Stacy DuPree-King last night at Brewtones in Tyler, Texas.
Tagged: stacy dupree Stacy King eisley photography equal vision records
I changed my URL to jamiemphoto … Enjoy retirement, mindgunk! I decided to stop the “Oh no, this isn’t a photo blog” denial. :)
saige-sirena asked: So, I'm taking portraits of a couple this weekend for their wedding announcements and Im curious what to do for outdoor locations... I'm used to doing this in the spring and summer, and not when it's wintry and dead. Do you have any suggestions? I want to make lovely photos despite the dreary outside weather.
Hey! I hope this is ok to answer publicly. If you want it private, just let me know and I’ll send this another way and delete. :) The nice thing about wintry surroundings is that at least they seem to be neutral at worst. I’m not super into the “bokeh the heck out of everything” look that’s really hip right now, but it does help minimize the role of location. You don’t even need a lens with a gaping aperture, either. Just get a telephoto lens and zoom to the 80-200 mm zone. Even if you don’t have a telephoto lens, just take the zoom that likely came on your camera and go as far in as you can, and use the aperture wide open as possible. Sorry for the technical stuff you probably already know, it’s programmed in me to share that. ha ha.
So I’d aim for “flavor” instead of grandeur. Stick to sunset or sunrise to take advantage of the warmth and generally more agreeable lighting. A nice section of a treeline with the gentle late afternoon sky could be nice. (This might mean pulling the subjects further away from the background in order to make it appear the right size. Zooming in will “enlarge” your backgrounds, while wide angles tend to shrink them. Play with it, and it’ll make sense!) Put the sun behind the subjects to blow out the background and give an otherworldly look to the photos, which you can warm up further in post (a personal favorite). Mostly look for backgrounds and settings without random “hot” spots that create distracting bright spots (save for the ones where you might backlight to blow out your subjects). Try a higher vantage point to concentrate on grass/leaves/etc. Basically, do anything but just stand straight up, which is shockingly easy for just about anyone to fall into.
Basically, just look for nice “patches” of light or shadow and backgrounds that aren’t distracting, and help yourself by isolating with a longer focal length and shallower depth of field. I’ve made some UGLY places look kind of nice by just finding the right light/shadow and by isolating.
I wish I could show you how these places looked and how I just isolated little parts, or blew out/blurred backgrounds, etc. to make them more agreeable.
This light was actually pretty awful. I put her on the edge of a shadow, so that some of the light brought her out a bit, and the shade helped keep everything else tamed:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantrider/5895147838/
These were pretty much the only 2 interesting trees in this park, so I zoomed in and put the sun behind her:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantrider/5982046704/
The light was hideous, so I put him basically on a porch and blurred the heck out of everything, for the window light effect:
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5110/5673213086_1c24f67910_b.jpg
A slight tilt, a slightly lower angle, a golden reflector and having the sun behind him all helped this photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantrider/5650152957/
These are probably crappy examples, but hopefully this helped!!
At the risk of sounding silly …
Thanks to everyone who has liked or reblogged one of my photos. I really appreciate it! It’s not like I’ve gotten a thousand (or even hundred) anythings, but I still get giddy over every note. I’ve had an above average response lately, and hopefully I can keep shooting things that deserve such a reaction. Thanks again!
