A Portrait of a Young Adolescent
A young adolescent. On the cusp between adulthood and childhood.
Studio shot with soft light
A young adolescent. On the cusp between adulthood and childhood.
Studio shot with soft light
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Studio shot with soft light
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Dec, 2015Views
448
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Awards
Winner in Boys Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Top Choice
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Emotions
Impressed
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Top 10 rank
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Toptruck
April 10, 2017
Well, this is great!
Winner of the Boys Photo Challenge is a great privilege. Thank you to everyone who voted or at least looked at this image!
Winner of the Boys Photo Challenge is a great privilege. Thank you to everyone who voted or at least looked at this image!
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
This image of my 11 year old son was taken in a studio setting. Well, not so much as a studio as a small room that I was given access to. I borrowed a small strobe with a large soft box for lighting, managed to get the kids to agree and went for it.Time
This was shot in a studio setting so time of day was not really relevant except for the fact that it was when I could actually get the kids to agree to go do the shoot. Actually time was early evening but that really didnt come into it.Lighting
The "studio" was quite smallI and my main source was a small photographers strobe with a large soft box attached.I did not want to overexpose as I was actually trying for the Rembrandt-y type soft light look. The strobe was on the lowest setting and we had just enough ambient light to see what we were doing. Even then I had to do some adjustments to tone down the exposure a bit.Equipment
I used my D90 Nikon and hand held it. The strobe was synced to the camera and was placed on a stand to the right of the camera as I wanted the side light to help define his features. because the room was so small I used my 18-55mm lens.Inspiration
Well the family (read - other half) wanted some photos of the kids. Yes i know that photographers are supposed to be forever photographing their kids. In my case it has never been easy to do so as they really don't like being plonked in front of a camera. We wanted to get some nice non-snapshot images of them and a combination of their willingness, timing between activities and work and access to a suitable location and lights all worked for once :). The boy always was quite mature but I like this shot because it catches him at a time he is emerging from childhood and beginning to develop as a young adult with all the fears, understandings and growing knowledge that that time of life brings on.Editing
I always shoot in RAW so even with all lighting on the lowest settings I had to do some basic post-processing. The tonal balance and colour of the RAW image were pretty close to what I wanted with the main problem being a bit more overall exposure than what I wanted. I took the RAW image and did some minor adjustments to the tone and colour. I then increased the contrast to give the image a bit more depth then I darkened the Blacks/shadows/background to get the effect I wanted.In my camera bag
When I took this image all I owned was the D90 camera, a 70-200mm lens an 18-55mm lens and a flash unit. I have upgraded my camera and a new lens but still have and use the D90.Feedback
I always prefer to shoot in RAW as it allows me the greatest amount of flexibility to define and refine an image to help me towards what I want from the image. Even as I was shooting, in this case I was specifically looking to attain the lighting and effect that I have in the image and to do so I have to work within the limits and ability of the equipment and lighting I had. Even a RAW image still needs to be an acceptable and usable image. So this one image was the end result of quite a number of shots that tested a range of positions and settings. So when you can relax, take your time and take plenty of shots until you get something you want. We all have a basic understanding of our equipment but I find I am always learning. Often there is not time to relax and experiment so that is where knowing the basics and having a starting point is very useful. In this case, there were no time or cost pressures and as were were in a studio setting variability due to time and weather was not an issue. keep teaching yourself and keep learning. I personally learnt a lot from the session that gave me this image.
