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| From photo project 2010 |
The Subject:
One last photo from this past weekend before we move on to something else. Madeline is the daughter of a dear friend of mine since our teen years. We were all having dinner together at a fantastic Korean restaurant; the guys were talking about smartphones, Starcraft, and DSLRs when I pulled out the camera to take these impromptu shots since we were talking on the subject of camera lens and aperture just to give examples to what we were discussing. I found the cutest subject I had access to and snapped away. Cute kids are awfully great to take photos of.
The Shot:
The restaurant was not as bright as you see it here, with some soft lighting coming from the ceiling, and stronger indirect light coming through the window. Camera was in aperture priority which was set at 2.5 on a 50mm prime lens, ISO at 250. Madeline was moving around a little bit so an F stop of 1.8 and 2.0 wasn't really an option. 2.5 was a safer bet. Believe me, I tried shooting in 1.8 when she was moving, and it did not work at all. I like shooting a human subject into the light where the primary light source is behind them. It gives great highlights to the hair and skin that shooting with the light in front of them wouldn't. The only thing to watch out for is that there would need to be sufficient lighting in front of them to give a proper exposure to your subject's face. At least that's what I've learned so far.
Leave me a comment. I'd love to hear what you think of this shot.
I'm no expert, but in the lighting conditions you described (stronger background than foreground), if your worried about insufficient lighting in the foreground for the subject's face and you want the background to still be exposed correctly, you could focus and lock the exposure based on the background lighting level, then refocus on the subject and turn on your flash to fill in the foreground.
ReplyDeleteYou're right - a soft fill flash should work. I haven't experimented with Flash enough to use it confidently without it stomping all over the natural lighting and colors. In a more controlled environment, you can use a big white piece of board to reflect light back to your subject.
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