Hello, one and all!

David has asked me to be the moderator of this forum, which I consider to be both an honor and a privilege. I suppose it's standard for an introductory post to outline the kinds of topics that are appropriate -- topics like lighting, lenses, technique, approaching people, getting relaxed expressions... you know, stuff like that.

But I'm not going to do that. It's arbitrarily limiting. I believe that even tangentially-related topics should be fair game. The only topics we should shy away from, then, are the ones with no correct answers, like "Is it ethical to take candids of strangers for either personal or commercial purposes?", or rude answers to insulting questions like "Gee, those are great pictures... What kind of camera do you have?"

Okay, enough of me typing. Here's a gratuitous person photo to get things started:

http://friedmanarchives.com/Portraits/pages/Robert%20Elish%20Violin%20Maker%203%208x10%20300%20dpi%20IMG_9053.htm

This image was taken with existing light by an open tent door, underexposed by 2/3 stop, handheld at 1/10th of a second (thank goodness for Anti-Shake / SSS!)

-Gary Friedman

Hey Gary,

Why did you underexpose by 2/3rd's stop? Was that to prevent the left side of the face from blowing out or for some other reason?

Sincerely,
Ivan

managed to upload the same thing 3 tines sorry trying to delete them.

mikehawthorne

i took some photos at friends wedding recently and had to keep retaking them as i kept getting faces with eyes half closed, i used prmutations of bounce flash, direct flash with and withouth sto fen diffuser but in the end just had to retake them again and remind them not to blink.

km5d with minolta 36 d flash, with ADI setting

mike hawthorne

Hi, Mike!

Sounds like you're experiencing the dreaded "Lazy Eye" - a misnomer since it only occurs in people with fast reflexes. What's happening is your subjects are reacting to the pre-flash, and the main flash goes off while the reaction to the pre-flash is still taking place. It doesn't happen with everybody, but when it does, the only solution is to put your flash into manual output mode (which might require a lot of trial-and-error), or purchase a Metz flash which has its own sensor (and therefore doesn't require the pre-flash).

I hope this helps!

-Gary

People often associate photography with the skill of taking a photo just at the right time to capture what appears to be an arbitrary but meaningful moment in time. This is often deceptive to the common viewer because they often attribute the photographer as being lucky.
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Aiyna

http://www.casualdate.net.au

Greetings Gary
Did not know you were here
May recall you recently helped me acquire your A850 book (hope its ok to mention that here) while I was on a conference & holiday in Bangkok and Koh Samui (Thailand)
Like the A700 book, the A850 is as good if not better.
Congrats
John