Downtown with new lens....

jeffreaux2

Most of you have seen quite a few photos of my oldest daughter.....especially the senior photos I worked so hard on. Today she volunteered to go along while I tried out a new lens. Here are a few of the results!!

Hope you enjoy,
C&C is always welcomed.

These are taken with the Canon EFS 17-55mm F2.8 IS.
1.


2.


3.


4. This one taken with my 85mm F1.8 as I am learning to trust it at F1.8.

BikePilot

Very nice pictures!

Elaine

Woohoo! Beautiful! Great colors and contrast! Glad you're enjoying the new lens and glad you have such a cooperative and lovely model to practice with!

Flyinggina

Beautiful daughter and lovely photographs. I love #2, but they are all great. You are really lucky she is willing to pose for you. But then, I guess she is lucky too to have a dad who does such a good job.

Virginia

Arvan

Good lord..very nice work! you seem to know what you are doing

i heard that about 135 mm is optimal for portraits?..To get rid of all that distorsion and such..Anyone know that?.

anyways..epic pictures!.

Tommyboy

Wow, you're daughter is a heart-breaker--lovely girl.

Nice lens. . . . And very nice photography. Well done.

Re: portrait lenses, people use all sorts of stuff. Conventional wisdom always held that somewhere between 85-105mm (equivalent) was ideal, but nothing says that you can't use 135mm or even 200mm.

jeffreaux2

BikePilot wrote:

Very nice pictures!

Well, thank you very much!

System

well, it sure looks like a lovely lens-

definitely lovely daughter and great pics-

jeffreaux2

Elaine wrote:

Woohoo! Beautiful! Great colors and contrast! Glad you're enjoying the new lens and glad you have such a cooperative and lovely model to practice with!

Thanks Elaine,

I have been shy about using the 85mm very much for portrait work, especially wide open, but I intend to use it more in that capacity in the future. The 17-55 seems like it will really be fun to use. It is most certainly very sharp. I actually did some global softening in all but the railroad shot on this set.....except of course the face and eyes.

She surprised me by being so easy to talk into photos today, but we actually had a good time!

jeffreaux2

Flyinggina wrote:

Beautiful daughter and lovely photographs. I love #2, but they are all great. You are really lucky she is willing to pose for you. But then, I guess she is lucky too to have a dad who does such a good job.

Virginia

Ahhh #2.

This old train has been part of out downtown history since I was a child. Recently the museam sold and moved all of the old passenger cars and a dining car. I thought the engine had been moved as well, but was nicely surprised to find it there.

Thanks for the kind comments.

Scott_Quier

Very nice photos - way to go. Gorgeous young lady - lucky father!

Gotta love that lens to!!

jeffreaux2

Arvan wrote:

Good lord..very nice work! you seem to know what you are doing

i heard that about 135 mm is optimal for portraits?..To get rid of all that distorsion and such..Anyone know that?.

anyways..epic pictures!.

Ha Ha....thanks for the vote of confidence. I don't think that a lens that long is completely neccessary for good portraits. Ultra wides will definately cause unattractive distortion, but on a 1.6x crop sensor you would be looking at something in the 10mm to 20mm range. Even at those lengths, if the subjects head is centered in the original composition it may not be all that bad. For a 1.6X crop I have found 50mm to be a very workable length. Of course anything longer is also nice as it will help flatten the subject out, and give you the opportunity to add depth by using larger aperatures.

There are many opinions on all of this......but that is mine!!:D

jeffreaux2

Tommyboy wrote:

Wow, you're daughter is a heart-breaker--lovely girl.

Nice lens. . . . And very nice photography. Well done.

Re: portrait lenses, people use all sorts of stuff. Conventional wisdom always held that somewhere between 85-105mm (equivalent) was ideal, but nothing says that you can't use 135mm or even 200mm.

Thanks.....and Thanks!!!

jeffreaux2

gefillmore wrote:

well, it sure looks like a lovely lens-

definitely lovely daughter and great pics-

Yes George, I think the two of us will get along nicely.....the daughter as well!!

jeffreaux2

Scott_Quier wrote:

Very nice photos - way to go. Gorgeous young lady - lucky father!

Gotta love that lens to!!

Thanks Scott, I appreciate your compliment. I only wish she hadn't worn black nail polish....but....what the heck, right?

