Weddingguy Loc: British Columbia - Canada

Copy cat! LOL

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

As promised here is a photo I took today, available light coming from a North facing window augmented a bit with the same silver reflector that I used for the flash photo.

Some things I learned during this exercise:

1) A pretty personable model helps getting a pretty picture.
2) I lucked out with my wife and my 85mm f/1.4 lens.
3) Both flash and controlled natural lighting work. Both require thought and planing.
4) Maybe natural lighting has the edge when photographing a mature woman, but this could change depending on who is working the camera.
5) Flash provides consistency. It was sunny outside when I took this photo, but that could change from day to day.
6) Highlight from the window show up in the subjects eyes just like they do with flashes.

In the process, for some reason my Nik filters started to cause PS to crash. I had to UN-install them, download them and re-install them to get them to work. I did not need to use the NIK filter other than to slightly tweak the "Pro Contrast" just a tad on this photo. I could have flattered her more by masking in PS and turning down the "dynamic sharpening" using NIK filters, but I did not do that in this picture or the recent flash version. I did not want to add confusion.

I learned a lot! Thank you everyone who made suggestions. I hope some other who were lurking learned a bit too.

An open mouthed smile is just a natural expression for my wife. It seems to work.

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Weddingguy Loc: British Columbia - Canada

Much better! Like the lighting, expression, background, higher camera angle . . . only critique would be that at F/2.8 you don't have enough DOF. The nose is OOF, the eyebrows and left eye are in focus, but the right eye is OOF. Those eyes are most important to be tack sharp. With that lens and that distance from the subject I would be using about F/5.6. A sharp image is more important than worrying about an OOF background. Err to the side of sharpness.
For the sake of critique and guidance I would suggest far less "tweaking". Just SOOC is best to be able to see what's going on.
Keep on shootin'

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

I love experimenting. Your suggestion about masking the eyes, mouth and jewelry and adding a Gaussian blur gave me some ideas. I decided to see when I could do to flatter the subject (Make her look younger and more doll like.) I masked the eyes and mouth and then used NIK color effects Pro to hide skin imperfections. I then made the eyes look in focus by selecting the iris and turning up the contrast. I whitened her teeth while I was at it. I told my wife that if something happens to me she could could use this image on Match.com LOL




I can clearly see what you are talking about. I should have used a higher f-stop to get her face in better focus. The reason I used f/2.8 was I was not using a tripod and was worried about camera shake. I probably could have got away with f/5.6 and will keep that in mind in the future. I have a lot more playing and learning to do.

My wife knows what I did. She is a professional artist and did not mind.

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Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

I think you might like this one better. I shot about a dozen photos of her by the window. I used two lenses, a 85mm f/1.4 and a 50mm f/1.4. The camera was set to f/2.8 in both cases. I had to lean a little closer with the 50mm and 50mm is not normally considered a portrait lens, it's the "normal" lens. However, using the 50mm at f/2.8 gave me slightly better depth of field. Everything from the tip of her nose and both eyes are in sharp focus. The ears and shirt are OOF. More depth of field would not have hurt. I'm glad the focus on the folding screen behind her is out of focus.

I did not sharpen the eyes in this photo, they are really in focus.

Face in focus

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justhercamera Loc: NW Michigan

I am (was) a lurker of this thread. Watching the shots, the responses... and hearing the story of your relationship... are all enjoyable and informative. Consider this encouragement to keep it going.

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

Thank you for coming out of the shadows and the comments. As of this morning this tread has been viewed 1333 times! I'm sure a lot of people benefited from the generous advice I was given.

I'll now share more of the story. I lost my first wife to cancer. For a while after my wife's passing I was a "player." A life style that did not fulfill me. Then I discovered that I had cancer and needed to undergo chemotherapy. The younger women in my life abandoned me; I was a very sick old man. The girl in photo had just retired from her job as a High School Art teacher. She drove hundreds of miles across three states and moved in with me. I spent most of my time sick in bed. She prepared beautiful and delicious meals for me. She held me when I slept. This went on for an entire winter. By Spring I was able to care for myself. I'm now in a very durable remission, and if the cancer every comes back the doctors know how to drive it back into remission. I'm really very strong and healthy now.

At a latter HS reunion I wore my Tux. I told this story to the entire class of 1959. I then dropped to one knee and proposed to her in front of the entire class. She said yes! These are indeed my golden years.

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deer2ker Loc: Nashville, TN

What a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing it with us - you are a blessed man and she is as well ;)