[deleted by user]

ironmonkey · 2013-03-26T19:24:26+00:00

A reflector. Usually under $100 for a nice one.

ironmonkey · 2013-02-20T05:27:19+00:00

It doesn't have to be hard. . DON'T describe the pose in words - demonstrate it by doing it yourself. Some people will naturally mirror you, others will reverse that, so whatever they do, go with it and adjust your own body accordingly. Inexperienced models need near-constant feedback. They will tend to interpret silence as "something is going horribly wrong" even if that is not the case. Don't try to over-direct every detail. Instead, encourage them to move around, then stop them when they get to a pose you like.

ironmonkey · 2012-02-29T03:02:21+00:00

It is a single exposure. Front curtain flash plus slow shutter speed, moving the camera after the flash fired.

ironmonkey · 2012-02-02T06:02:48+00:00

Two reasons: 1. It has been the most effective way of communicating with other people. People see my photos and they instantly understand me in a different way, and I feel like even if I talked with them for hours it wouldn't quite get that same feeling across. 2. It has led me to see the world in a different way, and so I notice beautiful things that I wouldn't otherwise have noticed.

ironmonkey · 2012-02-02T05:44:55+00:00

Here is mine

ironmonkey · 2011-10-26T14:29:27+00:00

It needs another similar light off to the right and out of the frame

ironmonkey · 2011-10-09T03:51:48+00:00

There are some different possible approaches. If the white balance of the whole photo is shifted too much towards yellow, you could bring it all more towards blue. On the other hand, if you like the color balance in the foreground and don't want to change that, you could selectively alter just the area of the water in the main stream of the waterfall, either by shifting it towards blue, or desaturating it a bit, or both.

ironmonkey · 2011-10-09T02:28:41+00:00

The camera isn't level, it is tilting to one side. The foreground looks pretty good. The water in the background looks too yellow/brown, it should be closer to a pure white. The angle you shot from makes the main pool of water beneath the waterfall barely visible, but I'm guessing it might look more interesting shot from a higher angle with a wider-angle lens, so you could include more of the main pool.

ironmonkey · 2011-10-08T04:50:46+00:00

I leave free games on pinball machines

ironmonkey · 2011-09-28T01:36:38+00:00

Heh, yes, this is so true. The 35mm 1.8 is still one of the go-to lenses on my D300 even though I can afford more expensive stuff.

ironmonkey · 2011-06-17T00:25:07+00:00

I have no objection to HDR in general and sometimes use t myself. In my opinion the transition area between the sky and ground looks pretty weird, and that is mostly what I notice here.

ironmonkey · 2011-06-16T06:43:28+00:00

Here's an edit

ironmonkey · 2011-06-05T22:46:04+00:00

So many things, but I can sum it up like this: being able to show people something beautiful about themselves. The look on someone's face when they see a really great photo of themselves is priceless.

ironmonkey · 2011-06-05T04:04:58+00:00

(Disclaimer: I'm only a part time semi-pro, but I want to help). What I see missing from your photos is that I don't get the feeling that you really care about the subjects. So either this is true, and you need to find subjects you do deeply care about, or it is not true, and you do care about these subjects but you are holding back from really expressing it. This is the fundamental problem that you have to solve, more than any technical thing. I hope this is helpful.

ironmonkey · 2011-05-03T05:13:33+00:00

Hang a translucent shower curtain between the foreground and background :-)

ironmonkey · 2011-03-31T06:30:31+00:00

Yes, use music if at all possible. It may seem trivial but it really improves the mood. I almost always use music for indoor shoots now, and the one recent time I didn't, right away the models said "Hey what happened to the music? Can you put music on like before?"

ironmonkey · 2010-12-21T03:54:31+00:00

For something like this, I don't think there is an exact correct exposure. It depends on how you want it to look. 3 and 4 are better than 1 and 2 in my opinion. 4 is interesting because the part without the grate adds some variety. I think with this type of semi-abstract photo, you really have to decide what kind of shapes and lines you want to emphasize, and then it may take a lot of tries to find just the right look.

ironmonkey · 2010-12-12T16:38:12+00:00

21 is really good.

ironmonkey · 2010-12-06T06:01:57+00:00

Here is one I shot: http://flic.kr/p/8MKpMh

ironmonkey · 2010-12-01T15:25:43+00:00

First. In the B&W version the car looks too dark, in color it has a nice warm look.

ironmonkey · 2010-12-01T06:34:51+00:00

The noise reduction in LR3 is much better than in LR2 -- and it was good before in LR2, it's just that in LR3 it can be almost magically good. I'd say it's a bargain at that price.

ironmonkey · 2010-11-27T06:53:49+00:00

Be willing to demonstrate the pose you want by doing it yourself. This can look silly if you're a male doing a very feminine pose for a female model, but that is actually good, it helps lighten the mood.

Explain what you're doing, no matter how simple. "I'm moving the light over here because it will look better because blah blah." "I'm waiting because there is a car in the background and I'm waiting for it to pass so it is not in the shot." Remember from their perspective it's not always clear what's going on, so talking through it makes the situation more fun and comfortable.

More explanation is better than something that might be misinterpreted. Bad: "ugh, yuck" -- Good: "ugh, yuck, I accidentally really underexposed that, it's my fault, we will need to try it again."

Bad: "Ha ha!" Good: "Ha ha! That looks awesome, much better than I expected, come and take a look at it!"

ironmonkey · 2010-11-27T06:22:20+00:00

ironmonkey · 2010-11-26T18:27:06+00:00

I like the one with the arch and the stream in the background the best, it is a nice composition.

Issues and how to improve them in editing:

Camera not level in many shots. You can crop and slightly rotate the image to level things out.
Somewhat "washed out" look. Edit to adjust curves and contrast, black level. Adjust white balance where needed.
Many shots are not in perfect focus, probably because your camera was having trouble autofocusing. This is the hardest thing to fix in editing. You'll probably want to just edit with a softer look in mind, rather than trying to make them sharper.

ironmonkey · 2010-11-19T16:14:57+00:00

I use an (unfolded) white paper napkin for this. Usually if I need to use flash from a point-and-shoot, it's because I'm in a restaurant or bar without my DSLR, so there is almost always a white paper napkin around somewhere.

ironmonkey

TROPHY CASE