Portrait of my nephew Dylan

dleblanc · Mar 12, 2008

Portrait of my nephew Dylan taken this morning with my new camera.

View on Flickr.

Nikon D40, 18-55mm kit lens, ISO 800, f/4.8 at 1/40th of a second.

C&C?

Ajay · Mar 12, 2008

I think the light you got on this shot is great! What a cutie! Too bad about the chair in the background and I wish there was just a tad more space at the bottom so that his arm wasn't so close to the edge. Great job, though. Keep that new camera clicking!

dleblanc · Mar 12, 2008

Yeah. It'd be a little hard to start moving furniture around. My piano is located right in front of the window.
Between this forum and the Strobist, all I've been thinking is light, light, light.

It's an overcast day, so the light coming in the window is nice and soft. I wish I had a lens with a little less DOF. I'm thinking about the 50mm 1.8... I just don't know if I'd be able to focus manually quick enough to get all those shots. Think it is worth it?

The_Traveler · Mar 12, 2008

picture looks great.
too much room at the top

dleblanc · Mar 12, 2008

The_Traveler said:
picture looks great.
too much room at the top

I agree. I wanted to keep the 4x6 dimensions, but that's a bad reason, I think. Too much white space at the top. Thanks!

Ajay · Mar 12, 2008

The 50mm is definitely worth it! I have been using that lens almost exclusively since I got it. You have to manual focus because of the D40, right? That's too bad, but with practice I bet it wouldn't be an issue after awhile.

The_Traveler · Mar 12, 2008

dleblanc said:
I agree. I wanted to keep the 4x6 dimensions, but that's a bad reason, I think. Too much white space at the top. Thanks!

To my eyes, 4 x 6 virtually always looks awkward in portrait format. The rest of the world will scream that it is close to metric and golden rectangle, etc. but it looks bad to me.

Not to mention that framing 4 x 6 format as 8 x 12 gets very expensive compared to standard 8 x 10 frames.

Lew

dleblanc · Mar 12, 2008

I'd love to manual focus. I would just hate to miss shots like that because he's constantly running around. I'll have to work on it... if and when I get the lens.

Here it is cropped: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dleblanc/2329666284/

The_Traveler · Mar 12, 2008

I think, a little USM of the original at 30-50 radius, amount to taste will really make this lovely picture brilliant.

dleblanc · Mar 12, 2008

The_Traveler said:
I think, a little USM of the original at 30-50 radius, amount to taste will really make this lovely picture brilliant.

I actually tried before I uploaded it and I couldn't figure out how to make it look good. For some reason one eye changed color/got sharper... but the other eye didn't change. It looked weird. Am I doing something wrong? I'm not really sure how an unsharp mask really works... between the threshold, radius, and amount.

I normally play around until I like how it looks. No luck this time though.

dleblanc · Mar 12, 2008

I turned the radius down and I had a little more luck... I'll post something if I like it more than the original.

dleblanc · Mar 12, 2008

Hmmmm... It seems to be doing weird things to the edges. And any less it's not really noticeable. What to do?

dleblanc · Mar 12, 2008

Better or worse?

http://flickr.com/photos/dleblanc/2329723718/

dleblanc · Mar 18, 2008

Alright. Sorry for so many posts in a row, but I've done a lot of edits to this picture and I finished it a couple days ago. I took the advice of making it 8x10 and even had prints made. They came out awesome. I've decreased the DOF in Photoshop and done a few minor adjustments and have come up with a finished product. Check it out...