Thread: First try at doing portraits

Very nice GJ.
when you get enough brownie points you can build yourself a little studio shed in the yard.

There's alway something else thats needed.

Interesting post GJ. Like the result.
I went to a digital photography course with my grandaughter last year and one of the sessions was setting up your own portable studio. The guy that ran the course set up a portable studio and I was suprised at how simple and low cost the materials were. There was the usual matt white cardboard pieces and also he had a simple black velvet backdrop. He had some $5 umbrellas as reflectors and for lighting he had a series of the work lights you can get at Super Cheap Auto for not much cost. The lights come on a portable adjustable stand.
I wish I had taken some picturesof the simple gear!
These are some of the pictures I took on the night.

Great set Ruddy, love the second one a real "out of the frame photo "

Jeez! Nearly need macro for those puppies. I reacon a plain dog bed. and a coloured back drop. Not black though. Unless the dog is white. Maybe the bed on a bit of an angle.

Originally Posted by Ruddy

Interesting post GJ. Like the result.
I went to a digital photography course with my grandaughter last year and one of the sessions was setting up your own portable studio. The guy that ran the course set up a portable studio and I was suprised at how simple and low cost the materials were. There was the usual matt white cardboard pieces and also he had a simple black velvet backdrop. He had some $5 umbrellas as reflectors and for lighting he had a series of the work lights you can get at Super Cheap Auto for not much cost. The lights come on a portable adjustable stand.
I wish I had taken some picturesof the simple gear!
These are some of the pictures I took on the night.

Hi Ruddy, I liked the second shot also, but I think you got the lighting better in the third shot. I'm gonna get me some of that black velvet (material I mean), it sure sucks up the light and makes your subject really stand out. I rekon you could even a photograph black dog using if you were clever with your backlighting. Must try it. I bought some of those work lights from Bunnies and was not impressed with the results, damn hot to work under also.

Originally Posted by tea lady

Jeez! Nearly need macro for those puppies. I reacon a plain dog bed. and a coloured back drop. Not black though. Unless the dog is white. Maybe the bed on a bit of an angle.

Cripes TL the pups were only 4 days old when I took those photos, how big did you want them to be .

I went over to Action Aluminium (no connection, blah, blah) after work today and picked up some ally tubing and connectors and made a frame to hang backdrops off. It's 2 metres high and 1.8 metres wide.

Sorry about the poor quality of the photos, but I wanted some quick shots and used the on camera flash. Ironic that I spend a small fortune on lighting and use the on camera flash .

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That looks like a lot of fun with the lighting gear GJ!

Even with very good lighting black dogs can be very difficult to photograph as black (or lack of colour) is very good at fooling a digital camera and it shows the lack of dynamic range that many digis suffer from.

One solution I found was to photograph them in bright sunlight. Then you also sometimes see their true colour - we found out our has red streaks behind her ears. I realise this is difficult for new pups but it's something that can be done in the future.

Originally Posted by grumpy john

sorry about the poor quality of the photos, but i wanted some quick shots and used the on camera flash. Ironic that i spend a small fortune on lighting and use the on camera flash .

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Originally Posted by BobL

That looks like a lot of fun with the lighting gear GJ!

Even with very good lighting black dogs can be very difficult to photograph as black (or lack of colour) is very good at fooling a digital camera and it shows the lack of dynamic range that many digis suffer from.

One solution I found was to photograph them in bright sunlight. Then you also sometimes see their true colour - we found out our has red streaks behind her ears. I realise this is difficult for new pups but it's something that can be done in the future.

The photo of our toy poodle in the first post is the first time I've managed to get the detail in his face. Usually he's just a black blob with no eyes and no nose.

Originally Posted by Grumpy John

The photo of our toy poodle in the first post is the first time I've managed to get the detail in his face. Usually he's just a black blob with no eyes and no nose.

That's how my sister's poodle puppies came out in photos. That one of Boof does look good.

(You sure that back drop is big enough for those puppies? )

Photographer friend of mine used special graded photo back drops. He does mainly portraits now cos he's "retired" so only does the stuff he wants to do. This is one on his portraites that caught my eye on his web site. He always manages to find a different way of looking at something. When his pics of my work would come back he had always found some detail that I didn't know was there. http://tbogue.com/

I had another go with the lights tonight. Using only one light, some black cloth and black corflute I took a couple of hundred shots of some garden ornaments.

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Like this last lot of Pics GJ!! All of ém are good for different reasons.