Do you shoot?

Appreciate that.

I haven't shot anything in a while except for a couple portraits for work. I need to get back into it now that the weather is clearing up.

 

I'd love to see some of those portraits. That's my bread and butter (that and product photography), so I'm always interested.

Not the genre most of you shoot in, but one of my profs was featured on NPR today, with some really beautiful work he's done: http://t.co/pvOQARHN.

 

I like that one you linked to.

Here is what I shot today. Didn't know I was going to have to take a photo for it until an hour before my interview with her. It was a little light, so I used overlay in post.

 

I'm editing my portfolio right now, and came across this one, of which I'm quite fond. From the fall.

 

Baseball shooter Brad Mangin on shooting Robin Ventura: http://manginphotography.net/2012/03/robin-ventura-nice-guys-can-finish-first/

It's a nice look at how to get good images of non-action stuff.

And DC photographer Melissa Golden on shooting portraits at a presser: http://goldenhourblog.com/2012/03/28/howardschultz/

 

My best friend's little brother got married this weekend and I brought my camera. I thought some of these turned out pretty well, especially since I don't usually do portrait-style. Taken in small town Oklahoma. The full thing is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/59555061@N05/sets/72157629929750351/ but these are the highlights.


Bride and Maid of Honor

Groom and his mom. I had to tone down grandpa's head since it was in focus. Brush the color out a bit.



My fam.

Sisters

 

Wow. Those are pretty solid. What did you shoot them with/on?

 

Dude, your dad is a house (that size didn't trickle down I guess )and the sis with the blue eyes can wobble some knees.

Get the picture of your sisters in a frame for them. That is a great shot.

Do you ever look at the what is around the subject when you shoot? The foreground and background hurt a lot of those shots.

 

Thanks. Honestly, I don't pay as much attention as I should to the fore and bg and I completely agree with it killing some shots. Very distracting. Part of it was there being an official, paid photographer there and I didn't want to get in their way, but there were also times I just shot and didn't pay attention.

Schiez- I have a Canon EOS 50D. I like it a lot, but the iso only goes to 3200, so the low light situations can cause some not so great shots.

 

So if you're shooting at 3200, what's your F-Stop and shutter speed set to or are you using a flash (Must be using a flash, especially on the first two). I still haven't figured out how to really shoot with a flash and low-light shooting just kicks my ass every time I try it.

Oh and I was in New York recently and saw this in Central Park. Didn't have time to set the shot up properly and just snapped it really quick but everyone I know LOVES it and says it's one of my best shots. I don't understand why. At all. Maybe you guys can give me some feedback?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=724218583519&set=a.724213468769.2122976.52801349&type=3

 

It says content not available, might be your security settings. Try just grabbing the image's URL (should end in .jpg).

My F-stop was between 80 and 120, but no flash on either. I used a manual focus in order to let more light in.

 

I'm not trying to embarrass you, but there's some terminology we need to get straight here so we're all talking about the same thing. Your f/stop would be something like 2.8, 4.0, 5.6, 8, etc. Your shutter speed typically reads out in whole numbers (which are actually fractions- your shutter speed is 1/x, x being the number that's reading out) and might be more like 8, 15, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, 100, 125, and so on.

One of the hazards of low-light shooting is that unless you're buying expensive glass, your maximum aperture (the biggest that the hole in your lens can be) is going to be relatively small... f/3.5-5.6 is pretty typical of a consumer-grade lens. Because you can't make your aperture bigger, your shutter speeds become longer. Longer shutter speeds yield images plagued by motion blur, both of the camera (camera shake) and of the subject.

Shooting effectively in the dark typically means mastering your flash, and getting it off the camera. That's an entirely different subject, but it's probably my favorite part of photography.

http://audreydodgen.com/wedding.JPG

I am not certain what you mean when you said you used manual focus to let more light in. Did you mean you shot in manual mode?