More Images from Photo Shoot 1 April 16, 2009
Posted by Leonard Low in Assignment, Contains Images, Indoor, Portraiture, Strobist, Studio, Studio Lights.Tags: assignment 2, depth-of-field, earth hour, lighting, Portraiture, Shedding Illumination, soft box, Studio
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I did shots of each model without light bulbs (in their hands) to test light, get my models more relaxed before doing the “real” shots, and so I could give them each a nice photo of themselves as a “thank you” later. 
You can click the photos to go to my Flickr gallery where there are additional comments on each photo.
“Light bulb” shots:
Expand Your Word Power: “Bokeh” March 21, 2009
Posted by Leonard Low in General Comments.Tags: aperture, blur, bokeh, depth-of-field, f-stop, terminology
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I have no idea how it’s supposed to be pronounced, but I learned a new word today.
“Bokeh” is the term used to describe the blur that occurs in the out-of-focus areas of a photograph outside the image’s depth-of-field range. More specifically, it describes the aesthetic qualities of the blur.
A “good” bokeh is generally a smooth and soft blurriness, without jagged edges on highlights that distract from the photograph’s subject. Better bokeh can result from having many blades on the lens aperture, as the resulting aperture has smoother, more rounded edges than an equivalent lens with fewer blades on the aperture. The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 Mark II lens has only 5 blades: its out of focus highlights tend to resemble pentagons, and out of focus areas have a rougher texture that distracts from the subject. My Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens has 9 blades, and its out of focus highlights resemble smooth circles, with better bokeh lacking as many distracting artifacts. Here’s a comparison of the two – the f/1.8 on the left, the f/1.4 on the right:
For a more extensive comparison, check out this page (the source of both images above) which has plenty of images that show the difference in results between the lenses: http://photo.net/equipment/canon/ef50/.
Finding inspiration March 15, 2009
Posted by Leonard Low in Assignment, Contains Images, Influence, Portraiture, Practice.Tags: 50mm, afghan girl, depth-of-field, lens, Portraiture, steve mccurry
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I spent part of the weekend studying the work of Steve McCurry, one of my favourite photographers, whose portraiture of culturally diverse subjects has brought him international recognition. Of particular note is “Afghan Girl”.
According to Wikipedia this image was
named as “the most recognized photograph” in the history of the National Geographic magazine and her face became famous as the cover photograph on the June 1985 issue. The photo has also been widely used on Amnesty International brochures, posters, and calendars.
Many of his other portraits are equally profound, and while “Afghan Girl” was taken using a 105mm prime, a large proportion of his portraits are achieved using a 50mm f/1.4 prime – a very similar lens to the one I’ll be using for this assignment. Here’s one example, “Girl with Green Shawl,” taken in 2002 when McCurry returned to Pakistan (where he had photographed the “Afghan Girl” in a refugee camp over a decade before):
One of the features of this image is the shallow depth of field which has caused the shawl around the girl’s face to become blurred, with her face – and those penetrating eyes – in sharp focus. I’m hoping to use depth-of-field to good effect in my own portraits, to put the focus on the subject of each image while retaining a recognisable background. I’m confident I can replicate a similar look if I want to – I happened to take a picture of my cat a couple of weeks ago that has a similar depth-of-field effect with piercing eyes sharply in focus. 
Here it is!
