Tuesday, April 17, 2012

"Stairway To Heaven”

Stairway To Heaven

"Stairway To Heaven”
©David A. Ziser

I'm leading off today's post with one of the images from my Technique Tuesday video featured below. This is one of the images I captured of our bride after we re-entered the convention center returning from my wedding shoot out in downtown Washington, D.C. Think of this as a very contemporary bridal portrait given the very contemporary location and all the diagonal lines, prominently featured, leading directly to my subject.

Those leading lines were accentuated by the fact that I was using a very wide optic to make this exposure – my Sigma 12–24 MM lens on my Canon 5D Mark II. As I explain in the video below it took careful placement of the subject within the space to avoid the distortion that one sometimes gets when using an optic this wide. Keeping her away from the far right corner of the frame certainly helps in that regard.

I really like how the image framed up the bride against the blue carpeted stairs and her head placement against a simple, non-distracting wood veneer background. Notice how all lines lead directly to her.

The light on the bride's face was simply the naturally occurring light in the convention center that afternoon. I needed to tilt her head up slightly so I could catch the light just right to give me the nice loop-lighting pattern I'm always looking for my subject’s face.  Why not watch the video below and hear my full discussion of this image and many more.  I think it will give you some insight into how my mind thinks when I'm setting up these fairly unusual wedding images.

Camera specs:  Canon 5D Mark 2 fitted with Sigma 12–24mm wide-angle lens at 12mm, F5 .6 @ 1/320 second, ISO 1250.  Enjoy! – David

1 comment:

  1. David I wonder sometimes about these wide angle shots as the subject is sooo small. I would describe this photo as "A Beautiful Building With A Bride In It" rather than " A Beautiful Bride In A Building" In some of these wide angle shots the subject is so small she is practically unrecognizable. I am not criticizing your photography here as you are a master but, for me it just doesn't work. I would prefer more photos where the bride or subject occupies more space in the frame. This same type of shot time after time eventually gets boring.

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