I have read all the tips on this "tutorial" (assignment) and wow, there is so much to learn...one thing that drew my attention was: subject on the edge of shadow/sunlight...and went to the backyard of my house, and took my homemade reflectors and this is what I came up with... Rainy season in California nowdays...







Minutes after I took these shots it started to rain...the neighbors fence,about 11 feet tall (3.5 m) created shade...

Carlos

OK, here are my first entries to this assignment. natural light No flash , minimal PP: interior ( window light)

a stranger asked me for some spare change, I said "sure If i can take your photo :) signed model release. great charactor face

I had to play with some editing on the man , so I did a draganizer effect.

exterior clean background ( well except for the tree, I had the flash one for some of these, then turned it off and had a firnd hold the gold refletor,

Originally Posted by Carloskbco I have read all the tips on this "tutorial" (assignment) and wow, there is so much to learn...one thing that drew my attention was: subject on the edge of shadow/sunlight...and went to the backyard of my house, and took my homemade reflectors and this is what I came up with... Rainy season in California nowdays... Minutes after I took these shots it started to rain...the neighbors fence,about 11 feet tall (3.5 m) created shade... Carlos

First of all thank you for taking part at our MA.
I like backgrounds, compositions of these portraits, natural expressions of the model.
The only critique - try not to use white dresses (You must have a very good camera :-) as they eat a lot of brightness range.
Again, well done, my friend!
Yuri

Originally Posted by CookieS OK, here are my first entries to this assignment. natural light No flash , minimal PP: interior ( window light)

Priviet (in Russian - Hello), CookieS!
Thank you very much!
I like this one a lot. You managed to catch her expression so nicely!
Sure you yourself see this big difference of brightness due to these sun spots. On the other hand, they add a lot here ... Warmness, Homeness so to say.
I also like the background. It tells a story.
My only advice will be: choosing your point of shooting, looking into the viewfinder, before pressing the button of your camera, please inspect once again the area around the head of your model. Sometimes 2-5 cm movement of the point of shooting (up/down left/righ) helps to avoid these things 'going out' of the head.
Again, very well done!
Spasibo,
Yuri

Originally Posted by CookieS a stranger asked me for some spare change, I said "sure If i can take your photo :) signed model release. great charactor face

What a model! What a charachter!
My congratulations!
I like his pose more on the second photo.
My advice will be: Try to take several photos in different poses (placing your model in the left/right part of the composition with the head turned to the camera/ to the left / to the right. Eyes looking to the camera/ strait behind)
You'll count to 6-10 shots, but you'll have variety.
Spasibo,
Yuri

Hi Yauri,

May I get some feedback about this shot? Many thanks.

Originally Posted by ifocus Hi Yauri, May I get some feedback about this shot? Many thanks.

Hello, JY!
Of course, this photo is important to you (that's the reason of posting it here).
...Yes...
But the thing is... to make it interesting to other people (the viewers).
Yes, we see some charachter here... But no enough...
Big part of the frame is filled with knitted cap.
If you have read our MA#2, you must understand why knitting details (and the left part of the shot as a whole) attract much more attention then the eye of the model.
Surely it wasn't your aim, yes?
From the 'light' point of view, the left side again attracts much more attention...
Undeservedly...
I think that it will be better from your side not to post here your shots to get some feedback, but to make homeworks. (Backgrounds, composition - we have a lot of them to work on)
At the same time I must say thank you for taking part.
I saw your works and must say you are a talented photographer. That is why this shot was a surprize to me :-)
Spasibo,
Yuri

Yuri,

This is a photo of my daughter. The setting is an old train station and museum in town. The background here is an old coal car used to fuel the train. I have been using fill flash in many of my outdoor portraits lately, but in this one, I relied solely on the natural light available. There is a concrete parking lot that is reflecting light into the covered walkway and onto her face. I am pleased with the exposure, but not entirely with the pose. I wanted her left arm extended as I was trying a new lense, and wanted to see the shift in focus at that distance, but.....I don't think I like seeing that much of her left arm and none of her right arm. I am anxious to hear your reply. Posing is a challenge to me at times.



Here is another without flash on the same day, but in an entirely different location. The majority of the light in this scene is bouncing from a large light colored building across the street

First of all, thank you, Jeff, for taking part in our MA!
Now to the photos. I think they are very good.
I like the diagonal composition of the first one. Besides, not only the hand leads to the center of the composition - the model's face, but also the light. The background is very good.
Maybe another position of the head, when the row of rivets doent pass through the head of the model, could be better, but DOF here played its role....

