I am a fan of Jessica Strickland. Some photographers don't like her, but the truth is she is quite a famous and successful photographer. I visit her site and blogs quite a bit. I do that because she inspires me, but also because I learn by looking at her work.
In fact, I was looking at her work today. I was trying to figure out what makes her work so unique. Here are a couple of things I noticed.
- She saturates colour, probably using the 'clarity' and 'vibrance' function in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw.
- She uses prime-lenses mostly
- She uses the lenses wide-open, with a very narrow depth-of-field.
- She likes to add vignettes to her pictures, using them frame the picture
- She does not shy away from weird angles.
- She will crop people - but she also shoots people in their entirety.
My son Judah was sitting at the dining table, drawing. I decided to try some of these techniques on him. I photographed him with my 85mm/f1.4, 50mm/f1.4 and my 60mm/f2.8 lenses. All pictures were made either at ISO 200 or 400.
I'd be interested to know what you think...
I don't know if Roger or Sophie captured these images... great job! The composition of them is especially good.
I see a bit of a yellow cast throughout the images, especially on Judah's face, that could be reduced a bit, and even masked out some if needed.
Perhaps just a little brighter overall, if you really want to emulate Jessica, but if not then it's not needed.
It's a great set that any parent would cherish years later.
Posted by: Rebecca Bretzinger | May 13, 2009 at 01:59 PM