It’s “Tricky Tuesday” which is a way for me to share some of the tricks, tools & techniques I use when shooting portraits in the studio, It’s also National Ampersand Day and honors the ‘&’ symbol, a fascinating logogram that has represented ‘and’ for centuries.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
The word “ampersand” didn’t come into being until the nineteenth century. At that time & was customarily taught as the twenty-seventh letter of the alphabet and pronounced “and.”—Ben Yagoda
Who doesn’t love the fun & functional ampersand? From jotting a shorthand “and” to corporate names, this little character is uniquely useful. To acknowledge & applaud this little glyph, National Ampersand Day is observed each year on September 8th.
Did you know this about the ampersand:
- It is a ligature of “e” & “t”? That’s “et” in Latin, meaning “and”?
- The word “ampersand” is a slurring of the phrase “and per se and”,
- The plus sign is actually an ampersand?
How I made this portrait
Since it’s National Ampersand Day today’s featured image is in black & white! But you can see what Courtney and the portrait looks like in the as-captured color image at right. To tell the truth, I like both versions equally. Let me know what you think. This portrait of Courtney was made during our first session together that was a test shoot.
The lighting setup for this portrait consisted of a 300 Ws Flashpoint monolight that was fitted with a 36 x 36-inch soft box and placed close to her at camera right & just out of camera range. A 32-inch reflector was placed at camera left & during the session I moved it in & out of the shots while trying to create a more dramatic look. I can’t remember if the reflector was in or out for this particular image but based on how it looks, I’ll bet it was in. A Savage Universal 5 x 7-foot Infinity grey vinyl background was hung on JTL background stands.
The camera used was a Canon EOS 50D with an EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens at 56mm. The exposure was 1/125 at f/18 & ISO 100. The JPEG file, made before my current RAW+JPEG regimen, was retouched & then opened in Exposure Software’s Exposure where it was converted to black & white using the “Panatomic X pushed one stop” preset. For some other thoughts on RAW vs. JPEG capture, you might want to watch Barry Staver & my most recent Pixels, Grain & Cookies podcast.
I had two other shoots with Courtney before she moved on to other life pursuits & in one of our subsequent shoots we created My Homage to E.J. Bellocq that is one of my most popular portraits & one that many people seem to like. It’s also in black & white.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to buy Joe a cup of Earl Grey tea ($3.50), click here. And if you do, thanks so much.
My book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography is full of tips, tools and techniques for glamour and boudoir photography and includes information on all of the cameras used as well as the complete exposure data for each image. Used copies are available from Amazon for $45.08. as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.