The second photo is very good too. I like its red.
At the same time we talked here at MA about using SIMPLE backgrounds first...
The thing is - to FIND such backgrounds around you.
As you can see, we have here vertical lines (left part of the photo) going our of the head.
Jeff!
Try to find more simple background and then, bit by bit, make it more complex (asking yourself 'why and what for?')...
And (Only my opinion)...
This must be a tradition. I mean... smile.
Yes, such a photo says that Everything is OK with the hero of the photo... But...
Please, close the bottom part of the face by your hand and look at the face like 'at the first time'.
Does these eyes smile?
We have something about 180 face muscles. And when we smile naturaly, the muscles around the eyes also tells about our smile...
And for me portrait WITHOUT SMILE tells MUCH MORE about the model. Charachter.
I mean you may ask you model not to use this 'SAY CHEESE' smile...
Such a portrait gives (me) a way much more 'food for thoughts'. More interesting.
What do you think?
This question is VERY IMPORTANT to me.
Thank you, Jeff.
Yuri

Hello Yuri, how do you do ?
I shot this portrait a couple of days ago with the help of natural light from our left and a soft light from the right, coming from a home made softbox.
The home made softbox is not a sucess, no.
But the photo is rather good.
However, I think the photo is rather studio type. Not my kind of pictures.
I like more informal...

Originally Posted by Antonio Correia Hello Yuri, how do you do ? I shot this portrait a couple of days ago with the help of natural light from our left and a soft light from the right, coming from a home made softbox. The home made softbox is not a sucess, no. But the photo is rather good. However, I think the photo is rather studio type. Not my kind of pictures. I like more informal...

Antonio!
Spasibo for your photo!
Did you use some knowledge from our MA#2 here?
What it was?
Thank you in advance,
Yuri

I will continue MA after a couple of weeks - going to show my skin to Egyptian sun and take some shots of Red Sea fishes....
Yuri

I shot this picture today using two flashes for the first time.
Any good ?

Rhythm in photography


The simplest rhythm in photography is the equality of forms. Recurrence. Brain hits upon an idea of the whole picture, judging by some components, curvature lines, intersection lines. And millions of pictures that human has seeing – his experience – are used here. Putting together parts of the picture, human brain all the time forms hypotheses upon how it must look.
Rhythm itself is an element of the composition and also one of the instruments. Using it, the clarity of the form is achieved. And sometimes - even the originality of the theme’s incarnation.
Rhythm comes to the photography from life. You can see rhythm everywhere: petals of the flower, see waves, sand patterns in the desert…




Of course, the rhythm, which you see in a real life is not mechanically brought into your photo. You put it into the composition’s fundament. It becomes the rhythm of lines, tone’s interchange.








The rhythm can be set not only by frequent lines, but also by single ones.

If we’ll look at the squares,









we’ll see that they seem to be larger in the direction, in which we unconsciously put the elements together.

Talking about rhythm we must also say about identity, nuance and contrast.
Identity is a complete similarity of similar (sorry!) elements. They form harmonious relation and look very effective. Sea waves, for example. Or even a fence.
Nuance is a relation of monotonous elements. Their forms come close to each other. The similarity is shown much more strongly then a difference. And the relation in the composition is based on this similarity. A forest. A group of people. Car park.
Contrast – is a correlation of similar elements of the composition with strong disparity. The relations between the elements is based on difference and contraposition. Parents and kids for example.



The keyhole effect.
Also the holes, formed by different parts of the body, especially in nude figures, at once arrest attention cause of contrast not only of the light tone, but also by linear size. They become the centers of the composition, amplifying the psychological effect of the lines of power, which make them.









Chink effect
When the chink made by practically parallel surfaces of hands, feet and body, being a special case if rhythm become the center of the composition.

Symmetry and asymmetry.

The rhythm can be called a special case of the symmetry. Photographers and models often use a natural symmetry in their creative work. The human is a symmetric by nature. It is proved by a lot of poses, used in photography. But. We must remember that the frequent usage makes the showing character of the model… invisible.









We can use the shadow of the model as a variant of the symmetry. Asymmetry is also often used in photography. It helps to break the rules, to disconcert the viewer, or show the internal world of the model.



To be continued….

Wow! I only joined dgrin yesterday and i can't stop reading all over this site! but this thread is AMAZING! Yuri, I LOVE your work. I am a new pro photographer (only pro a year) and am looking to learn and perfect my craft. natural lighting is my preferred lighting, however i dabble with some flashes i own. i photograph people on location and would love to join this thread. do i just jump right in and post a recent shot?

Originally Posted by KeepItReel Wow! I only joined dgrin yesterday and i can't stop reading all over this site! but this thread is AMAZING! Yuri, I LOVE your work. I am a new pro photographer (only pro a year) and am looking to learn and perfect my craft. natural lighting is my preferred lighting, however i dabble with some flashes i own. i photograph people on location and would love to join this thread. do i just jump right in and post a recent shot?

Welcome to Dgrin and to our Class!
FWIW there is no application to fill or fees to pay - just try to follow the assignments and start posting:-)

Thank you so much for this thread Yuri. I have an assignment tomorrow to do some more natural portraits of the model below for her acting portfolio using available light. This class will help me tremendously with choosing a location and in focusing on the elements needed to make a great portrait. Sandy

portrait.