Tuesday, August 31, 2010

"Desert Princess"

IMG_5365 "Desert Princess"
©David A. Ziser

Here is one of the last shots we made last night at  Valley of Fire. It’s a great location for "people photography" with so much variety of locations. By the time I captured this photograph, the sun had dropped below the mountain horizon. That meant it was still kind of bright since a mountain horizon is much higher than a sea level horizon. Even though the sun is blocked by the mountains, it's higher position in the sky means higher ambient light for shooting.

The background was completely shadowed offering a wonderful collection of desert colors. I positioned Elizabeth between the vertical lines of the rocks in the background which framed her nicely. I adjusted the exposure to under expose the ambient just slightly so that she "popped" from the scene. Additional directional lighting was provided from my of camera flash.

The off-camera illumination was supplied by my Quantum T5d-r firing directly at my bride at 1/4 power approximately 10 feet away from my subject. I love the unique location along with the elegant, classic positioning of the bride. This is an image you can sit back and enjoy just on the merits of the lighting and composition. It's a portrait study in the truest sense of the word. I hope you enjoy it too.

Camera specs: Canon 7D fitted with 18-200mm IS lens at 100mm, F6.3 @ 1/30 second, ISO 640. Enjoy! -David

3 comments:

  1. Wow! What a great shot. That 18-200mm seems to be a very versatile lens. It keeps popping up in the specs below the posts lately.
    Thank you for doing what you do David.

    Charles Hamilton

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  2. Beautiful image. The lighting is extraordinary!

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  3. I love the way the underexposure brings out the colors!

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