP Most of them were shot on AV at around f4-f6.7. I didn't open my lenses too TMP wide as she was moving around to much and it was difficult to keep her in TMP focus. Also, I actually had too much light and could only sync at 1/150th, TMP so I needed to stop down as far as I could to avoid overexposure. TMP Lenses - I used the Tamron 28-200 for a few of them (all would have been TMP around the 135-200mm mark), but most were shot with my Tamron 135mm f2.5. TMP It is an old, heavy all metal manual lens. I LOVE this lens to death, it TMP yields beautiful results. It is a little soft between f2.5 and f4 but that TMP is actually perfect for the portraits that I shoot. TMP Does anyone know anymore about this lens? I have no idea about it - it was TMP one of my first every photography related Ebay purchases and it was a pure TMP fluke as I really had no idea what I was bidding on at the time. Would love TMP to hear if anyone else has any experience with this lens? TMP tia, TMP tan. TMP -Original Message- TMP From: Hal Sandra Davis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] TMP Sent: Thursday, 11 March 2004 10:08 PM TMP To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TMP Subject: Re: more stuff from fairygirl... TMP Some very nice shots! Please explain how you select lenses i.e. 90mm through TMP 200mm seem to produce good portraits in the right situation. You mention TMP 200mm for safe distance. Which others did you use? TMP - Original Message - TMP From: Tanya Mayer Photography [EMAIL PROTECTED] TMP To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] TMP Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 3:14 AM TMP Subject: more stuff from fairygirl... hi guys, just posting a link to a gallery of kid portraits that I shot yesterday TMP for those who asked about portraits and the *istD. The lighting was ideal for this shoot and the results were much, much better than the couple that I posted the other day. This little girl is a very unusual looking child, and it was hard to make her look cute. PLUS, boy does she ever have an attitude, she DID NOT TMP want to be photographed and is very intense and totally precocious! She is two years old and was telling her mum to Get Lost! So initially, I had to shoot without flash using a 200mm lens to keep a safe distance from her TMP to capture her candidly. Toward the end, she relaxed a little and I TMP distracted her by bribing her with lollies and picking some lillies out of the water for her to play with, so she became a little easier to work with. Her mum is a good friend of mine who I have shot many times in the past (whilst she was pregnant and when the little girl was a newborn), but this time she insisted on paying me properly and on me treating her as I TMP would a true client as she felt sick of getting freebies from me all the time. It was really nice to be appreciated by a friend! So, she is over the moon with the results, and I was quite happy too, I TMP can definitely see my work with the *ist D improving as I get to know it better... Still, I think there is a bit too much flash on some of those shots toward the end - still learning about flash in a major way, so I expect that this will improve over time... Here's the link: http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/index.html I love this one... http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/pages/IMGP1398.html Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I may soften the effect of TMP the flash? I do have a diffuser over it, but I'm not getting hotspots TMP anyways, which is a great thing. I am just wanting to soften so that it doesn't appear to dominate the entire picture, such as in this shot: http://www.tanyamayer.com/avagallery/pages/IMGP1386.html Obviously, I can't bounce it when I am shooting on location such as these. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Ok, so I am off to Brisbane again in the morning, so may be a bit quiet until Monday - will check my emails in my motel tomorrow night though, so don't go talking behind my back, ok?!? lol... Have a great weekend all! tan.
