PBPhoto

My friend Kevin has a blog http://kevinkeigley.wordpress.com/.

He apparently has a problem with creepy dolls.  Not sure what that means but I still love him.  So anyway he was asking for submissions of said creepy dolls so this is what I came up with.  Just in time for Halloween.  Note that I have his blog up in the computer screen in the background.

The lighting is a snooted 285HV for the key light and a bare, red-gelled 540EZ behind and below for the red accent.

In an attempt to at least occasionally shoot for the daily challenge at PhotoChallenge.org I went looking for a window display.  Actually the whole family went.  We packed up the car and went to downtown Melbourne, FL looking for the right one.  My wife suggested the year-round Christmas store.  Which normally would be a great choice but the time of day wasn't very good.  The reflections in the window were stinkin' up the joint. 

So we drove on down the street and she spotted this one.  Excellent.  I didn't really like the street reflection but it was reduced some as I worked on it in LR2.  The colors are great.

Here's my most recent family portrait session.  I had a great time with them.  What a great little family with the new (ok not so new) baby.  We met at the beach with about 45 minutes until sunset with another 30 minutes of twilight.  First we tried to take advantage of the direct sunset light up on the boardwalk.  I tried as many different light schemes as I could come up with.  We used the sun as direct light.  We tried using it for backlight as you can see in the following photos.  Awesome how the hair just blows out and you get nice soft light for the face.  I've been trying to do more of this these days. 

We used the sun for side lighting.  This has got to be one of my favorites of the entire section.  As a Daddy, I can relate so much to this shot.  I talk about capturing interactions later on and this is exactly what I'm talking about.

And for a silhouette.


Weights And Wind

Then we even broke out the flash and umbrella.  The wind was blowing hard.  Earlier that day, while sitting in my office, I remembered the two times that my light stand had taken a fall because of the wind.  I knew I needed sandbags but I didn't have any and even if I wanted to buy some (I don't because that costs money and costs even more money if it is "made for photography") there was no time for them to be delivered.  So I'm looking around my office . . . I see my old A3 bag from the Air Force.  It acts as our scuba bag and has masks, snorkels, fins, and WEIGHT BELTS!  So back to the beach.  I set up the stand with flash and open the umbrella.  The only way this works is with the umbrella pointing into the wind.  Otherwise I would be asking some of you from California to ship it back to me.  Just latch the weight belt and drape it over the legs of the tripod.  Works great.

Only drawback is that once it is set, it is not trivial to reposition it because of the wind and the weight so it was easier to move the subjects around in the light.

Interaction
I shoot a lot of pictures in hopes that I capture some moment that stands out.  Little interactions between parent and child.  I caught a few of those here along with the photo at the top and the one of Daddy kissing baby.

Here's a quick one that I captured tonight.  I used the preset "Matt's Vintage New York."  I like the muted tones.  I added a little brightness in the eyes to bring out some detail that went away when I applied the preset.

Just used my Vivitar into a shoot-thru umbrella.  I slowed the shutter speed down until the incandescent light burned into the background.

Be blessed.