Angel
Portrait shoot
Portrait shoot
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Jan, 2014Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
Thsi photo was taken at a park down by the lakeshore in Mississauga, Onmtario Canada. It was a young sister and brother lifestyle photo shoot.Time
This was taken on a cloudy day in the early afternoon.Lighting
It wasn't particularly sunny but bright enough to give us beautiful soft light.Equipment
For portrait photography I almost exclusively use my Nikon 70-220 f2.8 VR lens. It's a sweet sharp lens and I love the boke I can get from it. I usually shoot with a narrow depth of field (f2.8 to f4) to focus on the eyes and blur out the background. No flash or an other artifical light was used here - all natural light - and, with children especially, it's my preference. This image was taken on my Nikon D700 full frame.Inspiration
This particular image was taken right at the end of the session with the little girl and her brother. I think her mother was getting some other clothes out of a bag and the girl was just standing casually by a tree. I asked her to just look at me and snapped a couple of photos. While some might think her expression seems blank I think it's a one of curiosity or fascination with the idea of being photographed - and it speaks to her innocence. There's no posing here, just a little girl focusing on the camera.Editing
I shoot raw so I always process my photographs through Lightroom and tweak them in Photoshop if needed. I don't do extensive retouching, just colour correcting, sharpening and adjust contrast a bit. The photography has to be working most of all.In my camera bag
I have a compact camera backpack that contains my current camera, the Nikon D750, a Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VR lens, a Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 lens, a Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens, a Nikon SB800 flash plus two wireless triggers. I carry two extra 16 GB SD cards, 4 AAA batteries (for triggers), 5 AA batteries (extra for the SB800). I also carry a lens cleaning cloth and special musicians ear plugs for photographing concerts. Some business cards and a pen are tucked in there also. I am far from the "camera geek" with multiple kinds of equipment with me. I travel light.Feedback
When shooting children, they seem to respond well to an outside environment rather than in-studio which is very restricitive and contrived. Rather than putting them under a microscope, they feel freer outside and you are just asking them to look at the camera a few times. Best not to pose them too much either, it's going to look much more natural if you let them be themselves. I sometimes like to use backlighting (sun behind), if I can, to create a halo effect. I almost never shoot in direct sunlight because I like the light in the shadows on a bright day. My goal is to set up an angle so an open sky gives me that great soft light. Over and above all the technical aspects of photography, it's really important for me to get the trust of my subject, make them feel comfortable - it helps in my quest to capture some of their personality through a natural expression.
