Tag Archives: wide open aperture

Communion Portrait

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COMMUNION PORTRAIT

I love window light. In the Italian restaurant where we celebrated this boy’s first holy communion, a bank of windows with translucent shades was near the kids table. I asked him to take a minute and stand near the windows, using the wall treatments as a colorful and classic background that leads your eyes right to the subject’s face. I set the camera to aperture priority and dialed in the widest aperture opening I could (F/4.2). The ISO was set at 400. And since the light was low, I turned on the anti-stabilizer on the lens and was able to get a sharp image at 1/30th of a second (gotta love that VC!). The natural light really lets you see the details in his dapper suit and his beautiful rose corsage. And his dark eyes sparkle from the window light. It took more than a few shots to get a natural smile, and I did it by asking him to close his eyes real tight and then open them. He giggled after making a goofy face and I was able to catch a pretty natural smile.

Eggs-tra Fun Weekend for Photos

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Like millions across the country, we dyed eggs this past weekend. And took pictures of the whole process. I have about 5 years worth of egg-dying photos now. (I see a big scrapbook collage with lots of 2×2 photos in my future). And each year I try to capture the one with the egg in focus and her face in the background smiling as she shows off her masterpieces one by one. Well, I got the egg in focus, and she’s nicely out of focus in the background. But no smile this year! I set my camera to “A” (aperture priority) and dialed in the widest aperture opening I could (f/5.7 at 97mm) so that the in front of and behind my subject (the egg) would be out of focus. I had my ISO turned all the way up to 3200 so that I would not have to use a flash. I like the result. And the egg went on to be further decorated and then promptly turned into a deviled egg!

Gotta Love A Big Window

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Love this photo of my niece. She’s so sweet and I just want to kiss that face. Seated in a restaurant on an overcast day, soft light poured in the large window to the right. As she conversed with her mom and dad, I shot at a wide F/3.5 aperture setting with the vibration compensation turned on to accommodate the slow 1/25th sec shutter speed. Only when her face was turned slightly towards the window did I get that twinkle in her eyes. Tip: Look for north facing window and position your subject’s cheek toward the window. You’ll get nice side lighting that gives dimension to the face and highlights in the eyes.