Thursday, December 04, 2008

Little Maria

Little Maria
©David A. Ziser

This image was part of a portrait shoot I did over the Thanksgiving holiday. The family calls every year for a portrait they can use on their Christmas cards. They also requested some additional images of their first grand-daughter, little Maria. As with any one year old - actually, slightly older, she was full of energy. I open the piano and asked dad to bring her close by. Once she found out what the keys did, the rest was history. The light is just window light flooding in from the left side. I love the composition, she, dressed in that beautiful little dress, the partial picture frame centered over little Maria as she explores the keyboard. I completed the image by adding a sepia tone which I think enhances the overall feel of the image. Camera specs; Canon 40D fitted with 70-200mm IS at 70mm, F5.6 @ 1/100 second, ISO 800. Enjoy! -David

5 comments:

  1. Very nice image, David. I'd be interested to know how you price and produce things like Christmas cards. I imagine you don't hand over the image file for your clients to make their own cards?

    Do you guys then make your own cards in Photoshop for the clients? Do you send them off to a service that will add the holiday border and copy?

    Thanks again for such a great site.

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  2. I really like this picture, especially the color of sepia, just like the old sepia paper used in bw photography.
    Show as the final result, I'd be glad to see the card.

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  3. The composition is great David. Love the frame above and the overal feel of the shot. Love it.

    Kevin

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  4. After your last few posts talking about 'the rule of thirds' I was surprised to see one of your portrait shots completely centered :P

    For a portrait, how do you decide which composition method to use? Other than the "whatever works best, feel it out"... do you follow any rules of thumb in situations like this?

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  5. I too was wondering about the rule-breaking. I tend to break the rule of thirds more often than not and I can't tell if that is just my style or lack of acceptance of the rules. But I find myself drawn to a centered picture more often than not. I probably would have cropped the picture frame out as well, but I like how it provides some scale.

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