Challenge: Portrait Natural Light with Natural Background.

[nyschulte]

Last tuesday i had a session with Olya, a professional model from Germany.
The goal was to shoot for both her portfolio and mine.

As i had already a shooting in december 2007 with her and i liked her way of posing, the second goal for the day was a shoot on location, i.e. in the woods. As i never did a session 'on location' before, i could keep all my attention to the technical part...

All natural light in the woods. we started early with the idea to catch the sunrise. unfortunately clouds did not play the game so i had to try other solutions. this one is amogst the last of the session, after 2 hours in the woods.
At 08:00 the sun was already high and lighting became tricky with highlights and shadows.

Nicolas

 

[Asher Kelman]

Thanks Nicolas for bringing your picture to us. We'd get lost in the woods trying to find her!

I like the meditative pose. I do wonder about the greens in the upper right, but this could be a combination of jpg artifact and the Apple iMac monitor.

Anymore in this series? For sure! I would have liked a very generous wide field taking in more of her world, which is nature itself.

Thanks again!

Asher

 

[janet Smith]

This is my husband Paul, waiting patiently for me while I photographed the rhododendrons, and then him...

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Jan

how wonderful
what you have captured is the very esscence of your husband
I love natural shots like this-it is a giving picture that inspires us
handsome guy!

Charlotte

 

[Jim Galli]

This is my husband Paul, waiting patiently for me while I photographed the rhododendrons, and then him...

A gorgeous portrait Jan. I couldn't take my eyes away.



Here's one done in my livingroom with window light.

john cole​

My brother-in-law. Done with a Century 8 studio 11X14 camera and an 1870's Voigtländer Petzval lens. 11X14 contact print on Ilford paper.

 

[janet Smith]

what you have captured is the very esscence of your husband
I love natural shots like this-it is a giving picture that inspires us
handsome guy!

Hello Charlotte

Yes I'm pleased with this one, it does seem to have captured the essence of him, he's a very chilled out character, and I agree he is very handsome........

Thank you for your kind comments Charlotte (from Paul too!)

 

[nicolas claris]

May I try ?

Carolina…

All shots Canon 1DsM3 and Canon 24-70

 

[janet Smith]

A gorgeous portrait Jan. I couldn't take my eyes away.

Here's one done in my livingroom with window light.


My brother-in-law. Done with a Century 8 studio 11X14 camera and an 1870's Voigtländer Petzval lens. 11X14 contact print on Ilford paper.

Hi Jim

Thank you very much - but yours is wonderful! I'm not sure what your camera is, but it sounds very impressive, you've captured a great expression, I love to work with just natural light too, I bet your brother in law's pleased with it.

 

[janet Smith]

Well Nic I can't find anything else to say other than more wonderful shots (as always) of a very beautiful girl......

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

...This is my husband Paul, waiting patiently for me while I photographed the rhododendrons, and then him...

Wow, wonderful picture Jan. BTW, I know how exactly this scheme of pretending to photograph something else works, ask my wife if you don't believe me ;-).

Thanks for showing.

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

.....

Here's one done in my livingroom with window light.

My brother-in-law. Done with a Century 8 studio 11X14 camera and an 1870's Voigtländer Petzval lens. 11X14 contact print on Ilford paper.

Hi Jim,

This is simply perfect! I am totally blown off my socks. Especially the selective focus on his left eye and mustache is excellent.

Forgive me for my ignorance in LF matters, but did you tilt/shift the lens/camera in order to achieve the tilted plane of focus? I may be totally off the mark with this naive question but I am simply curious. How did you scan the picture BTW; from the negative or from the print itself?

Thanks for showing.

 

[nicolas claris]

Well Nic I can't find anything else to say other than more wonderful shots (as always) of a very beautiful girl......

Thanks janet, beautifull girl, that is… and wonderfull natural light coming from upthere…

Carolina (Ana-Carolina) is a professional model. She is Brazilian. The next day she had a shoot for Marie-Claire. She was so excited by that, that she was completely unstressed by my simple approach…
She made the shoot easy…

 

[Kathy Rappaport]

oh my...

What a wonderful series here. Carolina is breathtakingly beautiful and perfectly captured, Paul too as well as Jim's. Editing to add my photo:

 

[Jim Galli]

Hi Jim,

This is simply perfect! I am totally blown off my socks. Especially the selective focus on his left eye and mustache is excellent.

Forgive me for my ignorance in LF matters, but did you tilt/shift the lens/camera in order to achieve the tilted plane of focus? I may be totally off the mark with this naive question but I am simply curious. How did you scan the picture BTW; from the negative or from the print itself?

Thanks for showing.

Thanks! Yes, I have a little swing at the back of the camera, no tilt that I recall, and no movements at all up front, only at the back. The camera is as big as a dog house. Mostly luck when you think of a 500mm f4 lenses depth of field. I asked him to slide the glasses down and look over them because that's how I see him most of the time when he's telling me something. Then I got a focus and said now DON'T MOVE! I'm lucky to have an Epson 1640 at work so I can scan either the 11X14 film or print. I think this was a film scan but don't recall.

 

[janet Smith]

Wow, wonderful picture Jan. BTW, I know how exactly this scheme of pretending to photograph something else works, ask my wife if you don't believe me ;-).

Hi Cem

Paul kind of "freezes" when I want to photograph him. It was no accident that I got him over near the pillar knowing that he'd end up just enjoying the bird song etc while he waited for me, I made sure I took a long time so I could "get him" when he looked chilled enough.... good ploy hey! Thanks for your kind comments....