> Good advice. For portraiture, *always* avoid full sun (late morning to
> mid afternoon) and especially mottled shade. Both should be avoided due
> to the drastic dynamic range requirements.
Yeah, I learned that the hard way at their wedding.
That's part of the reason I was so surprised how much they liked the wedding
photos.
> Using negative film should give you the leeway you need to cover exposure
> errors.
What film speed would you recommend?
> Portraits outdoors are best done with fill flash or with reflectors.
> Fill flash with an OM is difficult because of the 1/60th second sync
> requirement. You need subdued light for 1/60 to work since you'd also
> like to use a large aperture for DOF control. Reflectors are easier.
> Sometimes it helps to use the house to provide open shade and the side
> of a white house makes a good reflector. Snow can also serve as a
> reflector since the most important point is to have some light coming up
> from underneath to get rid of shadows in the eye sockets. You want soft
> shadow on the face to model the facial features but not too dark. The
> face is correct when the shadows are 1/2 to one stop darker than the
> highlights.
This is another problem I forgot to mention. The flash sync on my OM is on
the fritz.
I've been planning to send it to John for a CLA and to get that fixed, but
as I mentioned
they want the photos for Christmas, and I don"t want to risk not having the
camera back in time.
So, I guess I'll have to make do with reflection from the snow.
> Avoid busy backgrounds and bright spots in the background. The eye is
> drawn to the brightest part of the photo which may detract from a
> portrait.
Yeah, I have a bad habit of being so focused on my subject, I don't pay
enough attention to what's in the background.
> Also avoid trees and poles emerging from the top of people's
> heads and horizontal bars passing from one side of the head to the
> other. Tends to look like an arrow shot through the head.
LOL! Great tip, I can see myself doing this very thing.
> Good luck,
> Chuck Norcutt
>
> Robert Swier wrote:
>
>> I think you could get good results by making sure everyone is in the same
>> light, spot metering on a grey card held in front of the face of one of
>> the
>> subjects, making sure you shoot on an overcast day (which should be
>> pretty
>> common in winter), and including some other elements in the photograph,
>> like
>> a tree trunk or fence or something.
>> Good luck,
>> Robert Swier
>> Toronto
>>
>> On 11/6/05, Darin <d.rhein@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>Hi all,
>>>
>>>Well, a couple months ago I was at a friends wedding and their
>>>photographer didn't show. I reluctantly agreed to fill in, not wanting
>>>them
>>>to be without any wedding photos. I was reluctant because I don't have
>>>much
>>>experience with portrait photography, I prefer wildlife and nature
>>>photography. To my surprise, they were quite pleased with my photos. So
>>>much
>>>so in fact, that they now want me to do their family photos. Aside from
>>>my
>>>inexperience at portraits, my real problem is they want the photos done
>>>in
>>>the snow. So, I'm looking for some advice. Any suggestions how to achieve
>>>correct exposure of the subject, without burning out the snow? Any help
>>>y'all can provide would be greatly appreciated!
>>>
>>>Thanks,
>>>Darin
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