Does a photo have to be perfect to be effective? I don’t think a photo has to be perfect to be effective. Most everyone wants to improve their photographs, someway, somehow. This photo is from Jamie’s portfolio from the summer of 2003. I wanted to shoot later, but we didn’t have later. I had to shoot in brilliant sunlight. I would have liked to have shot her with softer light. Not necessarily diffused light, but softer sunlight. Two hours later would have been good, but would the position of the sun been as good?

I could have used some sort of softening device, but I didn’t have anything that reached that high. The light on her is too harsh. You are seeing the photo as shot, with no Photoshop manipulation.

Now, what makes this photo good? I do like the sideish lighting. I used a reflector to fill in the face. Those two elements make the photo good. The look on Jamie’s face is great. The feeling of the photograph is great. The mood is great. Oh yes, black and white worked better for this than color.

Sometimes a photo may have flaws, but can still be very good.

Camera- Canon FTb
Lens- I think a 135mm telephoto, Canon
Shutter Speed- 125/250
Aperture- f4ish
Film- T-Max 100