Amelia and Natasha, Holiday Photos

[Scatterbrained]

Living in Yucca Valley, there isn't a whole lot around, so before my wife headed down to civilization proper for her Black Friday shopping, she hit up the few stores we have here first. One of which is Home Depot. She came home with 10 50ft rolls of LED Christmas lights. She wanted holiday photos of the girls with the lights hanging in the background. Yep. A couple of photos of the girls with over 1,000 lights in the background. To be fair, they are LEDs, and as such they aren't constant. We never had a shot where all the lights were on at once.

Natasha: 3/4 Holiday Portrait
by tltichy, on Flickr​

Amelia: Holiday Portrait in Blue
by tltichy, on Flickr​

For those who are interested, the set up:

​

 

[tirediron]

Neat idea, but the overall feel is just a little dark for my taste. I think a larger modifier & hairlight would have been more appropriate.

 

[The_Traveler]

And a bit cold.

 

[Derrel]

I did a couple of test shoots kind of like this back in 2007 I guess it was, with only 7 strands of small mini-lights in multi colors. I liked it best with a 200mm focal length at f/2.8, for the largest-possible OOF bokeh balls in the background, but I think this has its own appeal, I really do. I like the second shot, with the lower camera angle on Amelia. I think her shoulders and arms positioned like that is just so cute, and the big hair bow and the missing tooth is just so true to that baby teeth/permanent teeth transition period. I think Natasha's gleeful expression in shot #1 is pretty darned good. The identical outfits really helps tie these two single shots together.

I think for the key these are in, the smaller dish + sock diffuser works pretty well...these have a sort of night time at Christmas season sort of vibe going on, so I think the smaller light and the deeper, crisper shadows on them makes total sense. The longer focal length used in the Amelia shot helps intensify the bokeh dot feeling by making the dots larger than in the Natasha shot.

 

[Designer]

Speaking of identical outfits; did you take a shot of the two of them together?

 

[Bod]

id say a bit cold and the intense bokeh with so many lights was a little distracting imo

 

[cauzimme]

I like the second one,
Yes it's cold, Yes it's dark, it doesn't feel holiday at all, but I like it.

 

[Scatterbrained]

Neat idea, but the overall feel is just a little dark for my taste. I think a larger modifier & hairlight would have been more appropriate.

Thanks. I'd imagine it's a preference issue. I've done shots with "key/fill/hair/background" lights, but I feel that one light on the face is just much more intimate.

And a bit cold.

Cold? Well, the color palette here is silver and blue. As far as my girls, their skin is actually warmed up a bit. They are a bit "fair" skinned.

I did a couple of test shoots kind of like this back in 2007 I guess it was, with only 7 strands of small mini-lights in multi colors. I liked it best with a 200mm focal length at f/2.8, for the largest-possible OOF bokeh balls in the background, but I think this has its own appeal, I really do. I like the second shot, with the lower camera angle on Amelia. I think her shoulders and arms positioned like that is just so cute, and the big hair bow and the missing tooth is just so true to that baby teeth/permanent teeth transition period. I think Natasha's gleeful expression in shot #1 is pretty darned good. The identical outfits really helps tie these two single shots together.

I think for the key these are in, the smaller dish + sock diffuser works pretty well...these have a sort of night time at Christmas season sort of vibe going on, so I think the smaller light and the deeper, crisper shadows on them makes total sense. The longer focal length used in the Amelia shot helps intensify the bokeh dot feeling by making the dots larger than in the Natasha shot.

Thanks. I'm glad someone here gets it. The 50mm 3/4 shots were actually taken right after a series of images with them together where a longer focal length wouldn't really work in this space. I'm limited to about a 12x14 space here so it's a wee bit tight. I miss my old loft in Va.

Speaking of identical outfits; did you take a shot of the two of them together?

Yeah, I've got a few different poses of them together, but I haven't loaded them up online. Those shots are mainly just for family.

id say a bit cold and the intense bokeh with so many lights was a little distracting imo

Well, it is Hanukkah, the "Festival of Lights".

I like the second one,
Yes it's cold, Yes it's dark, it doesn't feel holiday at all, but I like it.

Thanks. We'll be doing Christmas themed shots later on this week. They'll be a bit "brighter" and "warmer" than these.

 

[paigew]

I like them! Looks like they are at a Christmas party [emoji3] the first is absolutely adorbs with your daughters expression.

 

[MRnats]

I like the look and lighting of these a lot. The watermark in the first one keeps tricking me into thinking it's a reflection of the lights on the floor.