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pamela salai photography child portraiture



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This golden hour evening I took my son out for some soul shooting. You know that shooting you go out to do just for you ( your soul ). With the light pouring in...
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This golden hour evening I took my son out for some soul shooting. You know that shooting you go out to do just for you ( your soul ). With the light pouring in behind him he picked a wish flower & blew .
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3 Comments |
mikeconley PRO
 
mikeconley October 05, 2016
Great capture, beautiful. Welcome to ViewBug. I look forwrd to more.
pamelasalaiphoto
pamelasalaiphoto October 06, 2016
Thank you so much !
Celtgirl420
 
Celtgirl420 October 08, 2016
Fantastic photo, thank you for your inspiration. I hope to grasp some photos in the golden hour as nice as this.
federicoferoldi
 
federicoferoldi October 12, 2016
Great photo! Thank you for sharing!
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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this photo of my son in a local park in Pittsburgh Pa. I am lucky that they don't cut the grass often in this one area that gets great light.

Time

This photo was taken April 24, 2016 @ 7:16 p.m. ( sunset was at 8:09 p.m. that evening) . This is my favorite time of day "golden hour" when the sun is setting & it cast this beautiful magical glow.

Lighting

I could drink this golden light of the day. I love golden hour. To me, it is enchanting light. I love the color that it cast & how it just seems to illuminate clothing & hair making everything extra whimsical.

Equipment

I used a Canon Mark iii, 70-200mm L series lens. ( No flash, no reflectors, no overlays) My setting were 1/400 sec, 2.8 f , 200mm length and iso:100

Inspiration

I was actually feeling like I needed to go out & what I call "feed the soul shooting" ... that type of shooting you do just because you love what you do & feel like you need a recharge. My family and I were outside playing in the backyard ( it was already 5:30p.m. at this point) and I turned to my husband and said. I think I need to go out and shoot . Just to feed my soul a little bit. He looked at me and said "right now ?" I laughed, and said "yes, like right now". So of course being the awesome supportive husband he is said go for it! I grabbed my son & we went. I was so glad I did.

Editing

Yes, I uploaded my photo in LR 6 (lightroom) and I went to work. I typically shoot a smile darker so in post process I can lighten the subject & make them pop a bit. My first goal on this photo was to color correct the skin and pop the subject. I made sure highlights were not blown after that ( & toned them down as needed) The lighting, the bokea and the wishes were all there and just needed a little enhanced to make the magic come to life. After doing that in lightroom I brought it into my final post process into CS5 ( creative suite ) . Where I just did "clean up" I ran a skin program & sharpened a few areas a tad ( again to pop out the subject a tad)

In my camera bag

My camera bag always has : Canon Mark iii, 70-200mm L series lens, Sigma 85 mm, Canon 24-70 L series , and a canon 50 mm, a 5 in 1 round reflector & my newest addition to my must bring is my Scrim Jim ( 4x6 ) ( I use this as a diffuser & reflector )

Feedback

To achieve this look I suggest going out into an area that is shaded with backlight ( open referred to as "open shade" ) . I had found a spot that my son was partially shaded (the light was hitting his right side) & when I looked through my lens the back ground was in this full light ( to achieve this "glow" I suggest trying around golden hour- the hour before the sunsets. There are some great apps for this to find the times in your area) I played flat on the ground at 200mm ( on my 70-200mm) so I was pretty far back. I purposely shot through the grass to achieve that front "blur" and kept it at 200 mm so it would create that compression in the background ( bokea | Light | blur ) . I moved around until I could look through the lens and not have to worry about "fixing" issues in post process ( such as trees, roads ...) There is nothing wrong with things in the back ground. However, if you can avoid it it will help so you do not have to add extra work in your post process. Sometimes it is as recomposing. I just let my son be little & let him do is thing. I didn't really direct him into doing anything in particular because I wanted to capture his innocence as is. As mentioned above I purposely shoot a pitch darker so i can pop my subjects in post process. This helps achieve that magical glow. I hope this information helps create magical images of your own.

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