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hapster, regarding tips about the composite portrait ...

On May 10th, 2008 b shaw says:

It was impromptu, so the set up was very simple
- window lighting, (from side/front) - indirect sun
- just a wall behind the kids
- less than 10 feet from the kids - (the littlest one, a toddler, quickly narrowed that gap, because she wanted to make a clear and resolute statement about the art of portrait photography. Her statement was this: No lens is complete until it has at least one of her fingerprints. She was very generous with the fingerprints.)

There were other resolute statements made by some of the other kids that weekend. For example, way before sunrise, the five year-old, (who gets up way too early) walked into the guest bedroom where my wife and I were asleep. Somehow, the five year old stealthily maneuvered so that she was behind the bed and was looking down at us. Then she put her remarkably cold hands on both of our foreheads and immediately screamed to her father, in a different room, also not fully awake - "Daddy, they're awake!!" At that very moment, she was correct. We were awake, then. But I digress...

Used an old Sigma 28-135 on the A700 @ 105mm - If you can get an 85 or higher prime - use that.
As you might expect, once I showed the kids some of the first images - it invoked the ancient secret of getting kids to cooperate with a grownup - sibling rivalry. After that, everyone wanted to get in front of the camera.

Set Drive for Hi speed / continuous advance - Why did I do this? You would not believe how quickly the kids move and how quickly their expressions change. For each kid, I might have had about 40 - 50 shots ~ and it took less than two minutes for each kid. One of my favorite shots (not shown) is where one of the kids became distracted by something and is partially out of the frame. One of my other favorites is when the toddler is approaching the camera to graciously adorn the lens with her fingerprint.

Regarding the composite that I posted on the web, I just used the contact sheet maker that's part of the FastStone viewer. However, when I complete this, I'll use Photoshop's Contact Sheet II macro to get the larger print size.

__________________

b shaw

http://bshaws.blogspot.com/


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