Photographing Anna

My friend Anna stopped by my workplace freshly coiffed on Wednesday.  As I’m wont to do on both special and not-so-special occasions, I brought out my camera to commemorate the event.

I really like this photo.  More importantly, Anna likes it.  There are a couple of things I wish I’d done differently, but overall, it’s a very nice photograph.

The photo was taken using my 50mm lens opened up to f/2.0, at 1/50th of a second, with my white balance set to around 3200 degrees.  The light was provided by incandescent lamps, so it was necessary to really open up the aperture in order to draw in the most light – especially since I was hand holding the camera.  The more light you let in, the faster your shutter speed – and vice versa.

A wide open aperture also renders a nice shallow depth of field.  This allowed me to get her face – and most importantly, her eyes – in focus, while blurring out the items behind her.  This let me minimize distractions, helping the viewer to see Anna and not try to figure out what that is behind her.

Between the ceiling lights and one lamp to the right of the photo, plus the lamp behind her, Anna was lit pretty well.  The lamp behind her worked as a good key light to bring out the texture of her hair.  By standing and having Anna look up toward me, I accentuated her jaw line.  Most importantly, although this is nothing that I did specifically, Anna was feeling relaxed and serene.

If I had the photo to do over again, I would have brought out my external flash to provide just a touch of fill light.  That would have helped wash out the shadow her glasses cast on her right cheek. 

The most important element in this photograph, it should be said, was the model.  She was feeling relaxed and knew her her hairdo was spectacular.  If your model is comfortable, you’re guaranteed to get better photos.