Inspired by Mitchell....

adbsgicom

My daughter read from the Torah this morning at her school. Inspired by the shots Mitchell took (check out #4 :bow ), I made an attempt at emulating it with a bounce of the flash forward and off the ceiling to CR. She read quickly and fluently, so I didn't get much of a window of opportunity to get a retake

lilmomma

I really like this shot Andrew!

Elaine

I like this a lot! (Is it slightly tilted to the right?) I think the lighting is very nice and right where it should be. I'd be curious to see it in b&w, too.

Qarik

clap clap!

Awais Yaqub

This is beautiful shot !
Now Explain "bounce of the flash forward and off the ceiling to CR" what is CR ?

D'Buggs

Awais Yaqub wrote:

what is CR ?

Camera Right.

adbsgicom

Elaine wrote:

I like this a lot! (Is it slightly tilted to the right?) I think the lighting is very nice and right where it should be. I'd be curious to see it in b&w, too.

You caught me. If I got the tilt fully correct, I clipped the Torah scroll, which I was trying not to do, but probably should.

kdog

Nice. thumb

adbsgicom

Thanks, all. ISO 800, 1/200, f/4 (max aperture on that lens) 47mm. Took the shot from standing on a chair about 6 feet off to the side. Flash was flagged with a bit of foam from spilling forward, and aimed about 45-degrees forward/right, and 60-degrees up. I didn't want to set up any proper lighting since it was their morning prayer service (so standing on the chair seemed obtrusive enough). I've committed to the 5th grade parents to get shots of each child doing first their reading, so by the time the second half of the class is doing it, they should be getting some pretty nice shots... I hope.

Elaine, B&W will come soon.

adbsgicom

Rotation/Crop:


B&W:

Mitchell

Andrew, this shot is fantastic. I particularly like your B&W conversion.

Just a wonderful moment captured perfectly. Well done!

Elaine

adbsgicom wrote:

You caught me. If I got the tilt fully correct, I clipped the Torah scroll, which I was trying not to do, but probably should.

Yes, I wondered about that. But I think your new crop worked out well. It really puts the focus on your daughter without being distracted by as many kids in the background, and you can still see the Torah scroll nicely. Love the b&w, too. Beautiful shot!

adbsgicom

Thank you, all!! It was nice to see a plan actually work out for the most part.

andersmi24

Andrew, I prefer the original color version, that is not tilt-corrected. The tilted version cuts off heads that I think are important background to the shot, and I wasn't offended by the tilt in the first place.

The color is important to this shot as well since the BW doesn't really convey the warmth as much.

Can you tell me what you mean about the foam?

adbsgicom

andersmi24 wrote:

Andrew, I prefer the original color version, that is not tilt-corrected. The tilted version cuts off heads that I think are important background to the shot, and I wasn't offended by the tilt in the first place.

The color is important to this shot as well since the BW doesn't really convey the warmth as much.

Can you tell me what you mean about the foam?

Thanks for the feedback. The "black foamie thing" just flags the forward spill from the flash so you end up with more directional light. Note that is is not velcro'ed in place. It is held on with the hair band. This allows rotating the foam very easily depending on which way you want to throw the light. The foam is very flexible, so you can also fold it back if you want more forward spill in a given case. Check out (among other places), Neil Van Niekirk's site from whence I learned the technique. Here is one specific blog post that talks about it.

Halite

Really great capture. B&W cropped and rotated image brings the focus on the action without eliminating the context. I've got to try that black foamie trick.

bdcolen

adbsgicom wrote:

Rotation/Crop:


B&W:

First - wonderful shot, Andrew. Really nice.
Second - The black and white does work better - particularly given the orange-red shirt right in the middle of the background in the color shot.

Third - I'd go with the original crop and not worry about the tilt. If a tilt is what it takes to get in a detail you want, then tilt.

Mitchell

Andrew, I keep going back to this shot. I like the original crop with the tilt. It's nice to see her peers watching her as she reads. This really adds to the shot. My eyes are drawn a bit to the girl's ear just over your daughter's head. Perhaps burning that area a bit would make it less of a distraction.

Once again, kudos to you for your lovely capture.

Awais Yaqub

Thanks for detailed info !

adbsgicom

I have to admit that I'm partial to the color, but also took BD's comment about the orange shirt to heart, modified some of the tilt by fixing some lens distortion in PS, and burned that ear based on Mitchell's observation. So with a little masking and shift in color...

andersmi24

Nice modifications. Thanks for the link about the black foamie thing. Very cool.