Fiona

[petemc]

Had a really lovely shoot yesterday. A girl who wanted head shots. I'm still new to portraits so of course I was a bit nervous. I know when to document a moment, but not quite how to position a person correctly. She didn't really have an idea of what she wanted, just shots to make her look good. Tricky because its certainly easier to have tear sheets with me so I can say "lets try this pose" and such. So I was completely winging it. She did pick up on that after an hour of me positioning her in the same way at each spot, but she was cool about it. As long as the shots were working she was happy to go with that. I need more experience with this so I can relax more and let the ideas flow. Its easy shooting a landscape because I'm not shy around trees. Shyness + lack of experience = performance issues (ahem) ;) But still it was a nice afternoon out. She was really fun and not shy as a person so I was able to chat to her and have a laugh. Its totally the key. Have a laugh, get good photos. I think I'm going to be a little stuck when I work with someone shyer than myself. Bridge I'll cross later.

I used a combination of flash (430ex with lightsphere diffuser) and natural light. Over the past year I've learnt alot about photographing people. So much that I stopped using colour, and by the end of the year I was convinced that natural light was the way forward. I took my flash just in case really. The light wasn't bad, but not great and her eyes were turning to black without catchlights. So I used the flash. It seemed to be working. I kept alternating as I prefer natural light. When I got home and looked through the images there was a clear difference. The flash shots were a bit harsh. Sure I had catchlights but at the expense of tones. To put it another way it seemed to remove natural beauty </emo>. But thats the simplest way to put it. It was like some hideous makeup that made her hair iffy and skin just not as nice. So thats totally convinced me to dump my flash. I'm going to invest in a reflector and bounce natural light. Its so much nicer.

The other thing is that this girl had great red hair. Annoying for me as I love B&W and I wanted to capture that. Until last night I didn't have a colour portrait preset in Lightroom. So I drew inspiration from Cinnamon on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/cloughridge/sets/72157600102838779/). She has a lovely way of processing her images so they look like film. I wanted that. I had a play in LR and got something I liked.

http://petecarr.net/shoots/IMG_0242.jpg

http://petecarr.net/shoots/IMG_0276.jpg

http://petecarr.net/shoots/IMG_0416-Edit.jpg

http://petecarr.net/shoots/IMG_0467.jpg

Best thing was that she enjoyed the shoot so yey :D After I bumped into another girl I photographed and we got talking. She said I didn't seem at all shy and preferred me to the photographer who took her photo the other day. I was just so happy that people thought I was good at portraits, at making people feel relaxed. 0 pressure photographing a building or landscape. Lots trying to make someone you just met look amazing. At least there is in my head :) So just a good day, and then once I managed to process colour shots to look good and do her justice, win :D

[leowyatt]

Excellent news Pete, glad things are getting better. I really like the colours in number 3. Her eyes are a lovely blue.

[petemc]

Ta :) Her eyes are technically blue / grey just the processing bought out the blue side more. Most people think they're brown, which is odd :)

[petemc]

Hehe ta :) My friend was saying similar because the guy photographing her the other day was getting right in her face with the camera without warning. You have to be polite about those things. At least point out if you're going in for an extreme close up :)

[Pheebs]

Wow they're great! As said above - three is fab!

Keep up the good work - everytime I see what you're doing it makes me itch to learn myself. Will have to wait until I have the time to! Very inspirational though :)

(she bought that top in next btw ;))

[Kell_ee001]

They're great Pete :D

[Will]

Amazing shots. :)

You can't tell that's a bloke at all!

[petemc]

Amazing shots. :)

You can't tell that's a bloke at all!

Cheers guys but wha? :)

[Will]

I was being silly - don't worry it must have been the food I had last night :p

[petemc]

haha :D No I was worried that I'd said she was a he :)

[Will]

She is very pretty :) Managing to stay professional is a an amazing sign of your ability IMO.

[petemc]

You mean like telling a couple of topless girls to imagine a giant diamond studded cock ring just so I could get them to smile? :D

[Will]

That'd be it! :D

[Mohinder]

I really liked these when you showed me the other day, still do :)

[Roberta]

Lovely pics.

[Matblack]

Is it still the norm for models to throw themselves at photographers?

I remember that David Bailey was always swimming in totty :D

MB

[petemc]

Haha. I can't say I wouldn't mind, but its better to be professional and not sleep with your clients :) Friends of clients though... ;)

[Nutcase]

She's lovely :) I really like the messed up hair look :o

Great pics.

[Tysonator]

When I was at V2007 with my DSLR and a rather reasonable 55-200mm lens, plus the lens hood for that extra length ! A number of girls just started chatting to me and asking me who I worked for ! How long I had been a papparazi !
Do I have a web site of my pic's !
I took lots of pic's of girls who were very willing to offer a pose !

I am looking forwarded to V2008 festival, as I have purchased an even bigger len, Canon 70-300 USM IS, and that has a bigger lens hood !
Ding Dong !