The Maze

Any feedback welcome and appreciated..I would love to learn as much as I

can about doing more portrait and street photos :)

This image was shot without using a tripod, no flash.. Had I had a choice, I

would have taken my photos an hour later than I did.. I would have had

softer lighting..

Lisa

Chris, Charlie and I walked around the museum district..I had a lot of fun..Chris, who is my oldest son, was a willing model for me so that I could practice and teach myself how to take portrait shots :) Out of my whole string of photos taken today, this was the one that came out.. The rest of the images were unfocused..I didn't use a tripod in getting these shots.. I have a whole LOT to learn, lol :)

Lisa, enjoyed your gallery because we shoot or have shot much of the same territory. You do some of it better than I do. I heartily agree with the first post on your gallery, you do have an eye for images—I would not be surprised to know you have other art training in your background. You are definitely an early riser. LOL

However, your comments suggest you do need to work on photographic technique. This is an exceptionally interesting photograph because of the concept—using the reflection of Chris within the sculpture. There are basically two problems, the lighting and the overall sharpness.

About the only solution to the lighting in this case would be to relocate Chris or to use flash to fill in the shadows. Overall it is not that bad until you get to the face with is totally in shadow, which is pretty much a Capt Kangaroo No No for a portrait. LOL

You mention that all of the photographs that you took were out of focus, or unfocused. It is hard to say where the focus problem lies but there are generally two areas that contribute to unsharp photographs—missed focus and camera movement. By examining the full size photographs carefully you might be able to determine whether the problem is one or the other or possibly a combination of the two. Generally to distinguish between the two, missed focus will have some area within the photograph that is crisp, sharp even though the main subject matter might be out of focus. Camera movement will generally mean that everything in the photograph will exhibit the same degree of unsharpness. Sometimes it can be a combination of the two and the degree of unsharpness will vary but nothing will be crisply sharp which seems to be the situation here.

One thing, from your EXIF it appears that this was shot with an 85mm lens at 1/100^th of a second. There is a rule of thumb that says that the average person can handhold a camera when they do not go below the reciprocal of the focal length with the shutter speed. In other words the very longest shutter speed that most people can get photos that do not exhibit camera movement with this 85mm lens would be at 1/85^th of a second. Being a rule of thumb, some people have excellent camera holding technique and can go slower however, there are some that cannot get sharpness at the reciprocal and need a shorter shutter speed. 1/100^th with this lens is right on the line so it suggests that possibly you might need to work on your camera holding technique. I do not know what ISO you were using but when you run into this situation I would think that with your Canon camera you could still get acceptable photographs up to 800 ISO. If this photograph was taken at 100 ISO at 1/100^th changing to 800 ISO the shutter speed would have been 1/800^th and prevented any camera shake problem. It is hard to tell from the downsized image but there does appear to be areas on the sculpture which appear sharper which might indicate a missed focus rather than camera movement or a combination of both. Anyway, examine your other photographs to see if you can identify for sure the area that needs work.

Gary,

Thank you for your feedback!

I am glad that your response led me to your portfolio..I enjoyed looking at it ! I also got some inspiration for new places around here to get some shots ! :)

I wished that I had had my 50 mm 1.4 lens on my camera instead of this one. I hadn't planned on doing these portrait shots of Chris, but we were talking about cameras and the mood suddenly hit me. Chris was in the mood to be my model..

It is fun  for me to learn by trial and error, reading, and feedback from kind people ( like you guys on photo.net) that are willing to teach :)

Take care,

Lisa

Hi Lisa,

Outdoor mirror shots are not always easy. Shooting angle, camera settings, where you meter the image, all suggest that you should use your camera in manual mode. Set everything, including focus yourself.

If a flash is employed, it would be for fill purposes only , and the perspective would need to have the flash either using the mirror for effect or directly on the subject (person) 

You did well with the capture, and a different presentation helps with the results.

Best Regards,  Mike