Rose Answers Doug Smiths Question

[KellyL]

Doug Smith asked me last week what I might do if I was shooting something other than an adorable baby or a covergirl senior. Rose asked to have her photograph made the same weekend I was doing my marathon senior shoot.

She came in to the studio and let me do a whibal shot:



Then had a very difficult time just relaxing. She kept making faces and feeling very awkward.




We kept switching things up. I would ask her questions, we would laugh, and then, she began to sparkle. I was thrilled with how she began to interact with the camera.











The funny thing is, Rose is the most wonderful mother you could find, and she worked with the band students faithfully. When I was following our marching band, she would NEVER let me take her picture. I told her that the irony was not lost on me that now she was wanting to make some portraits to surprise her husband.

[k9ofkaos]

So you are now the undisputed king of Karma on this board. I noticed you had passed Jay. Congrats although he is a great guy too.

Kelly your work the past few weeks has been nothing short of amazing lately. I love this series showing the evolution of this shoot, how she gradually began to loosen up for you.

I have a question for you because your journey seems similar to my own from the early 1990s. Have you ever found yourself laying awake at night, your mind just racing trying to figure out the next great idea and how the next shoot would go? That's what used to happen to me when I got my first Nikon SLR and got serious.

[KellyL]

Yes, Mojo....that happens to me all the time. I have even dreamed of having a photoshoot and woke up as I was changing lighting or something...hasn't happened for awhile.

I read in a book once that you should previsualize every shoot. When I first read that, I thought...that is CRAZY! On April 26 I am driving to Naperville, Illinois near Chicago to do an engagement shoot. I have already started visualizing how this shoot could go. I am very excited and am looking forward to it with great anticipation!

Thanks for always being here. It is good to know who is in the neighborhood.

[oldugly]

Kelly, You da man! Over the past few weeks we have all seen your confidence level increase. Your study and thought are paying off. From my perspective you are no longer chasing a dream--you are living it. From the looks on Rose's face she was sharing the fun you were having. That is great.

Now, in the last shot I would have liked it a bit more if the fingers of her right hand weren't pointed straight down. When I looked a the photo that just jumped out at me. (I know, picky, picky, picky.)

Are we going to see a Schineese (sp?) photo this year?

[Johnny Heinonen]

number 6

pretty decent job under the given circumstances..

[loeee]

These are amazing! I've only been at the Camel for a little over two weeks, and even in that time I think you've improved (and I thought you were pretty darn good two weeks ago ).

I seriously did go out to shoot some flowers today and asked myself, "if Kelly shot flowers, how would he do this?" (Unfortunately, I didn't know the answer )

[clarebear]

lovely kelly! she has a striking natural beauty and an awesome smile. you really brought it out for her! i love the background with the flowers! what is it?

clare

[dougsmit]

#'s 3 and 6 look great (but I might question the backwards leaning choice on #6). A lot of the value of any image is how well it captures the person inside. Paid models tend to look like personality free manikins (some are) but here you show great skill in real people imagery. Did you make any allowance for the subject in selecting lighting rations? I like the background selection in all but the last where one flower is a bit menacing. I'd crop this same one to lose the partial hands and the seat cushion.

I'm adding a Karma here in the hope of making you the first high posting Camel to have as many K's as posts.

[felix.reichardt]

Pretty good Kelly and very consistent in colors and lighting. The only thing which you could improve might be the placement of the hands in some but especially in the last (+cut off). 3 & 6 are the best IMHO.

[KellyL]

Thanks all for stopping by.

It was interesting, every time I would give her a direction, she would exagerate it, so when I would say place your hand here and there she would clump them in place, when I said let your hand fall off the chair, she rigidly pointed fingers to the floor. I do need to work on getting a person to relax even more than what she did and then I wouldn't have that trouble. Let me tell you, this was quite an experience. And dernit...I think it is my signature to cut off the fingers. Not that I want that signature, mind you.

This backdrop was purchased at Ebay from Amvona. I really like the colors in it, and was surprised that I was able to use it for two shoots that weekend, since it was my first weekend to own it. The flowers ARE menacing...too large. When I used this for Emma, I turned it upsided down and the flowers ended up on the floor...which was a nice variation. Here....grrrrrr....right behind her head. I started to clone it out, but thought before I invested all that time I would wait to see if she liked that particular photo.

How would I shoot a flower? In a 1 - 3 - 2 position! Provided it was a female. Seriously, I have little flower experience but I know enough to pay attention to the light and throw the background out of focus. Thanks for the thoughts, makes me smile.

Okay...well...I think I have now run the course of all the photos I shot on my marathon weekend. I will now not have anything to post for awhile. I will be bummed.

[KellyL]

Clare: Here is the link to the backdrop: SCENIC MUSLIN PHOTO BACKGROUND BACKDROP 1220-ESM04 - eBay (item 360028643185 end time Mar-07-08 13:30:00 PST)

[KellyL]

What I did learn from this is not every lighting is for every model. For this particular woman, a softer ratio and less cross lighting softened the lines in her face. A lesson not lost on this puppy.

[dougsmit]

You may have been joking but the 'rules' of lighting people and the 'rules' of lighting flowers can be surprisingly similar. There are parts of each that need to be in focus. Some are easier to make look like orchids and some like weeds. There needs to be some type of separation of the important things from the background (focus is one possibility but there are other answers). Short lighting adds dimension while broad lighting flattens things out. Both need to be discouraged from wearing white unless the photographer is prepared to cope with a lighting challenge. Crossing light adds texture and texture can be good or bad depending on the situation. Some subjects are rough and some are delicate. Lighting techniques may differ for the two. Sometimes added interest occurs when an insect lands on them but this comes up more often with flowers than people.