Gulp!

Well, I've done it! I've ordered an FA 77 F1.8 and will have it before the next weekend!
It will join my 16-45 and 50-200, but hopefully help with the dramatic increase in portraits I've been taking. Since I bought the K10, family and friends have been inviting me over. . as long as my Pentax came too!
Talk about a confidence booster
As most of my pictures have been around 60 to 70mm, I decided to invest the $ - if I don't do it now while there's a rebate available and I've got the pennies, there will always be something household-related that needs the money

I guess the next step will be the studio set-up - but I'd like to learn without - relying on natural light and the soon-to-be-delivered Sigma 530 Super!

On this track, can anyone recommend some worthwhile books on portraiture, especially children?

Anyway, wanted to share the merry merry with ya'll!

Shireen

Congrats and good luck

Without a doubt: Robin Gillanders - "The Photographic Portrait"
Absolutely fascinating with some sublime portraits
Matt

You will be surprised with the results you get from the lens. They should be issued with a health warning, you will be wanting the 31 next.

Kim

Well, how about that? Some encouragement, some advice and a prophetic vision - what a response!

MattMatic - I appreciate the book reference - while the best lesson is doing it, having a good reference book is helpful in not re-inventing the wheel!

Kim, those words are ominous - I heard a bell ring in the distance - for the short-term I think I'll have to pay some attention to other more mundane issues - family, house maintainance, work, ho-hum! However, I'm discovering with photography the duration of "short-term" goals narows exponentially the more you have invested!

Have a good one all ya'll.

Shireen

lucky! i'm jealous. lovvvvvvvvves the 77 but i can't afford one.

i'm reading The Negative by Ansel Adams and a book called New Cinematographers. Films usually have great subject lighting. it will suit and inform your portrait study. good luck.

I did a lot of reading up in the past on portrait techniques as it was (and still is) a considerable area of interest for me - I even went as far as investing in studio lights and a FA* 85mm F1.4.

The two main types of portrait I like to shot are limited depth-of-field shots using available light:




And perhaps even more fun is playing about with studio lights to get various effects:




I've got a few portrait/studio lighting books that I've found helpful and I'll post details when I'm home. One of them is specifically about photographing children.

old and i mean really old black and white hollywood movies...now those people knew lighting.....

The books I have for portraiture etc. are Photographing Children by Jonathan Hilton, and Studio Portrait Photography - also by Jonathan Hilton.

I am particularly impressed with the first one - I love the "grain". Did you do this in-camera or was it PP? If the latter, what software did you use?

I'm currently restricted to Pohtoshop Elements 6 and given my predilictions (barely had the K10 4 months!) for purchasing hardware, I suspect it'll be a while before I up my investment in other software.
I've sucha sharp learning curve to go on the equipment, I think I'll leave that other sharp curve for later!

Thanks everyone for your ideas regarding books - I'll put them on my Christmas list for the family to consider

Well, Adorama have told me the lens is on the way - some poor UPS delivery guy is going to get mobbed at the door come Wednesday

One day down, 4 to go!

Shireen

Just don't knock it out of his hands

colonialgirl....
adding grain in pse is easy.
in the pulldown menu, goto Filter>Noise>add noise...
from there I'd suggest mono and play with the settings.
if you work on a duplicate layer, you can also play around with your opacity and blend modes to get more effects (screen and multiply are fun).

The first shot is an older one from my film days, shot on Agfa APX25 - I can't recall if it was scanned from a print or from the negative though.

Niblue,

What lens did you use for the second shot? The exif says focal length 85mm but not the actual lens.

ken

Just to add to Don's suggestion...
You get much more control if you use Layers (There's some PSE tutorials on layers on my website)

* Add a new layer
* Fill with 50% gray (or grey if you're in the UK )
* Then use Filter/Noise/Add Noise
* Change the layer blend mode from "Normal" to "Overlay" (if Overlay is too much, change it to "Soft Light"

The advantage is you can adjust the intensity with the layer's opacity control; re-do the noise if needed etc etc.

You'll find there's plenty, plenty to learn in PSE!!

Have fun
Matt