Portraits in Central Park

With all the time I spent with my choir homies on tour, it became apparent that there are a few of them who are very willing to model for me when I want to practice pictures. Not just right then, either. My friend Jessica graciously told me that I could just call her whenever I needed someone to be in some portraits. I think I will be making use of that.

But now that I have a DSLR, portraits are a lot of fun. I never had very much success with them before, and I think that's mainly due to the small focal lengths involved with my old PowerShot. These portraits are some of the best I've ever taken. It seems that great location + willing model + cooperative lighting + a little time and patience = great portraits.





click to enlarge, or see it on Flickr
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/30
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 55 mm
Handheld


I'm sure I still have a lot to learn. Even with this shot, I can see a few things I don't like. Her bangs are a little bit low over her right eye. There's a small strand of hair in the lower-left that is moving. And Jessica's eyes aren't in as good of focus as they should be. This is due to the fact that my AF was set to just pick an area of the photo to focus on, and it tends to pick things more in the foreground. Her eyes may be in the foreground compared to the purposely blurred rock in the back, but not compared to her right shoulder.

In the future, for shots like this that are on a more angled plane, I might stop down my aperture a little bit to ensure that I get the whole face in crisp focus. I will also set my autofocus to a specific point and focus on the eyes before shooting.

But, success!