donald_l_fackler_jr

Beautiful sky David. I keep trying to get some of the compostions that you get with the big sky but so far I have only gotten so so results. I too am glad that you are ok. I was starting to get worried about you and was going to send out a search and rescue!!

Don

Thanks Michael and David. I Like this model, she is easy to work with and easy to photograph. I hate trying to control the all the lights but you do get some interesting results.

Don

Thanks Michael, This portraiture stuff is new to me. I have been looking at the site to try to get some insight to portraits.

Don

I really like this last set of images you have posted. I like that they have more of a muted color range. It gives it a mystical and quie mood to them. To me they have a smooth tonal range that are quite enjoyabel to look at. I like the low perspective in thes shot as it makes me feel that I am lying on the ground watching the sun set. The image has a lonely feel to it almost like I am on top of the hill looking at the town below. Excellent shot.

Don

Wow, I din't even notice that piece of clothing. If it were a full collar it wouldn't have bothered me but being a small piece of material like that it really stands out. This week I am going to have her back in the studio for High Key work and depending on the shirt I'll watch for that. I am going to try the contra position and watch for the eye and line of clothing. I think I could also push the shoulder more to the front to let the shoulder hide the protruding piece of cloth.

Thanks again

Don

Thanks Patricia, I had a hard time trying to decide on a crop, I couldn't find anything I was comfortable with. I don't know why I didn't think about adding more black. It would have made it easier to turn this into a 11X14. I think I'll make those changes and reprint. I was curious about what others might think of the highlights on the cheek, I thought about removing them but thought I would post it for oppinions. It makes it a better Rembrant lighting without them. I also thought about taking out some of the light from the right eye and removing some of the light from the upper chest. I think the one thing that really bothers me, and it didn't until I showed it to some friends is the left ear beint framed by the hair, I don't know if that makes it look too large. I also need to change the camera angle to a higher angle to reduce some of the neck line.

Next posting will be High Key lighting, I am going to try to watch for some of the things you mentioned and the ones I mentioned. This shot has a 7:1 ratio and my High Key will have a 3:1 ratio. Thanks again for the improvements and suggestions.

Don

This photograph makes me chuckle to look at it. The pose exposure and composition are great but what I find the most interesting about it is that the black on his nose looks human. I think you have a cat with a lot of charisma.

Don

Ok, you and Carsten blow me away. It took me about 15 minutes to find the perspective distortion on this image. I kept comming back to this image because I just loved looking at it. To my eye it was perfect. I even loved the selective saturation of the flag. Impressive image with excellent tones.

Don

Thank you Pnina, this was a happy accident to me. I liked the pose but was dissapointed my exposure was so bad, I was happy that I could save it.

Don

Thanks Jay, This was a bad shot due to noice, I underexposed by 3 stops and when I tried to fix it I ended up with a lot of noise. I started playing with it and was quite surprised at how it was able to take contrast to produce something interesting. I was afraid to put it through the que but am having second thoughts about it. The more I look at it the more I like it.

Don

Hi Michael, Thanks for stopping by. The shoulder position is called Contra it is supposed to be lined up so you can anything from the shoulder at 80 degrees to the whole line across the back. It is really uncomfortable for the person holding the pose. The lighting lit from the short side, the side that is the farhtest from the camera. There is an accent light giving deffinition the the face across the left cheek and a hair light that is a little hot. I could easily fix it but I kind of liked the contrast that it gave. The lighting set up is supposed to give a 3 dimensional look but because the hair light is so far forward it isn't fully achieved. I have 2 really big problems with the shot though. I gave her a floating eye, I should have had her head turned toward me enough that the eye would have been solidly on her face and I almost put her nose out in mid air, I didn't want it to brake the line of her cheek. I am happy with this shot even with the flaws.

I thought I would hate portraits but I am finding I am having a lot of fun. As a caveat ask me again in 8 weeks if I am still having fun. LOL

Thanks for stopping by it is always fun discussing photograpy with you.

