Beyond
Feb, 2014Views
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anitamegyesi
May 11, 2015
Thank you for all your nice words, awards and votes. I appreciate all of your time and effort to look, comment and evaluate!
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
We did the photo shoot in a fairly big park in the middle of the big city (Budapest) Lots of greens, morning lights, and almost nobody around. We thought it would be perfect for a casual portrait session, as I really like to work with natural light when it comes to "everyday" portraits.Time
We met the model at 11 AM, but by the time we found the perfect location it was almost midday. So we shot through the said to be "hardest lighting conditions". However, the trees provided enough shade and opportunities to manipulate the lighting.Lighting
My portrait sessions are normally "casual" but at the end we often add a little "twist" to it. It is mostly a few clicks with a special thought or a conceptual shot with some props that I prepare in advance. This shot was, as mentioned, taken at the end of the session. We worked in the harsh midday light. I turned the model a little away from the light source so she could keep her eyes wide open. I wanted a super sharp image, with the details of the mask and the stunning eyes in mind. I metered on the face and slightly overexposed on purpose, so then I could pull back on exposure in post processing, and that would darken the background without much trouble.Equipment
Nikon d3000, Nikon 24-70 mm f/2.8Inspiration
I know the girl very well. She is beautiful and very shy. She likes to hide her real self until she builds trust in somebody or the situation to show her multi colours. This was one thought on my mind. The other one is the world of masks, which our world is. I wanted to combine the two thoughts in one image. I grabbed a cheap mask from home that I had purchased before in Venice, and asked the model to just hold it in front of her face.Editing
I did post processing in Lightroom 3. I adjusted the exposure, I worked on the contrast, and I attended the eye (brightened, contrasted, clarified). I adjusted the colours, too, according to how I felt it would be more of my interpretation (mood, feel). I also had to smoothen the skin and correct the lipliner (then the entire lip), I believe I did that in Photoshop.In my camera bag
It varies a lot, depends on the actual shoot. Sometimes the entire (little) arsenal is with me, sometimes I take off with one body (Nikon d3000 is what I have), and a single lens (the nifty 50 if it is a portrait shoot). In this case I had the 50, a Sigma 70-300 and the Nikon 24-70. I always have a shower cap (do not like rain when I carry my camera), wiping cloths and extra memory cards and batteries. Should be sufficient, right? :)Feedback
My recipe was to have a model with expressive eyes. Have a concept in mind. Lots of direct lights, and a bit of overexposure, just careful so not to lose much of the details in areas where needed (in this case it is really the eyes and the mask).
