Carley, beautiful young lady...

zoomer

Portraits of Carley, beautiful young lady with a ton of personality.
Crazy weather day, it snowed it was cloudy the wind blew, the sun came out. Almost all of the shots in the gallery are with flash and the 70-200 f2.8 lens. The full length shots with her sash and crown... if I had it to do over again I would have tried to find better angles to get cleaner shots. I found these large flat rocks that I was using for stages they came out ok but I wish there were less distractions in the shots.
Carley was a trooper through all of it, we had a great time.

Here is a link to her full portrait gallery if you are interested in having a look: http://alloutdoor.smugmug.com/Portrait-galleries/Carleys-portraits/11324460_GsVFh#795103029_A2cDQ

mpriest13

Alright...I am on here lurking all the time (never posting) and I have to say I really like your work. Very impressive.

My question for you is...How do you get your subjects so sharp with such great bokeh? I assume you are shooting at at least f2.8. I can't seem to get the kind of sharpness at f2.8...sometimes not even at f4. I am guessing it is mostly skill? Can the quality of gear effect such a thing? I am shooting with a D80 and a 50mm f1.4.

Any advice you could give would be fantastic!!

zoomer

Hi mpriest13,
Thanks for taking the time to comment, glad you liked the pictures.

Well the bokeh...I try to shoot at 200mm when I can and at f2.8, this creates a very nice bokeh. The Nikon 70-200 2.8 makes a great portrait lens.

Sharp at 2.8, well it is mostly the lens and the more out of focus the background is the sharper the subject will tend to look.
The lens is tack sharp at 2.8.
Always focus on the eyes.

No real secrets, guess it is mostly the equipment . Make sure to hit them with some unsharp mask when processing at the end.

With your 50 1.4 you should be able to get nice bokek and sharp subjects. Get the eyes sharp, that is what matters.

Macushla

zoomer wrote:

Hi mpriest13,
Thanks for taking the time to comment, glad you liked the pictures.

Well the bokeh...I try to shoot at 200mm when I can and at f2.8, this creates a very nice bokeh. The Nikon 70-200 2.8 makes a great portrait lens.

Sharp at 2.8, well it is mostly the lens and the more out of focus the background is the sharper the subject will tend to look.
The lens is tack sharp at 2.8.
Always focus on the eyes.

No real secrets, guess it is mostly the equipment . Make sure to hit them with some unsharp mask when processing at the end.

With your 50 1.4 you should be able to get nice bokek and sharp subjects. Get the eyes sharp, that is what matters.

I have a 70-210 2.8mm and I would never have thought to use it for portraits. I've been using a 50mm. I just tried using the unsharp mask for the first time. It does make a huge difference.

I love your photo! The red hair and the sweater, she looks so young and fresh. The lighting is perfect!

Swartzy

Hey Zoomer. Looked through the gallery and it looks like you two had some fun...outfit changes and everything. Lots of nice poses, POV's, looks and moods....well done!

du8die

Great set.

I'm really digging the pano crops...

Very nice!

zoomer

To everyone who took the time to comment thank you very much.
Yes I love the pano crops as well.
Yes we had a great time, the she did have a few changes but she was really quick, she came prepared...
Yes give the 200 a try the bokeh is amazing.