Rainy Morning Portriats

LiquidAir

Mom was away for the day so my son Miles and I were left alone to play on a rainy Saturday morning. He is 2 1/2 now as is just beginning to get the concept of what a camera does. As I take pictures he sometimes wants me to show him the shot in the display. Anyhow, I usually shoot using window light but on this gray day I decided to try out my new Photoflex 60" convertable umbrella. I put my 580EX flash and the umbrella on a stand and carted it around the house as Miles played.

Here's Miles:

#1


#2


#3


#4


There are a couple more from that morning in the gallery here:
http://gallery.liquidairphoto.com/gallery/2520144#132375358

Terrence

Very nice. #1 and #3 are my favorites. The lighting, expression and nice mix of colors work for me. I'm trying to do the same thing with my 1 1/2 year old but every time I pull out the camera he runs for me and the lens!

urbanaries

#1 is my fave! The skintones are wonderful, that umbrella gives off some great, natural light. I can definitely feel the somber, rainy day mood.

salazar

I'm with the others it seems, #3 is fun and I do like it, but I really like the softness and contemplativeness (is that a word?) of #1. If you hadn't told me I would have thought the light was from a grey sky.

#2 is a great shot too. It's too bad there was no source of catchlight and it could have used a little fill on the dark side (IMHO) but what can you do when you're trying to keep up with a 2 1/2 year old?

Great shots, nice looking son you have there too...

LiquidAir

Thanks all for your great comments.

Terrence wrote:

Very nice. #1 and #3 are my favorites. The lighting, expression and nice mix of colors work for me. I'm trying to do the same thing with my 1 1/2 year old but every time I pull out the camera he runs for me and the lens!

#1 is was one of those moments you see for an instant through the view finder, hit the shutter button and pray it comes out. I see them every so often and slowly with practice I am getting better at catching them.

For #3 Miles was having a blast rocking back and forth on a rocking chair. I was grabbing focus on one pass and taking the shot on the next. In that shot I just missed a mischievous expression I have been trying to catch for a while, but it serves as a memory.

Miles is mostly blissfully unaware of the camera. When he does notice it he is pretty good about the lens. Just recently he has started coming over to look when I look in the display.

urbanaries wrote:

#1 is my fave! The skintones are wonderful, that umbrella gives off some great, natural light. I can definitely feel the somber, rainy day mood.

#1 is my favorite too. I had high hopes for shooting the larger umbrella because the sweet spot on it is larger. It came through for me in spades. In it I also see the truth behind a trick I learned from a portriat photography book by Robin Gillanders: including a bright spot in the background keeps an otherwise low key exposure from looking muddy. Shots where the skin tones are the brighest part of the image are tricky to get right.

salazar wrote:

#2 is a great shot too. It's too bad there was no source of catchlight and it could have used a little fill on the dark side (IMHO) but what can you do when you're trying to keep up with a 2 1/2 year old?

The light for #1 and #2 is in the same place. First he was sitting on the chair and then he was climbing down, so you are right no time to adjust. I really like the complexity of the shadows in #2 which is why I included it. If I had be deliberately lighting that pose there would have been more light on the face but the shadows would have been much less interesting. I would like to find a portriat lighting style with more interesting shadows than my usual; I am not yet sure how to achieve that and still get light into the eyes. That is a longer term project...

salazar wrote:

Great shots, nice looking son you have there too...

Thanks.


I included #4 in this set because I find it to be a little bit of a paradox. The lighting is decidedly high key yet to me the shot still has a somber feeling. For this shot the umbrella was place directly behind Miles (camera left) and the fill on his face is bounce off a wall to camera right (and maybe a little daylight through a window). In my eyes the soft shadow on his face has a decidedly down key feeling without obcuring his face. Its an effect I going to file away and hopefully pull it out someday for the perfect shot...