A Living Doll

This is a candid photo taken during this little girl's fifth birthday

party.

Great humorous shot!

Thanks for the news behind the views, Brooks. You mentioned a sucrose high, but in this I sense a dash of caffeine. Very well mimicked by your living doll, perhaps she could have tilted her head too...again congrats on the detail; yes it's a great camera but you're scanning from prints and that ought to soften things and strip away contrast - not evident here.

 

I'd think about setting this up with a more neutral bg (lighter than Living's hair) for an alternative - you're onto something. Brings a smile and that's always welcome. My regards.

Seven, I agree with you about the background. If this had been a posed shot, I would have tried for a more neutral background. However, as I noted, this was a candid shot. As I remember, the young lady did not want to hold still, much less have her picture taken. She plopped herself in the chair with her doll (one of her birthday presents) and made this face. I just had time to turn the focus ring on the lens, think "great expression", and hit the shutter release before she was gone. That is one of the reasons I was shooting at f/11; I needed the extra DOF to make up for my subject moving. Trying to photograph an active child with a manual focus medium format camera is "challenging".

 

I could probably take the background out in PhotoShop, but I prefer to leave my prints as I make them in the darkroom. This is not a deep philosophical principle, just my personal preference.

 

The scanner I use is an Epson 1650 Photo. It seems to do a good job on my black and white prints. I have had it for only a few months, and have a lot to learn about scanning (and digital manipulation). I print on a pearl finish paper, which may help.

 

This print is a highly cropped version of the negative.

 

Once again, thank you for taking the time to rate and comment upon my photo.

Wonderful expression. She looks as if she was startled by the camera.

This would be a good one to try again, posed. Her expression is very doll-like.

It's hard to me to say anything new about this wonderful shot. Only, perhaps, the same comment about composition that I've made on my comment to the other pic of the same series.

Where, I think, I may contribute to your photographic needs is about acanning. I have the same scanner than you have and I am scanning both strips of colour negatives and slides. My advice to you is to invest a little money (30$) and buy one of the best scanning software there is (VueScan: http://www.hamrick.com/vsm.html) and then download, print and study the user's guid( http://www.hamrick.com/vuescan/html/vuesc.htm). I can assure that once mastered the basic techniques of cropping and adjusting colour you'll be able to do surprisingly good batch scans of both slides and negatives. If you are interested mail me and I'll send you some more detailed reccomendations (Do you use PhotoShop?)

It is amazing to me how this little girls eyes are almost doll like. Again wonderful

Brooks, as already have been sad - this is a great shot. I didnt have the time yesterday to take a closer look, but now I also see that it whas a one time opportunity. The pic is good anyway - arranged or not, but of course it is even more fun when you can achive something like this in just a quick moment!

 

regards

Peter

 

I think this is a fun shot. I also think that may be you could have cropped the shot a litttle at the bottom of the of the photo. Which is some thing you could do with photoshop or in the darkroom. If u are like me the darkroom is easier then photoshop. Good shoot.

 

 

Trying to photograph an active child with a manual focus medium format camera is "challenging".

 

I would say - Trying to photograph an active child is challenging..PERIOD :).

 

I know how difficult it can be & sometimes you're happy to take whatever you can get. This was a pretty good get, imo. I feel the crop is a bit abrupt, but given your explanation about the background I don't suppose there's much to be done about it. Nice tonal range.

Brooks, this is a good shot with a proper title.

I think, but I´m not sure that less depth of field is the only thing missing in this image.

Natural expretions. Grat portrait.

There's a quality that I cannot put my finger on here. It may be the elusive "moment" that I strive for in my shots. Thanks, I love this shot.

Wow! What a big stunting eyes, she have!

Great moment captured!

Every parent's wish - to have an assortment of photos of their children. They grow up so quickly! This is a treasure - it doesn't have to comply to a bunch of rules. and it doesn't matter WHY the girl is mimicking the doll's expression - it's fun and will be a family jewel forever.

This is my favorite in your current portfolio. Pretty girl, great expression--I like the humor. Overall nice black and white tones.

Brooks I love this one! Great catch.

Amazing eyes on both dolls !  B&W helps make it a classic.