model photography - Sydney

^{model: Sydney}

Photo taken in The Lighthouse in Berkeley, 2013 (full series).

This image is from a photography workshop in my favorite photo studio in the Bay Area: The Lighthouse in Berkeley. A sky-light in the roof and high windows made for great natural light situations. This shot is among my favorites, because it wasn't easy to take: I was sitting on the floor, the model was moving, and to get her face in focus with a shallow depth of field was challenging.

my focus technique

I always keep my focus point fixed in the center of the frame, and don't use any face-detection or auto-focus subject tracking.
I have programmed one of the function buttons on the back close to the shutter button to lock the focus (known as "back-button focusing") so I can focus using my thumb.
My shutter button is programmed to lock the exposure.

Taking a picture then becomes a three-step process:

1. point the view center to the area that should be in focus, lock focus with the back button;
2. point the view center to the area that should be "middle grey" exposed, lock exposure by pressing the shutter button halfway;
3. recompose and then press the shutter button fully to take the picture.

I typically shoot in Aperture priority (with the aperture as wide open as the lens allows), except for street photography where I regularly switch to Shutter priority.

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photography by Edward Maesen

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