And yes, I am lucky!!!:ivar

ShepsMom

Wow, these are just beautiful, your daughter is gorgeous, your shots are outstanding. Nice compositions, lighting and everything else. Love the processing too, what have you done here?
Nice lens apparently!

Cuong

Beautiful job, lenses, subject. Regarding the black nail polish, you can certainly do something about it since this is digital, right? I can't wait to get my hands on the 17-55.

Cuong

jeffreaux2

ShepsMom wrote:

Wow, these are just beautiful, your daughter is gorgeous, your shots are outstanding. Nice compositions, lighting and everything else. Love the processing too, what have you done here?
Nice lens apparently!

Thanks Marina,

I was paying particular attention to white balance. I had shot in AWB, but tried to achieve a nuetral WB in lightroom. I succeeded to some dgree, although one of them is still realatively warm. Hint: I used the whites of her eyes for the eyedropper sample in LR, but still had to fiddle with the slider to get what I "liked". After that some judicious use of vignettes along with a second layer created from a dupe that had been treated with the old AutoFX dream plug in...the free one. This creates some softening and blending, but is best in small doses, and I use a mask to bring sharpness back to those areas I want to preserve. Simple really.

The lens is apparantly nice....I will be sure after more than one successful shoot!!

jayegirl

I really like all of these! She is beautiful, especially the eyes!

jeffreaux2

yukio wrote:

Beautiful job, lenses, subject. Regarding the black nail polish, you can certainly do something about it since this is digital, right? I can't wait to get my hands on the 17-55.

Cuong

Well I guess I could change the nail polish color easy enough, however to avoid the possibility that she might think that I thought it was ugly, I will leave it to the color of her choosing- black. I am usually very careful about making changes of that magnatude without a request to do so....even ...and especially with my own kids/family. Just because we CAN do things like that doesn't neccessarily give us license to do so.

~Jan~

Very nice! Beautiful girl, and nice work on your part.

adpace

Very beautiful photos!

jeffreaux2

jayegirl wrote:

I really like all of these! She is beautiful, especially the eyes!

Thanks for looking Jaye. I haved improved a ton in the last year at bringing eyes to prominence in my photos. Hers are a fun color to practice on!!

jeffreaux2

Thanks for the kind comments Jan and Angela.

urbanaries

Sure looks like you're having fun with your new lens!!! Awesome results I'd say!

1. Nice colors and bg, very christmassy.
2. Love this shot! The colors, pose and treatment all work here. Awesome background/location. I think the tilt would be ok if her head was vertical. As it is she feels like she's falling off the earth.
3. Love everything about this one! (Is that a funky cold WB I see?? )
4. The spotty light kills it for me, otherwise I think the background is fantastic and her posing, as always, stellar. Love the colors.

jeffreaux2

Sure looks like you're having fun with your new lens!!! Awesome results I'd say!

1. Nice colors and bg, very christmassy.

She was chilly and wore the red coat. By chance the wreaths were still up. I on the other hand couldn't shuck shirts fast enough, and ended up carrying not only camera and bag, but the red jacket! This was my first "people shot" with that lens, and when I looked at it in the lcd I was really stoked.

2. Love this shot! The colors, pose and treatment all work here. Awesome background/location. I think the tilt would be ok if her head was vertical. As it is she feels like she's falling off the earth.

I agree about the location. Most of the tilt was in trying to keep part of a building out of the shot. I'll have to work on that. It may be exaggerated due to the fact that she was about 4 or 5 feet from the ground. I do see what you mean about the head tilt.

3. Love everything about this one! (Is that a funky cold WB I see?? )

Thanks. I have a nice little series of her balancing away on the rails, and balancing back. I liked this one best because of the body and hand positions. That is the Mississipi River Levee to the left BTW. In the treatment, I was trying to figure out a decent looking retro treatment to save as an action. I didn't keep this one because of the skin tones, but liked it enough to keep the picture. If I ever do get a good PS action for that, I promise to give you a copy. But this ain't it!!!

4. The spotty light kills it for me, otherwise I think the background is fantastic and her posing, as always, stellar. Love the colors

Ahhh the old spotty light.....:D . We talked about taking photos early, but fiddled around until we FINALLY got there at noon...ish. That light killed quite a few that would have otherwise been plenty nice. I did a decent job filling with flash on it, and Most of the others were completely blown where the light struck her.....so I kept this one. The light sucked, but it was my favorite pose of the day!!

Thanks for the critique/comments Lynne. Always appreciated