January 18, 2012 – A year of portraits – Chuck Hinrichs

I spent most of the afternoon visiting with good friend Chuck Hinrichs and wanted to capture an environmental portrait of him that illustrated just a little of his personality and interests. I think this portrait does both in my book. Chuck is an avid railfan and an outstanding photographer in his own right. I thought about including a camera, but felt that the portrait was stronger with out it. When shooting environmental portraits it’s always good to include something in the picture that shows something about your subjects likes, but at the same time don’t overdo it by including too many elements.

This final photo was cropped slightly to get rid of a bright lamp that was to the left and also toned down using the burn tool in Photoshop CS5. I purposely framed Chuck in the lower right area of the frame as I wanted him to be in one of the prime areas for composition (rule of thirds), and still include some of his memorabilia behind him. I also used the Topaz Adjust Exposure correction filter and photo pop filters to round out this final photo.

Technical Details:
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 – shot at 46mm
Exposure: Matrix Metering, 1/60th sec, f/2.8 with an ISO of 4,000
File Type: Nikon RAW