Photographic Adventure

[Mary Sparrow]

Mike, I haven't forgotten you, my boys have been with Grandma for a few days. Hopefully, I will have something for you tomorrow.

[Mike McCarty]

Mary,

I too have shot a lot of pictures in my dining room. One thing I have found of value is having a table for the subject to rest their arms on. For a simple half figure, or head and shoulder pose, it seems to aid in the subjects posture. Instead of slouching down in the chair they must lean forward. This may be difficult for very small children, but depending on their size, you can have them sit on a phone book.

Also, when the elbows are on the table it makes posing the hands so much easier. They can much more easily go to the face or just lay in front of them.

It can also simplify your posing choices. When you have the full figure all sprawled out in front of you it can make for awkward compositional choices latter on. I don't mean that a slouching kid can't be compelling, but, as you are trying to work through some of these lighting issues, simplification can work to your favor.

This pose (I apologize for the poor reproduction) was made much easier by the presence of the table under her arms.

[Mary Sparrow]

Ok Mike, let's see if this worked better. We are in the same place, this time I just propped the reflector in a chair so that I could see what I was telling him to do without using the timer. I don't know why I didn't do this before. I think they turned out much better, do you? He's a handsome little thing isn't he ?

[Mike McCarty]

Nice going Mary,

Such wisdom in that young face. These are definitely moving in the right direction.

You have a lit side of the face and a shadowed side of the face. Thanks to your resourcefulness your shadows are not totally dark.

I have a suggestion for you to take this into the realm of really, really good. The first would be to remove the chair and have your son stand in front of the chest and incorporate it into the composition. I don't know how his height works out for that, maybe you could give him something to stand on that would allow him to either lean his two elbows back on the top, or turn him slightly into the light with his left hand and forearm on the top. Shoot at least a half figure with some of those nice drawer pulls to the lit side.

Try and control the space as much as possible in terms of composition. Place or remove items on top of the chest in such a way that pleases you. These matters can be thought through as you imagine him in the pose, so that when you are ready to begin, he doesn't have to sit around and get bored waiting for you to think through these matters. If the wall behind is too busy with your mirrors you might drape the sheet over it so that its not a factor, it could be that it is fine. You may also think about rotating your camera position left or right in order to take advantage of, or remove, some background component.

Also, it would thrill me for your son to wear a collared shirt. I think a light color would look nice against that brown chest front. You never know when you are going to strike gold. You would hate to take that perfectly lit and composed image and then try and guess at what a nice shirt would look like. (I suppose a bright bow tie would be out of the question?)

Another thing you may consider at some point -- remember when you hung your sheet behind the statue? At some point you may want to try and use that to eliminate all the background noise. You could drape it over the chest in the background. If you have something in a more middle tone, that might be best, but do what you can. I carry around some satin fabric that I purchased at the discount store.

Either way I think you are seeing your space for what it could possibly be. If you get comfortable with the light it will then be a matter of composition, tweaking around the edges and practicing.

PS: Keep a wary eye on your shutter speed so that it doesn't get to low. I think a 400 ISO might be best. Try not to let the shutter speed drop to far below a 100th of a second. If you have enough light to get that done at 200 ISO that would be even better. Also remember to set your image to high quality.