June Portraits

[Peter De Smidt]

That's excellent, Randy!

[Ari]

Smooth and silky portrait, Randy. Well done!

[Vogel]

Got a new lens, her name is Vesta, and she's a keeper.

This is really a great portrait. The model is very present and light and background is beautiful. I am very intrerested in the lens you used.
The two other portraits taken with the same lens shows that you need to be careful about the backgrond. The brickwall is disturbing. Maybe the girls are to close to the wall and to far from the lens.

[Vogel]

X-Ray Erin as Ms Baker by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr

This portrait is beautiful! The model is beautiful and her eyes and look are confident. Also the light is very good and the handling of this special lens. Very inspiring!

[Tin Can]

Thank you

[Ari]

This is really a great portrait. The model is very present and light and background is beautiful. I am very intrerested in the lens you used.
The two other portraits taken with the same lens shows that you need to be careful about the backgrond. The brickwall is disturbing. Maybe the girls are to close to the wall and to far from the lens.

Agree and agree. There's a real learning curve with this lens. It sounds more complicated than it really is, but it only means that I can't just point the lens, frame as I would, and expose a sheet. I really have to be more careful in where the sweet spot is.
Background is always a problem when we have constant harsh sunlight every day and we don't venture out too far. But yes, the two girls were closer to the background than I like.
Thanks very much for your comment, Mr Vogel.

[md-photo]

Very nice work on portraits on this thread! That last one is fantastic! The glowing necklace really adds something special to everything else in that picture.

[Vogel]

Thank you! Ari!

[cowanw]

Paul, it was affordable, as much as these lenses can be. Nothing crazy like one of the French or British lenses, well within a beginner's budget.
I have the 14", there's a longer version as well, I guess for larger plates.
It was recommended to me since I wanted minimum swirl.

One thing I have to get used to is the sharp area of focus is in the middle of the image, and I never shoot portraits with the face in the middle.
So I must get some more practice time with this lens because I really like the look it gives, just what I was looking for.
But when the subject is off-center, it's trickier to focus properly. This image is soft, I just missed getting the eyes in focus.
Wide open, the lens has a razor-thin margin of error, so definitely a challenge!

I forget if there is any movement with this lens but raising the front standard may put the sharp centre point higher in the image. Or is it lower; no I think it is higher.
Ah! Late to the game.

[pau3]

I forget if there is any movement with this lens but raising the front standard may put the sharp centre point higher in the image. Or is it lower; no I think it is higher.
Ah! Late to the game.

The trick would be, if the circle of image of the lens allows it, to raise the front standard to align as much as possible the center of the lens with
the eyes of the subject (which also moves the eyes of the subject to the center of the image, lowering them) and then lower the back standard to effectively raise again the eyes of the subject to right position in the image.

If your camera does not allow vertical movements of the back standard, quite often it is possible to tilt forward both standards - to keep them parallel -, and then tilt the camera backwards to put both standards in the vertical position. This is equivalent to lower the back standard.