Grandma, Daughter and Mom

A few months ago I was asked to take a quick portrait of a daughter, mother and grandmother in a restaurant while visiting Czech Republic. I had no extra lighting equipment except for my on-camera flash. So I found a piece of white wall, posted the family tightly together and bounced the flash over my right shoulder against the ceiling, with the wide angle diffuser on. This created very pleasant soft light source, even if the ceiling was very low. The final step was to get the right expressions on their faces and to take the photo. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L at 70mm, F4 @ 1/125, ISO 800.

Quick Family Portrait

We were having a family celebration this Monday where I took a portrait of the young family featured in today's post. I like to be challenged by the environment that I don't know beforehand. It is a good practice in finding good backgrounds and angles. Normally, I would not place the family at the exact center but thanks to the simplicity of the scene and a dominant decoration at the top of the frame, I think it works very well in this particular image. The almost shadowless lighting was achieved by bouncing the on-camera flash backwards against the ceiling. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L USM at 32mm, F4 @ 1/125, ISO 800.