Christian In Natural Light

[mrca]

@mrca seems we think alike. The 7' brolly was on the left, 42" gridded octabox on right feathered, a large white reflector right, and on floor front.

Working with different skin tones is relatively new for me, as we became instant grandparents when our son & DIL adopted the sibling group they had been fostering. Whether true or not all my research on photography of African Americans indicates they tend to be picky about their unique coloring, preferring true to life. Vogue got slammed not long ago for Annie Leibovitz's cover shot of Simone Biles. The skin tones were not true to life.

Smoke, I noticed your work was excellent long ago. Yes, you are nailing it, beauty is in the eye of the checkbook holder...or here the subject. You did exactly what you should be doing, pleasing the subject/family. As they said in Pirates of the Caribbean re the rules of parlay, they really aren't rules, they're just guidelines. You explaining what you did makes the image even better for the casual viewer. I had this argument with Joe McNally who shoots magazine covers for the masses, you and I are shooting for a specific person or family and other folks can miss the reason for the shot or how it was taken. I have a shot of a mother with a new born, she looks haggard, bags under her eyes and the baby is sleeping totally peacefully. But she and her mother know she had had post partum depression, and didn't hold the baby for 7 days and did so only when the photographer told her to get new born photos before it was too late. The baby got held because of the photographer. Imagine how unhappy that now peaceful baby was for seven days looking for it's mother. Not knowing this, folks would say its a terrible photo of her. Those of it who know what it means, remember this chapter in her and the babies life. This is the power of photography.

 

[smoke665]

@mrca thank you for the kind words, but you do realize even a blind pig finds an acorn in the woods every now and then.

 

[Tinstafl]

I like the second one best with his smile and the extra light in his eyes. Grands are great to shoot till they hit teenage years then they don’t want to pose as often.