[Cynthia Feustel]

Here is my first attempt at some shots for a figurative painting. I just bought the Canon digital Rebel. I wanted the D70 but money was the deciding factor. My daughter just graduated and we never got her senior pictures so I thought it better to spend the money on a camera I would have for a long time rather than on one set of senior pictures. Besides the camera is a tax deduction. So after a two day cram course of reading everything I could on how to use this new toy we gave it a try.

I am posting some of the shots that I took to use for a figurative painting. I also took some great smiling ones for her senior pictures. All in all it was a fun experience.

My studio has very large north light windows (I'm in an old factory) so I tried using no flash and just the north light. It was later in the day and I think I could have had better lighting. It was raining and gloomy and then the sun would come out.

The pictures with the doors were taken in a back stairwell, west facing windows and bright sunlight. The green door faces into the building. The backside of the door was painted bright orange and the sun was very intense but the windows were frosted glass so it made for softer shadows.

I did adjust some of the images in photoshop and some in my printers program. I had to buy a new printer for this project too. I got an HP Photosmart 8150. It has a nice adjustment called adaptive lighting and it seems to work well if the photos are too dark. I may have over corrected but I can post the unadjusted images.

Let me know what you all think.

Cynthia