Black and white and red.

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Let's talk about cutting off people's feet. No, I don't mean in a "we need to dispose of this body quickly" way (you sicko!), I mean in your pictures! I try not to do this. I get annoyed when it happens. But sometimes when the best shot of the bunch has a cut-off foot, that's just the way it is! It actually used to bother me a lot more a few years ago, but now I just say "Eh" and move on. It's really not that big of a deal.

I find that I often run into this problem when I am shooting people who are walking. The way I usually do these is I lock the focus with AF, then switch to manual focus and leave the focus alone. Then I try to walk (backwards) at the same speed as the model. If I do it right, we keep the same distance as when we were standing still, and the focus stays good. Also, since I am shooting these at a slowish aperture (around f/8), I have some leeway with the focus since the DOF is forgiving at that f-stop. The last part of the technique is that I have to crouch about halfway over to keep the perspective correct when I am shooting with a medium-wide lens (35 mm). So, sometimes when I don't crouch low enough, while walking backwards, and trying to frame the shot through the viewfinder and simultaneously look next to the camera with my open left eye to avoid walking into pedestrians, trees, fire hydrants, bicyclists, and cars, I cut off people's feet! Doh! Maybe what I need is a spotter, kind of like if you've ever been to a gym where someone is spotting some other guy squatting and holds the guy ever-so-gently by the hips while he squats up and down with him...um, wait a minute, nevermind...that sounds like a bad idea!

More to come...

Model: Miss Te
MUA: Danielle Klatsky

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