RedRidingHood-201
This is Amanda, she is my bartender.
This is Amanda, she is my bartender.
Read less
Read less
Sep, 2016Views
466
Likes
Awards
Contender in the Visual Poetry Project
Legendary Award
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Magnificent Capture
Virtuoso
Superb Composition
Emotions
Impressed
Top Ranks
Top 20 rank
Top 20 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 20 rank week 1
Top 10 rank
Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
This image was taken at Yellowsmoke state park in Denison, Iowa where I live. The park offers lots of wooded landscapes and a small lake for photo opportunities.Time
The photo shoot kicked off around 5:00pm in late August and lasted for about an hour. The sky was rather bright but there was some cloud cover that defused it just a little.Lighting
Amanda, my model was under a large shade tree with her back to the sun in the West. That posed a problem for me. Properly exposing the background trees with all that bright light peaking through them would underexpose Amanda's face. So I set up my battery powered Flashpoint 600 strobe with an octagon softbox as a key light. Then I metered the background (with no flash of course) to get an exposure it. Once Amanda was in the frame I adjusted my strobe until it metered about a stop and a half brighter than the background was. Fairly simple really.Equipment
The camera used was a Nikon D90 with a rather old Nikon 50mm f1.4 lense that's still going strong! The D90 is a cropped sensor body which caused the lense to give me about the same field of view as a 75mm lense would have on a full frame body. I hand held the camera so no tripod was involved.Inspiration
necessity truly is the mother of invention. My main focus has always been landscape and wildlife photography. But, the bulk of my equipment is better suited for portraiture work. So, I started photographing people. Mostly graduation shots and a wedding or two. I was getting paid, but the work is boring to me really, and shooting weddings is stressful. I wanted to shoot models, but I had no studio. The pictures would have to be taken outdoors, and I had no money to pay a model. What to do! So I went out to my favorite watering hole and had myself a beer. Amanda was my bartender! I had always told her she should try modeling, but she never took me serious. So I asked her if she would model for me and she said sure, no problem. People from Iowa are nice like that. Next I had to figure out what I wanted her to wear during the shoot. When I thought about shooting in the woods at Yellowsmoke the first thing that came to mind was Little Red Riding hood. So I jumped online and found a red cape on ebay for twenty bucks. The rest is history.Editing
I did need to do some post-processing. For all my preparation, I failed to notice a tree limb in the background that appeared to be growing out of Amanda's head (not good). So spent some time making it invisible using photoshop. She wears colored contacts which really made here eyes pop. All I did was a little sharpening, and removed some red that was in the whites of here eyes. Then I removed some stray hairs from around her hood and bumped up the clarity and made the colors a touch more vivid. That's it.In my camera bag
While I now have a Nikon D610, the D90 is still useful to me so I carry them both when I can. For lenses I have the 50mm f1.4 Nikon, an 85mm f1.8 Nikon, and a 70-200mm f2.8 Sigma. I do have a tripod and a monopod. The tripod is heavy, but solid as a rock and that is important. For lighting equipment I have the Sekonic L-758DR meter, and two studio strobes. The battery operated Flashpoint 600, and a smaller 400 WS strobe that needs to be plugged in to 110AC. To supplement those I have three speedlights. For softboxes I carry one octagon shape, one beauty dish, and one umbrella.Feedback
Learn to get the most out of what you have and you will do fine. As far as equipment goes, everyone has a budget, and pro tools are not cheap. I recommend putting more money into the lenses you buy than camera body. Also don't be afraid to buy used equipment to save some cash. If you don't have lighting equipment then get a couple of reflectors and have an assistant hold them for you. To get started in portraiture work start out shooting friends and family. Doing well with that will build your reputation as well as your skills.
