Saturday, January 23, 2010

Portraits of John (updated)

John A is a retired university lecturer, a scholar in history and Christianity, former bike racer, and hobby photographer.








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I'm very pleased with these, especially since I've barely ever done that kind of thing before. And I'm looking forward to more people work.

Canon 5D2, 85mm F:1.2. Canon flash with Lightsphere diffuser, dialed down 1.5 stop to let ambient light dominate.

Update: Some people, apparently including David Hobby of Strobist, claim that handheld flash-softeners like the LightSphere are useless. I think this is a stupid claim, as these pictures support. Sure, they have their limits,
but I'd really like to know which technique does not. OK, an off-camera flash system can do many more things, but it's more expensive, slower, clumsier, and sometimes simply not practical.

7 comments:

Philocalist said...

Noticed the DoF and was wondering, until I saw the lens used. Nice one, innit?:-)
(Just don't lose the hood ... I've bought lenses that cost me less!)

Timo Lehtinen said...

2 and 3 are excellent.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

P; *really* nice one.

TTL, yes, no 2 may be my fave, I even made a print last night. It's also the technically most complex (though not *very* complex), the face is desaturated, the green poster is saturated a little.

John is not a fierce man, temper-wise, but he does have a very sharp mind, which I think shows through.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

BTW, no 3 also was a bit of work: the door actually are that color, but it did not show in this picture, so I had to "paint" it! :-)

TC [Girl] said...

Nice bokeh in these, Eo. I like no. 2 the best. :-)

Nice to see you, John. :-) Wondering how that shoulder of yours is doing; and...if you have started a photo-sharing site?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I doubt if he did, he could compete with Flickr and Picasa. :-)

I normally prefer compact lenses, but I got this, very heavy, lens particularly for the outstanding bokeh it can deliver, both in terms of the "amount" of blur and the soft character of it.

Hannah said...

Wish I lived closer, otherwise I'd offer myself as a subject.