make sure that the thing, person or landscape you want
to shoot looks the way you want it to?
I will take screen shots of any model poses I see on the internet
to show the model, and bring along an outfit for them, mask,
flowers, props.
When setting up the shot a moment just speaks to you, your
panning a view or the model is moving in different poses and
your heart jumps at a special moment that you see in the
viewfinder. Sometimes you have to try to get the model to go
back and try to re enact that moment.
Then in Photoshop I use frequency separation 2.0 by Earth
Oliver, on the models skin. Dodge and burn the highlights and
shadows, sharpen to sharpen the eyes and any jewellery, then I
may try Alienskin for some toning. Sometimes I like to put a bit
of blue in the shadows instead of pure black.
In the field, what are your settings?
I start at F8, ISO 100 and 120th of a second and see how it goes from
there, this Christmas I wanted to shoot a model with Christmas lights
it was hard to shoot in the dark and get the small lights to be bright.
The settings for those pictures were F1.8 - 1/30 - ISO100. thank God
for Photoshop to bring out the lights and enhance them.
Recently while on a trip to the Fern Islands I did use aperture priority
mode, as advised to me by a great bird photographer that was on the trip too. To be honest I rarely think to put the camera
on one of the assisted modes even if I’m struggling to get the shot I
want.
From your point of view, what makes a good picture?
The pictures I just cant take my eyes off of are those with depth of
field, I just love the sharpness of the flower or eye and the rest falls
out of focus. Never fails to fascinate me.
Nowadays almost everyone has access to devices to take
photographs. Do you use any of them?
I really want to get a Polaroid camera. Instead of getting one I opted
for a small printer that would print my iphone pictures, but I never
use it. Should have just got what I wanted in the first place.
I have also upgraded to iphone 11 with the three lenses. I love my
mobile phone and take lots of photos with it. I always say my camera
has a phone in it as the camera is the most important part for me. I
did buy the tiny lenses to use on iphones but again these are still in
the box.
What do you think is the difference between a
professional photographer and a hobby photographer?
Getting paid :D sometimes I wonder what is the point, but I guess most artists struggle with that one, you just got to create
what you’ve got to create.