Tuesday, May 31, 2011

"A Perfect Day"

A Perfect DayIMG_8593-Edit-2

"A Perfect Day"
© David A. Ziser

It’s been about the girls these past several posts so today I thought I’d give the guys some attention.  This is another image from my shoot last week.  Kapok Gardens is one of the classic event venues in the Tampa/Clearwater, Florida area.  The décor is very eclectic and makes for some exciting locations for the photography we were doing around the venue.

This image was taken in the lounge area of Kapok Gardens. The surrounding décor, the unusual ceiling treatment, and the natural window light is what makes this image work.  Yes, the subject in this image was only illuminated by the light coming in from a large window across the room – camera right.

Because of the distance of the window to the subject, we see a clearly defined loop light pattern on his face. That’s because the light source – the window – is far enough away so, in effect, it becomes a much smaller light source relative to the subject.

I simply turned the subject’s face into the light till I could see both of his cheeks fully illuminated but still keep a shadow on the camera side of his nose – the perfect loop light pattern.

Next I had to compose the image.  My lower vantage point positioned the subject’s face and shoulders higher into the ceiling area of the composition.  Notice too that all the lines are leading right to the subject’s face.  With him in an easy pose in the bottom right quadrant of the composition a nice visual balance is achieved among all the compositional elements giving us a strong, masculine portrait of our subject.

Camera specs:  Canon 7D fitted with Canon 18-200mm IS lens at 18mm, F5.6 @ 1/25 second, ISO 3200.  Enjoy!  -David

1 comment:

  1. One of the very few images I've seen of yours that isn't pleasing.
    The non-vertical lines seem too disturbing and there's too much ceiling that detracts from the main subject.
    I would have shot from eye-level with his shoulders covering the lights on the background wall. He still would've 'popped' from the background.

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