Two halves make me whole - C+C

[jfrabat]

OK, I know I had already posted my daughter's picture here, but I FINALLY managed to capture my son, and make this a complete project. My intention was to capture a different type of portrait to hang as a series in a way that one would complement the other. Taking ideas from different photographers, I finally came up with this:



My daughters's pictures's details:

Camera: Sony SLT-A77V
Lens: SAL70300G
Focal Distance: 230mm
Speed: 1/200 sec
Aperture: f/9.5
ISO 100
Natural light on her left with an offf camera flash with stofen difuser shooting at the ceiling on her right

My son's picture's details:

Camera: Sony SLT-A77V
Lens: SAL70300G
Focal Distance: 230mm
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec.
ISO 100
Off camera flash with stofen difuser shooting at the ceiling

Both were converted to B+W using Nik's Silver Effects Pro 2.

I like the series, and will have them printed, but I would like to know your comments in order to improve my photography skills for the future (I doubt I will modify these, as I already sent them to the printer, but still, comments are more than welcome to polish my techniques and increase my knowledge base!).

Felipe

PS: Not sure why my son's photo got duplicated... I tried to delete one of them, but could not. Sorry about that!

 

[tirediron]

Very cool idea; I like this a lot (and can see it being a big seller with parents - idea shamelessly "borrowed"), BUT... a couple of thoughts for potential improvement: Use identical settings, especially aperture so that the DoF is the same, and adjust the exposure value so that it's the same for both. Right now the son's portrait is slightly less contrasty and a hair darker, and perhaps include more head & hair.

 

[Mully]

I agree ...the halves should match in tone but the concept is good

 

[tirediron]

One other thought: Position your lights so that they mirror each other, that is, have the key at 10.00 in the left eye and 2.00 in the right.

 

[Derrel]

One other thought: Position your lights so that they mirror each other, that is, have the key at 10.00 in the left eye and 2.00 in the right.

Why??? I do not understand the rationale behind that. Wouldn't that defeat the purpose, and make the two images look dissimilar?????

 

[jfrabat]

Yeah, I kind of noticed the different settings later on, but since the pics were taken in different settings (one with daylight coming in through the window, and the other at night), and so far apart one from the other (it was about a month), I kind of forgot what settings I had used. I also kind of changed the settings on purpose (as far as lighting and window) because my son's colors are different from my daughters; for example, the dark hair on my daughter makes a nice background, but my son on the same background did not pop, so I used the black background instead. I also forgot which settings I used on Silver Effects Pro 2 for the original, so I was trying to match my son's shot as much as possible to my daughters, but it was not so easy... But you guys make valid points, so thank you for your comments, and glad you liked the concept!

Anyway, as I mentioned, I will see how it looks printed out; at the begining, i thought about a single frame, but after discussing it with the Missys, I think we will go for 2 separate (but identical) frames and hang them side by side.

 

[tirediron]

One other thought: Position your lights so that they mirror each other, that is, have the key at 10.00 in the left eye and 2.00 in the right.

Why??? I do not understand the rationale behind that. Wouldn't that defeat the purpose, and make the two images look dissimilar?????

Can't really quantify it, other that to me the lights are a minor niggle that don't quite work. All I can tell you is that in my (somewhat warped) mind, that's the way it seems it should be...