Submitter's name:	Olaf Greve
Title:	Little Miss Venezuela
Gear used:	OM-4Ti + 100/2 + T32 + Wide Angle flash diffuser filter
Diaphragm:	f2.8
Shutter speed:	1/60th
Film used:	Kodak Ektachrome E100VS
Digital technique:	Graciously scanned by Hans van Veluwen (thanks!). The bottom part was very slightly cropped to get rid of an annoying reflection in the costume. Applying Gausian Blurr would probably have yielded a better "bokeh background" but that would have been cheating, so I did not do that. :)
Technical information:	This shot was handheld, using a combination of natural light coming through a window, and the T32 mounted directly on the camera. As I could not bounce, I used the 21mm wide angle diffuser flash filter for obtaining diffuse light, these filters work great when a simple diffuser is required.
Subject information:	This picture was taken when carnival came to town (well, to my parents' town, that is). Karol was all dressed up as a fairy, and I could not resist taking this candid portrait. Actually, I am a little bit frustrated with the portrait work I have done for TOPE 5. Due to the winter weather motivation was at an all time low and beautiful sunny days were very scarce. Consequently, I chose this picture which has (at least) two photographic flaws in it: being the distractive background and the shadow in the background (using a reflector was not an option). Nonetheless, despite these two flaws, I liked the expression on her face better than in the other pictures I shot, so in the end I decided to give the better expression preference over the photographically spoken better portraits. Some of my other shots for TOPE 5 can be seen here.
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Comment left by: Barry Bean (bbbean@beancotton.com)

It would have been a tough choice for me between the shot you used and two of the alternatives: The smile in front of the blue backdrop, and the shot of the same girl(?) with a stick near the stream.

Comment left by: Da Photographer (no e-mail specified)

Barry, interesting that you should say that, as those were indeed two of my favourite alternatives, and they were most likely to be picked. Ah, BTW: indeed it is the same girl in the "stick-picture". :)

Comment left by: Eric Pederson (epederso@darkwing.uoregon.edu)

I agree that expression is everything. That's what our brain is most sensitive to and why we look at portraits. So good choice! You didn't need a reflector, but getting the flash off and above the camera body would have helped reduce or eliminate the background shadow. Fortunately, you didn't get any shadows from her hair on her face -- I guess the diffuser accomplished that.

Comment left by: Jodi Jakeway (jjakeway@iserv.net)

Brilliant color, and wonderful skintones, just the background is all I would have changed.

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