Birthday Boy

[Geoff F]

I was invited to a birthday party last Sunday so I took my older kit, just in case it got dropped or had beer spilt onto it. 10D with 28-135 lens.

The light was tricky; ranging from harsh sun to dull shadow. But I did what I could. Nothing special came from my quick snaps but I rather liked this quick candid shot.



The sun was from the left but only lit part of the scene so I used the camera pop up flash as well. The dog just appeared and adopted a perfect pose in exactly the correct position, but it didn't belong to anyone in the scene.

The result, after quite a bit of adjustments, is still far from perfect but I liked the overall balance for a casual scene quick snap.

On reflection, perhaps I should have taken my Speedlite flash unit but I find people never relax when you approach with 'too much' kit.

And the birthday boy - the new septuagenarian

[NoCard]

Nice candid shot Geoff.
Something has really caught all their attentions!

Candid shots of family and friends are priceless

[rpcrowe]

I might have moved a bit to the right and thus eliminated the guy sitting with the wine bottle. Of course, wine bottles always get my attention and there might have been an even more distracting element in the background if the image was shot from further right.

[Geoff F]

And there might have been an even more distracting element in the background if the image was shot from further right.

That's correct, Richard, a very ugly dark wooden table full of more party debris which I managed to crop and clone away.

Also moving further to the right would have lost the angle and become too 'full frontal'.

I did almost crop away the woman on the far right. It was a case of just leaving her shoulder or having a full head view which would distract from the main scene. There were a couple of alternative shots but they didn't have the dog which I think balances the whole scene.

And if I keep the 5 x 4 ratio I get height problems. I also had to do a bit of rotation to get the door frame upright.

There are so many things to try to consider with a quick shot aren't there.