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Re: [OM] Advice on Portrait photography

Subject: Re: [OM] Advice on Portrait photography
From: clintonr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2002 12:03:10 -0600
I _do_ abhor creases -- the kind you get when you take a folded sheet or
blanket and pin it up for a background.  It just looks cheap to me!  Even
when you iron them, they still look like a wrinkled sheet.  So try these
ideas:

1. Keep your subject out away from the background as much as possible, and
stop down just one or two stops from wide open.  This will help throw the
background out of focus, hiding patterns and textures from a painted
concrete wall.

2. If you must use a bedsheet, go ahead and wad it up and pack it tightly,
like a balled-up sheet of paper.  Then hang it up just before the shoot --
better random wrinkles than a pattern of folds!  Shoot nearly wide open,
as above.

3. One thing I've used is cheap clear plastic sheeting, like a drop cloth
for painting -- the cheaper/thinner the better.  Stretch it out and wad it
up, as above.  You can hang that in front of anything -- lets the color
through, but give a sparkle to the background.  Again, shoot nearly wide
open to throw it out of focus.

One other bit of advice, if you're shooting for prints -- remember that
the full frame of 35mm is not the same dimension as your typical print
(5x7, 8x10, etc.).  Shoot with a "fudge zone" along both ends of the
frame, knowing that when the prints come back, that much will be cut off.
In other words, don't "fill the frame"!


Albert wrote:

> Thanks for the advice.  I'll try do "homemake" a backdrop with a sheet
> like you suggested.
>
> I have a TOKINA 90mm/f2.5 not a TAMRON 90mm/f2.5.
>
> Interestingly enough, anybody have the MTF for the Tamron?  I have the
> MTF for my Tokina..
>
> Albert
>
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