"Miss Casey"

"Miss Casey"
©David A. Ziser

This is a high school senior portrait I made a few years ago.  I'll tell ya', there isn't a better time of the year than the fall to do portraits in the beautiful Midwest.  For about two weeks we get these wonderful fall colors lighting up the foliage.  My typical shooting routine for these kinds of portraits is to use long lens, wide apertures, and off-camera flash.  That's exactly what I did here.  The large shooting aperture on my racked out 70-200mm IS lens throws the background nicely out of focus.  Notice how you attention goes right to our lovely subject.  The off-camera flash coming in from camera left - my Quantum at 1/2 power through my Zumbrella at about 6 feet away - provide the beautiful loop lighting I like to see in my portraits.  The lighting gives dimension to the portrait while the Autumn leaves provide the wonderful background for the shot.  Camera specs: Canon 20D fitted with 70-200mm IS lens at 120mm, F3.5 @ 1/250 second, ISO 400. Enjoy!  -David