Daily Inspiration #456 by Brian Fradl

Dear Steve,

Been having a lot of fun this year with the Nikon D7000 and Silver Efex Pro. Thanks to sites such as yours, I’ve been able to get a better grasp on what constitutes good photographic composition and to think more critically before releasing the shutter. The learning process certainly never ends!

Attached find 3 images, 2 of which have rather shallow depth of field. It’s a stylistic approach I like to employ to simplify the composition and in certain situations invoke a sense of nostalgia. Oh, and speaking of nostalgia, I just put 4 rolls of color negative through my grandfather’s old Kodak Retina 1a camera, but that’s a discussion for another time…

All images shot with the 50mm 1.8G lens.

Image #1: Bouzouki player: taken during the Maritime Festival in Greenport (Long Island), NY.

image_one

Image #2: Firewoman with axes: taken during the setup for the Port Jefferson 4th of July Parade, Long Island, NY.

Image #3: Nataly Dawn and Ryan Lerman performing at The Slipper Room in New York City (both are no stranger to Ben Folds if I remember correctly).

Silver Efex really saved the day with image #3. Dim stage lighting and a 1/13 sec. exposure did not leave Photoshop’s Channel Mixer much to work with.

My portfolio, forever in a state of flux, is at:

http://www.zenfolio.com/silentsnow

As always, comments welcome.

Thanks,

Brian Fradl

12 Comments

  1. Beautiful 2nd picture. Her facial expression an the axes stand in a great contrast to the woman preparing a parade. Btw great B&W!

    • Luke,

      That shot was the only real keeper out of 300+ photos taken that day. Maybe it was due to the heat – water bottles mostly occupied my camera bag and I emptied them rather quickly…

      –Brian

    • Steven,

      Yeah, I tend to be frugal in post processing. Good tones really come from good exposure and having been a slide film user for such a long time has helped me get some fantastic results in the digital world.

      –Brian

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