PBPhoto

I can say that I haven't really been inspired photographically speaking lately.  Life has been busy and stressful.  But for some reason today I was looking at Dan Winters website.  It was linked off of the Strobist.  I really dig the look of the site.  It is kinda retro.  I really liked his portraits.  Probably because they are so different from what I would typically do.  No popping colors.  Everything is nice and muted.  Not as much separation between subject and background.  He has some unique lighting setups as well.  He has a portrait of Tom Hanks that is cool.  Interesting shadows on the face.  The fill light is just enough for detail.  The poses are different as well.  There's a portrait of Bono where Bono is facing camera left at 90 degrees.  It has a different feel to it. 

So I tried to incorporate some ideas: reducing the ratio between the subject and background, muted colors and experiment with the poses.

I love the pose on the above shot.  Just looking at the flash with his head turned toward the flash. 

Now I gave Eli the same instructions and this is what I got.

For my colors, I put orange gels (3/4 CTO) on my key flash and then did a custom white balance on that.  I left my background flash bare.  The custom white balance changes the white light to blue.  Nice cool (temperature) colors.

I love capturing the crying moments.  Goes against the grain of children portraits.  They are supposed to always be happy.  Not so much.

But they are happy most of the time.


Be blessed.