i find myself here in sahad, saudi arabia today and i've got myself here ahmed, he's going to be my model i've got my friend majdi and i got my friend zack. we're getting kind of setup here for the gulf photography center conference which is going to happen in a couple of days but we came over to this place which is actually zacks father inlaw's farm
and that's where i met ahmed and i said oh my god ahmed we've got a photograph that beautiful looking young man, so where are we going to do that at? well it only stood to reason for me anyway because of all the wonderful texture and lines and colors here at this unused chicken coop, that's a great location. when we think about portrait
work, think about this; a seamless background that's very common in the studio, so i'm going to look for background when it comes to shooting portraits out here and available light and i've got just such a background here. i've got some great lines and color and texture and all that kind of good stuff so, it's really simple portrait, i think
you'll agree, it's very compelling. ahmed go ahead and give them that old strong young man look, that's wonderful ok and now we're going to frame this up accordingly and real simple exposure. a classic "who cares"? depth of field is not an issue everything is at the same focus distance so i'm at f/11. now as far as the actual
exposure, some people might be concerned say well he's got dark skin, not really an issue except, if you know me from understanding exposure, dark skinned subjects should be exposed at -1. so at f/11 correct exposure says it's 1/60 but i actually shot this at 1/125 of a second, okay? now that's a pedestrian
but compelling portrait. let's have a little fun with this texture. ahmed come on back here and bring yourself right up here to the screen come up closer, there that's good and with a little smile as well, wonderful right there and exposure hasn't changed at all. take a look at that shot i think you will
agree, whoa, that's a lot more compelling and somewhat unexpected, putting a texture, in this case in front of ahmed's face. we could see a shape behind that texture at the same time wonderful white teeth smile. you got to love it. two really simple ideas, some you can do anywhere you are in the world. if you just think; you need a simple background, there it is. then you
want to dress things up a little bit? go with that texture idea. hey from india in sahad saudi arabia this is bryan peterson reminding all of you, you keep shooting!
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