Don

This was a fun folder to look at. I think this is my favorite shot, such a serious expression for one so young. I looks like he is about to pop you one. I have to smile when I look at it.

I like the way you have this composed with the mouth just in the frame and pouting.

Don

To crop or not to crop, that seems to be the eternal question. The only crop I could suggest is to crop out the screw on the bottome of the plate, but that could be just as easily taken care of by a clone or healing brush.

As far as the image is concerend, I like it as it is. I find it interesting that such a plain subject can be interesting. To me the whole image looks soft but that might be the way it was intended. It does add an abstract feel to it. I like the way that you lit this electrical box it has a dramatic affect. I was going to suggest reducing the highlights to pull out some detail but then I thought the detail is probably there but you loose some of it due to JPG comperssion. Interesting image and after looking at it for awhile the only thing I could suggest is the screw at the bottom. Either have it all or get rid of it.

Don

Thanks Patricia, I see what you mean about the shadow on the eye. As far as the chest, I was trying to bring attention to the line of the neck I probably should have used a snoot to direct the light more, it would have saved the chin. I looked at the original and I had lots of detail there, it was my conversion. I have been playing with the techinque that you told me about and it is really interesting. I have a long way to go with it but for everyones amusement I am posting where I am at right now. The neck, chest, nose lighting was from a kicker to add seperation from the background. 6 lights are really hard to control. L

This is only a rough draft of a new technique.

Thanks for leading me to the interesting information.

Don

Second time in Portrait room first time using 6 lights for project.

Thank you for looking.

Don

Hi Pnina and thanks for the visit. These shots were from the days I was experimenting in the darkroom. It was a fun time. I think the only reason I posted this was because I liked the way the cattails were growing. To me the turtles are more of a "Where's Waldo" type image. I wasted about 10 sheets of paper trying to burn the turtles and dodge the weeds. I scanned this from a full size print and need to search through my inventory of negatives to try to scan them in and see if my PS skills are up to the task of what I couldn't do in the darkroom.

Thanks again for stopping by. I think this folder is interesting but I can't bring myself to post any of them for critique because to me most are just average at best and I don't know if I will go back to the darkroom to experiment further.

Don

It is kind of interesting how you lead the viewer from the bottom of the frame to the top of the frame in a Zig Zag path using focus. It makes for an interesting composition.

Don

Hi Deanna, this shot was at the arts festival in Columbus. Had a blast. I also went to the Asian Festival but haven't processed them yet.

catch you later.

Don

Excellent composition, I like how you have devided the picture with the seaweed. You have some good colors here but I think you need to bumb the contrast to really bring out to colors in the sand and shell of the crab combo, as well as the reds from the seaweed and red on the crabs shell.

Don

Beautiful image and nice lighting, it has a dramatic affect. My only suggestion is to use a larger apeture to get more DOF, I think the shot would have been better if you had everything from the foreground to flower in focus.

Don

That would deffinetly keep you far enough away but I think the biggest problem was the fact that you caught him in motion. Thats why I still think this is a great shot, these little guys are pretty fast.

About the only way I think to compensate would be to use a higher shutter speed but then your apeture goes down.

Don

LOL

I flip flop flip between a D70, N60 and now N80, I like them all! If I had the money I would go with a D2X but right now that is way out of my budget. Although I keep looking at the 20D, I don't have that many lenses so it would be a big stretch but it is pretty pricey too!

Hi Ben and thanks for stopping by. Yes it is a scan from a negative and I don't have that part of the process down very well yet. Some days I scan negatives and it is perfect other days they look like crap and some days they are passible.

I used 400 Tri X and I ended up with a lot of grain, it could be the way I processed the film that made it so grainy. I think I just read that if I under expose that I would get better scans. That you don't want to expose the same for darkroom vs scanning. I haven't had time to shoot any test rolls yet but it could be a valid point. Any tips?

Thanks

Don