February 22, 2012 – A year of portraits – Nathan Justice

02.22.12 Nathan Justice

Nathan is the 8-year-old son of Roxann Foster, one of my co-workers at The Messenger newspaper. As with most kids his age he’s full of energy and lets the world know that he’s around, where ever he is. He’s in the second grade, loves video games, basketball and his favorite player is Michael Jordan.

Post processing was done with Photoshop CS5. I cropped the photo slightly from it’s original, adjusted levels and did some dodging and burning on the background and in the shadows. For the final look I used the Topaz Adjust filter “Detail Light” to do my final sharpening. I will note that I had a very high shutter speed because I shot a few pictures indoors first and forgot to change the ISO when we moved outside behind the paper for a better background and lighting.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 @56mm
Exposure: Matrix Metering, 1/2500, f/2.8 with an ISO of 4,000
File Type: Nikon RAW

February 21, 2012 – A year of portraits – Mike Howton

02.21.12 Mike Howton

I captured this informal portrait of a friend Mike Howton as he was covering the Dawson Springs boys District 7 basketball game for the Dawson Spring Progress newspaper at Caldwell County High School in Princeton. Mike has been hooked on the photography bug ever since his mom let him start using her Argus at the age of 8 or so. He got his own camera, a Patrika, at the age of 9.Today his camera of choice is his Nikon D700.

This portrait was processed using Photoshop CS5 using levels, a little burning in on the wall behind him and the Topaz Filter “Photo Pop” was applied for the final touch.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 50mm f/1.4
Exposure: Matrix Metering, 1/640, f/2.8, ISO of 4,000
File Type: Nikon RAW