Here comes the Sunshine.

It's summertime and the models have arrived. These good ladies offered to pose for me in my quickly thrown-together studio. These are good all-American ladies who pack heat when necessary. They're ladies in public and tigers when they need to defend themselves. Hunting and fishing are second nature to the real American woman. She can feed herself and her family when the going gets tough and groceries are hard to come by.

Yup, this lady is packing major heat - a .357 Magnum. The second Amendment was created so American women don't end up like their European counterparts when attacked in the dark. European women are not allowed to do anything other than scream futilely for help. American women can defend themselves so they don't end up lying dead and raped in a gutter with their pantyhose tied around their necks.

Unlike Europe, America is multi-cultural. This young lady is a personal friend who needed portraits for her modelling career. She models for clothing catalogs on occasion - both live on stage, in videos and in still images. Her personality is as warming and engaging as her looks. She's a really great person to work with and I feel very lucky to know her.

Now the question you're all asking is what was the setup for those photographs. It was quite simple and very different for each set. The first set in sepia was photographed using a blue and white mottled background with two studio flashes one on each side. The second set of photographs was taken using a white bedsheet that I'd whipped out of my laundry basket. The lighting for the second set was a pair of Canon Speedlites mounted on the floor, one each side - hence the upward shadows.

The key to good portraiture is to focus on the eyes. If the eyes aren't sharp, the photograph is no good. At the distances that portraits are normally shot at which is 5 to 8 feet, the depth of field is narrow. Assuming one is shooting with 35mm film or its digital equivalent, the aperture has to be set to allow about 9 inches of depth or perhaps greater. This would result in an aperture of no less than F11 using an 85mm lens at 5 feet or F5.6 at 8 feet.  With a crop camera and a 50mm lens, faster apertures can be used. At 5 feet that would be F8 and at 8 feet that would be F2.8.

Ultra-fast lenses with apertures wider than f2.8 are not recommended as it becomes a case of just how much of the face is in focus. More than that, autofocus cameras are just not that accurate with the autofocus thus a little leeway is needed. There's just no point whatsoever in the ultra-fast, ultra-expensive lenses.

And now, some soothing summer music to get you into the photographic mood...

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun

And I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter

Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun

And I say it's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces

Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun

And I say it's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting

Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun

And I say it's all right

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun

It's all right, it's all right