His Happiness…
My uncle Eric made a comment on a recent post about using the flash to fill in the shadows on the picture of my son, Garland, sitting on some cement. I have been thinking about that and am excited to try it. I didn’t get a chance to try it today but am planning on trying it very soon.
Today, I found the USB cable for my Nikon Coolpix 5600 (In all fairness, Ben found the USB cable). That meant that I could download the Momshots off of that camera instead of using it for a shiny paperweight.
One of the images on that camera is below. It is my son Garland. He is wrapped up in a blanket (handmade by my sweet sister, Olea) and he is hugging a juice cup. This is true happiness for him. Being snuggled and having juice. His wants are simple.
Anyway, I like how this picture looks. I like the dark background and his bright face in the foreground. I think it looks pretty good. I love those big brown eyes! I believe this was achieved by being pretty close to him and using the flash in a fairly dark room. Not very scientific, but I like the result.
May 27th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
I mostly use my camera as a point and shoot (I seriously need to learn more about my camera’s features). The upside to that is that I have learned how to “fix” darn near everything that could be wrong in a photo… noise has me a little puzzled, but working it out :D. So if you are interested in learning a few tricks like contrasts in highlights and shadows (it is best to do what you can with the camera, but the shooting environment isn’t always the best and you work with what you have), let me know and I will get a tutorial up by the end of the weekend. That is a really cute site too! Great idea to post good links!
May 29th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Tye, Noise was an issue for me at one time until I was turned onto a program called Bibble Pro. Its primarly used when shooting RAW but will work with JPEG files also, but part of the program is another program called Noise Ninja. You can down load a 30 day free trial bibblelabs.com. Good luck
May 30th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Hi Jessica, neat idea for a blog.
This is a very nice candid shot, and the contrast between the foreground and the background really do help it, but I think you have a number of other things going well for you here:
– The flash wasn’t so bright that it obscured the catch lights in his eyes or the light shadows that give depth to the sides of his face.
– His shoulder on the left acts as a leading line into his face, and the contrasting bright blue sippy cup right next to his face further emphasizes the center of interest.
– The eyes and his hands form an imaginary triangle that helps direct the viewer to your son’s face. Triangle composition is a classic technique used by old master painters.
– You’ve captured your son actually doing something–this isn’t a static shot–but you’ve also captured his relationship to what he is doing, which makes this shot even stronger.
– His head is off center with the eyes at roughly the intersection of the imaginary tic-tac-toe board formed by the Rule of Thirds–so they draw great interest.
May 30th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Wow! That was an awesome comment, Ron. Thanks so much!!! I really have so much to learn and composition is surely one of those things. You have given me some really great things to think about and concepts to learn more about.
I hope you will be back and offer your insight again. Thanks!
June 1st, 2008 at 12:09 pm
ThanX Uncle Eric! i will check it out!