Portraits with the canon 24mm f/1.4 L: Take Two

Ike615

Last Sunday I went up to Powell Butte, for the second day in a row and with the 24L lens, to shoot with Courtney (model and photographer). This was my second time shooting with Courtney. We had last shot back in the Fall at corn maze out on Sauvie island, when it felt like the middle of summer with the sun blazing over head. This time the lighting was much better. Photos of her below:

1)

2)

3)
(larger version click here)

She brought her camera too and I stepped on the other side of the camera for a bit. She also snapped some photos of me in my natural habitat. Now you can see how I get some of those arial shots. I wish I could say it was from my handy jet-pack but I’m still saving up for that bad boy, haha. One day it will be mine and I’ll be able to get any angled shot I’ve ever wanted. But for now trees will have to do.

Some of Courtney’s photos of me:







A side note: When I was editing these photos Photoshop CS3 decided it wanted to try it’s hand at being artistic. This is what it came up with:



It did a pretty good job for it’s first try but it did not make me very happy. All my files that were open at the time got corrupted in someway or another. I’m hoping this was a one time thing and Photoshop sticks to what it does best, which is being stable and reliable. argh. Anyone else experience problems like this?

davidryan

Very nice set of shots. I like them all-- but number two in the line up, her dress is borderline washed. For me it is a bit too exposed yet the rest of the photo has a good balance.

The last time I went out into the wilderness with such a beautiful girl like this, I came back engaged! Thankfully, it was pre-planned

Well done.

Tanuki

I definitely have lens envy. Wide angle and narrow DOF is very nice effect. Unfortunately for me, Nikon doesn't have an equivalent. I've been looking into the Sigma 24 1.8, but I don't the quality of the bokeh compares to the Canon 24 1.4. Maybe I'll get lucky and one of the new Nikkors coming out in June will be fast and wide.

I like that angle a lot on the first photo. I've often wished I had a 6 foot ladder with me when I'm out shooting, but it's just too much to lug around. My mistake is that I don't look for opportunities like climbing a tree. I could probably also make use of stairs or balconies. I must start paying more attention to my surroundings!

The lighting and post-processing are excellent. Care to share a little about your post-processing technique? Was it mostly achieved in ACR, or did you do it in PS?

Mike

Ike615

Tanuki wrote:

I like that angle a lot on the first photo. I've often wished I had a 6 foot ladder with me when I'm out shooting, but it's just too much to lug around. My mistake is that I don't look for opportunities like climbing a tree. I could probably also make use of stairs or balconies. I must start paying more attention to my surroundings!

The lighting and post-processing are excellent. Care to share a little about your post-processing technique? Was it mostly achieved in ACR, or did you do it in PS?

Mike

ya, I really like to climb things. Though I think I'm starting to rely on the high angel view a little too much these days. Time to explore different angels.

As for the lighting and post-processing, it was shot with all natural light. Then in Post I make fine adjustments to exposure and white balance in ACR. Then I throw it into PS CS3 touch up the skin and use the curves adjustment. Most of the look comes from the curves. My advice is to just play around with curves on a photo and experiment. And don't be afraid to mess around with the individual Red, Green, and Blue curves. You can get some pretty awesome results from just tweaking them a little bit. Hope that helped a bit. And I'd love to see what you come up with give me a heads up when you try it.

BPerron

Great photos...Powell Butte is a beautiful park!!!!!!

Ike615

BPerron wrote:

Great photos...Powell Butte is a beautiful park!!!!!!

Thanks! ya I just discovered it last week. And I've lived in Oregon my whole life.