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Location
I took this travel portrait in Myanmar, on the amazing Inle Lake.
Time
It was early morning of January 1, 2016.
Lighting
In this case the light was quite low. It was a cloudy morning so I had less problem to find the right exposition.
I think that in this kind of photograph the most important thing about light is to look for a balanced istogram without over exposition areas.
Equipment
In this case I used a CANON EOS 6D with CANON EF 16-35mm F4 IS USM. Nothing else ;)
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Inspiration
I think that the point of view is everything in this portrait. Using a 16-35mm lens at f/4 has allowed plenty of the net to be included, while throwing any potentially distracting details out of focus. I was looking for a main subject sharp, and a nice light balancing.
I think that a good portrait should tell something about the individual, and by looking at the clothes, expression and surrounding environment I was able to tell a lot about this fisherman.
Editing
Yes sure, as always if you want create a balanced and magnetic image. The camera, alone, is not able to reproduce the reality as you can see it with own eyes...
In my post processing I use only Adobe Lightroom, I never use Photoshop.
In this case, I did the most import work on lights. The fisherman was dark because the light come from behind and the sky was more bright than the main subject.
It was been important to correct this unbalance. After this, made also with selective selection of the dark areas, I did some improvements on sharpness, on the white balance and on the contrast. This last aspect, in particular, It represent a really important thing for the final result. Too much contrast or too few contrast could kill the photograph.
The entire workflow has taken me about 15 minutes.
In my camera bag
In my voyages I normally bring with me, in two different shoulder bag, the camera body (now Canon 5D4), 3 prime bright lenses (24mm, 35mm and 50mm, all less than f2), a wide angle zoom (or 11-24mm or 16-35mm IS, both f4) and a middle tele zoom (70-200mm f2.8).
If I have to take only portraits (for example during the venetian carnival) I also use a bright prime SIGMA f1.4 85mm lens, moreover won in a contest just with this photograph! In any case, for extreme security, i bring with me a second body in case of issue with the first one.
Yes, I travel with a lot of weight !! I'm strong also if at the end of the day i'm really tired and pained in my shoulders!!
Feedback
The advice that i can give is to always look for a different way to catch the subjects. A different way to see the composition could be the difference beween a amazing photo and a normal photo. Always look for a different point of view and a dinamic scene. The technique and the equipment are only the means throught to take a photograph. But creativity and different way to look the situations are the means throught to take an amazing photographs ! If you need, for example, don't esitate to lie in the floor or to look for an higher point of view... Enjoy !!
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