NOT candid, and even when he was cooperating I was struggling to get him into a pose that worked... and then realized there were serious issues with my pov and had to redo at which point he was srsly pi$$ed off...
I think I must live my life in tilt-mode because no matter how certain I am that i'm dead front 'n centre and have the camera lined up straight with a horizon point, my shots are coming out off-kilter... and it's not the camera, because if i put it down on a chair, the photos come out better...
Anyhoo - suggestions always welcome... would like to get better at posing people and could also use some help with figuring out height / distance to shoot from...
@jase_h 'fraid i'm kinda channeling your skateboard 'n texture thing... just felt a need to revisit the basement crawl space as a shoot locale and nothing else seemed to fit...
Oh you've caught that mood! I find that sometimes too.. I think if you're right/left handed you gravitate naturally towards that. Sometimes I take a shot and then look and go WTF!? It's going uphill? I think this pose works really well for this scene and really catches that mood. Your BW processing is awesome, as always!
Great contrast B&W! I love the pose and think your angle fits the mood!! When I am shooting kids/pets (which my daughter tells me sounds horrific, lol), I try to take the shot moving around them at different POV's. Since what I see in camera isn't always what I see when I download, I am able to get an idea of the POV I gravitate to for future shoots. I use this method a lot in trying to capture the light the way I envision as well. Hopefully this is making sense! I hope you won't have to bribe much for another photo shoot given the outcome of his mood :)
I dig the shot, the concrete textures really work with his expression and board. As far as some of your questions go, I am sure that others have way better information, but I think you can convey a lot with the PoV when photographing people, for example, a PoV looking up at a person can enhance a larger than life persona or hero, while a PoV looking down can suggest someone who has a lower cultural standing. This obviously isn't always the case and their are many other ways to interpret this, but you can use these dominate or submissive psychological ideas to enhance what you are tying to say in a photograph when it comes to photographing people. At least that is my opinion
Great processing! yep, I sometimes take a few shots just do get it aligned right, then I download it and it's still not right :) the line on the wall is straight that runs through him... I like his attitude, it's real
Love the texture of the wall behind him.
I don't some much have a horizon-problem (well I do but...) but I often think I'm parallel with a subject when I'm not. I only really discovered this playing with the distortion correction in PSE/LR.
Love the processing, spot on with that. I'm more interested in trying to work what wheels they are, seismic's??? hard to tell. Anyway, moving on, why not the 50mm? My main issue is, it's all to centred for me, maybe have him on the right, with some of the board out of the frame. Or maybe not even sitting on the board at all, have that sort of coming in from the bottom left hand corner at an angle, with the the nose of the board and front truck showing? So the skate influence is still there, but not so obvious. Or perhaps the board standing up against the wall so he is sitting back against it. Loads to try really, depending on how willing the young chap is. And Jake makes some good points about the POV thing.
@jase_h i knew someone was going to ask about the 50mm... the difficulty is that this crawl space isn't big enough for me to get far back enough to make it work... as for the centering thing... that i totally get and tried to sort out with a crop, but it didn't work, and asking him for another redo tonight was not worth the ag-factor... also, i'm not sure how well it would come out because again, the available working space down there is miniscule... however, i like some of those other ideas and will see about giving them a go... need to find a form of currency my boys will accept that i'm willing to pay ;p
@jase_h i can't find a "make" on the wheel that's legible... the shape of the wheels looks like the seismic ones (i googled) more or less, and there's a stylized S, but the logo and font and stuff look nothing like what's on seismic's website... my husband says they had to be special-ordered, so whatever they are, somebody somewhere must have thought they were da bomb... if tomorrow ends up sucking from a street photo perspective i will do a skateboard still-life ;p
Love the "tude" in the shot :) hehe nowwww you know why lots of my shots are of animals....cause even though they move around too much, they tend not to say things like "You can stop taking picture of me anytime now" or "are you almost finishing sticking that thing in my face?" (quoting my hubby :)) I think you've done a wonderful job here :) Love the B&W and shadows.
I think when photographing kids a person often has to be willing to let go of "the plan" and just go with what they present. You've done that brilliantly here.
I can't help with posing people cos I suck at it, but just wanted to say I love that expression. Whatever the reason for the look (!), he comes out looking seriously streetwise and cool! Does he like it?
I really like this, so contrasty and gritty. He is dead centre of the photo, which is fine in this case, nothing wrong with that, but there are some things you can try for future shots....for instance this shot you could have tried to get right up against the wall yourself and have him look over at you. Try different heights or even placing your subject partially out of the frame and have some negative space on one side or the other. Lots to try and play around with...if you can get your subject to co-operate lol... Great shot here though Northy.
I thought it was a great shot the moment I saw it. After reading all the wonderful advice I feel quite intimidated and just want to say well done to you both!
I like this northy, the texture of the wall, the tones you chose to process it with and his expression. I totally understand what you mean about posing and kids though ...
I consistently shoot my horizons crooked, even with a tripod, so I'm the wrong one to ask. But I like the b&w here - very much fits the vibe I'm getting from him, lol
Just wait till he's 16 - you'll have to invest in some younger models at that point! Great light. None of my shots are straight and I misjudge the vertical alignment all the time. It occurred to me that it may be wearing glasses that's the problem. I need to get the manual out....
I don't some much have a horizon-problem (well I do but...) but I often think I'm parallel with a subject when I'm not. I only really discovered this playing with the distortion correction in PSE/LR.
tx loads for all the feedback!