First Dad With Ring Light

Here is my first head shot attempt with the ring flash and the Mark II. Dad looks kind in this photo. My whole life whenever I needed him for anything he was always there for me. You can kind of see that softness in his eyes, the soft heart he had inside to cover a sometimes gruff exterior outside. With dad it was always the kids first and himself second. It is one the reasons I want to do a book of 5x7 camera portraits of children living in poverty, dad always worries about the children, and helping them. Whenever we watched a documentary or news stories with suffering children in it dad would say "Why do they make the kids if they can't take care of them?" Must have heard him say that more than a dozen times through the years. I might put that quote in the forward of the book, where I give dad his dedication. Dad always felt it was so important to take care of his/your kids, to be there for them whenever and help them with whatever they needed.

I added some contrast, clarity and vibrancy in photo shop elements. I also played around a bit with the colour curves. The background was a nice red that went dark after my manipulations, I think if I was printing this photo seriously I would keep the red tones in. I also have the option of shooting at different light ratios with this flash unit. The flash is not a true ring flash it is actually two separate flash units placed side by side. I might try different light ratios in the coming day to see what that looks like. This photo was made with straight on flat even ring type light. I shot it at about 40mm up close to try and create a bit of distortion for visual effect.

Dad September 14 2014, ring light and Mark II