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In the eyes



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"When you photograph a face . . .you photograph the soul behind it."
Jean-Luc Godard
Most of the kids that day were smiling at me when my ...
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"When you photograph a face . . .you photograph the soul behind it."
Jean-Luc Godard
Most of the kids that day were smiling at me when my camera met their faces. But I remember this boy standing in front of me. He was looking straight in the lens, eyebrows down in a frown. i still ask myself about the thoughts running in his mind that day.
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cameraCanon EOS 500D

settings Aperture 56/10 ISO 400 Shutter 1/125 Focal Length 55/1 

upload_dateMay, 2016

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747

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Awards

Action Award
Zenith Award
Creative Winter Award
Curator's Selection
Legendary Award
Member Selection Award
Cool Capture
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Superb Composition
jfirey pepeiturralde websitesuser_prd chaitali_0033 nikolacurcic jwhisken rainbow_tardis +20
Top Choice
Jaylynphillips princessmay cwheels roblord fabricevarenne Bernardmediapro wmjudy22 +16
Absolute Masterpiece
svetabutko Ben_lanee carriemurrin lancelotjames paulsalesse christinajoyphoto clairep_photos +13
Outstanding Creativity
trixiagarciano allenjiang sammibrandes aurelienponcet Breschleicher Puma132 Bradman44 +2
Peer Award
georgehewitson taqimonem Irys virginiebiarnay Daydream17 ErDa
Superior Skill
albyn

Top Ranks

Picture Perfect Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Picture Perfect Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Looking At Faces Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Looking At Faces Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Anything People Photo ContestTop 10 rank
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Anything People Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Spectacular Monochromes Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Spectacular Monochromes Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Children In Black and White Photo ContestTop 30 rank week 2
Children In Black and White Photo ContestTop 30 rank week 1
Human Emotions In Black and White Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Human Emotions In Black and White Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Street Portraits Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Street Portraits Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1

Categories

Submitted to Photo Contests

Tags

#africa #bnw #child #photojournalism #portrait
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Behind The Lens

Location

The photo was taken at Possotomè, a small city in Benin (West Africa). We went on an excursion with children.of the neighboring city. This was the opportunity for them to discover places and stories they didn't know about their country.

Time

I remember this image was shot around midday. I know this time of day is not supposed to be the best moment for photographers, but I couldn't wait for a better time. It was the arrival, I had to immortalize every single moment of the day..Because, once we would be back, everybody would come to see the images I had shot.

Lighting

At that time I was a newbie to photography. Shooting under a hot sun has been an epic nightmare. Yet on this one I had the trees giving me the bit of shadow I needed and the bus was bouncing a part of the light. It gave this final look. I was so proud (laughter)

Equipment

If you are waiting to hear about the exceptionnal camera bodies and lenses they present in the reviews, I'm sorry I have to disappoint you., I only had an old Canon 500D with the basic lens, you know, the 18-55mm. This kit has been my only work gear for months. But being limited to this forced me to care about the technique a lot,. Looking back in time I feel like this limitation was a blessing.

Inspiration

Most of the kids that day were smiling at me when my camera met their faces. But I remember this boy standing in front of me. He was looking straight in the lens, eyebrows down in a frown. His expression made me hesitate a few seconds. As he was not turning his back on me, I knew I could go ahead and shoot. Now I realize that this image looks more interesting than all the smiles captured that day.

Editing

To be honest, it is at the post processing step that I decided to keep this image. I turned the image to Black and White using HSL/Grayscale panel in Camera Raw.. The image was full of different colors, so I just achieved this B&W by tweaking the color sliders a little bit. I realized I had to recover the overexposed sky in the deep background. For the contrast, I brought the Blacks to the left ans add an S-curve: It was done. Simple, yet effective.

In my camera bag

I'm still going out with my legendary 500D.I added a 50 mm f/1.4 and the 55-250mm. Sometimes I carry a speedlight but most of the time I only use natural light when shooting. You've certainly noticed that I enjoy missing the best equipment.

Feedback

Let's try to make this simple: the more you know, the more you're able to achieve. Advanced photographers won't need this advice but it is definately important for beginners and medium photographers. Gear reviews tend to make new photographers obsessed by the equipement, but having the new 5D Mk IV won't help you in any way if you don't know how to use light in your composition. Don't get me wrong, buying 5 star equipement isn't a mistake, you just have to master photography techniques to feel comfortable in any given situation.

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