PRO+

Sdonion

FRIENDS

My daughter and her bestie... Fun little photo shoot.

My daughter and her bestie... Fun little photo shoot.
Read less

NIKON D810

settings

Aperture f/4 ISO 200 Shutter 1/250 Focal Length 850/10

upload_date

Aug, 2017

Views

1906

Likes

+204

Awards

Zenith Award

Honorable Mention in Love And Friendship Photo Contest

Featured

Peer Award

+652

Outstanding Creativity

+29

Top Choice

+16

Superb Composition

+13

Absolute Masterpiece

Magnificent Capture

Genius

All Star

Superior Skill

Emotions

Impressed

Happy

Top Ranks

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Top 20 rank

Top 10 rank

Top 30 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Top 30 rank week 1

Behind The Lens

Location

This was taken on the walkway right in front of our home. It looks partly onto the concrete walkway and partly out into the yard and the trees beyond. I was focused on the idea of the hands at the time and, since I knew I would use a very shallow depth of field, I didn’t give the background a lot of thought (I am still learning!). Fortunately, it worked out pretty well. It gives the sense of two friends walking along in the sun, maybe in a park.

Time

It was late afternoon in the summer in the northwest of the USA, which means the sun was still pretty high in the sky (sun doesn’t set until about 9:00 pm!)

Lighting

This is natural lighting. You can see the sun blowing out the left wrist a little, and even though it gave a nice warm glow to the yard beyond, in hindsight I should’ve used a diffuser or found some shade to prevent that hotspot.

Equipment

The camera was my Nikon D810 with a Nikor 85 mm prime lens. I took this in 2017 and, looking at the details/stats of the photo, I’m a bit surprised... it was f4, ISO 200, snd shutter 1/250. Given the shutter speed, I suspect I did use a flash after all... maybe the wrists were too shadowed. If I had it to do over, I would shoot it wide open and pay more attention to the sun and the backdrop. But it goes to show that it is possible to get some really cool shots even when you’re learning! :)

Inspiration

This is taken with my daughter (bracelets) and her bestie. We had a fun little photo shoot and then writing “FRIENDS” on their knuckles was their idea. Maybe they saw it somewhere on social media. They wanted to link hands and hold them up in a portrait (which we took) but I also thought this shot of just their hands would be cool. I thought my daughter’s bracelets made the shot much more interesting... You get the sense of best friends, hanging out in the summer sun, but with different tastes (one with a ton of bracelets and the other with zero.) Shows their personalities in a simple way, seeing only their wrists. It tells a bit of a story. They were 13 years old at the time.

Editing

Only very simple balancing/adjustments via Lightroom. There wasn’t much to be done with it. Even understanding photoshop a little now, I probably wouldn’t do much more with it than I did at the time.

In my camera bag

My Nikon D810 (which my kids call my “4th child” or Baby Nikon). My kit kens is the Nikon 28-300, 3.5-5.6. This is perfect for regular life photos (family gatherings, picnics, parties... things where you want to capture the moment and the people and be able to send them to people and put them in your photo albums but they’re not really art/artistic. It takes very nice images and has great zoom and wide angle and decent aperture. It’s a wonderful basic lens for life, but I don’t use it when I’m taking portraits or landscapes.) For portraits and action, I use the Sigma 70-200, 2.8. It is big and heavy, but I still carry it just about everywhere because it takes such beautiful images. I also carry the Nikon 85 mm 1.8, my Nikon ‘nifty 50’, 1.8 (want the 1.4!), and most recently I’ve added a Sigma 35 mm, 1.4. I always have extra batteries and my tripod available (at least in the car, if I want it). I used to carry an extra flash, and a full set of filters everywhere, but I’d rather have lens options and I don’t want to carry 50 pounds, lol. If I’m going to shoot landscapes, then I leave the portrait lenses behind and add my Tokina 16-28mm, 2.8.

Feedback

This is easy as can be. Use a wide aperture to blur the background and pay attention to the back drop. Add rings or bracelets or nail polish for interest. That’s it! :)

See more amazing photos, follow Sdonion

Sdonion

Sdonion

FRIENDS

My daughter and her bestie... Fun little photo shoot.

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow Sdonion

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes. Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.