Exploring Portraiture Part II
Tim Kamppinen
Registered Users Posts: 816 Major grins
Here are a few more that I've done in the last few days. I'm really beginning to enjoy this... These are, once again, my friend, his daughter, another friend of mine, and my baby nephew. Again, C&C welcome... tell me what you think:
#1
#2
#3
(background sucks, but I love the expression)
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
p.s. I really like the look that I was getting on the shots of the men... for that I used levels or curves, or both, to boost the contrast to levels that made the colors oversaturated and unattractive, then added a saturation layer and desaturated by around -60. I know this isn't anything groundbreaking as I'm pretty sure I've seen this sort of thing before, but does anyone know if there's a name for it, or even a better way to do it?
#1
#2
#3
(background sucks, but I love the expression)
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
p.s. I really like the look that I was getting on the shots of the men... for that I used levels or curves, or both, to boost the contrast to levels that made the colors oversaturated and unattractive, then added a saturation layer and desaturated by around -60. I know this isn't anything groundbreaking as I'm pretty sure I've seen this sort of thing before, but does anyone know if there's a name for it, or even a better way to do it?
0
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#1 Beautiful
#2 His nose and upper lip is OOF, looks very strange.
#3 Good shot, busy BG
#4 and #5 Very nice
The baby shots are very cute.
Well done!
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Agree with ShepsMom on #2. Plus you are so close that it distorts the nose and makes it look huge. Better with a telephoto lens.
#3 the thermos is distracting.
4 on down - very nice!
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[*]Very nice, soft light - just right for this sort of application. Eyes appear very sharp. I'm thinking it might have been nice to have some light from camera left and behind her to seperate her hair from the background, but that's an artistic determination - might not have been what you were looking to do at all.
[*]I like tight crops. But this one is too close for the lens length (distortion of the nose) and is too high as including the neck in the shot does not help it. I'm not enamored of the hot spot on his left cheek or the bright spot from the background on his right. The lighting on his face it great - really brings out the depth and expression.
[*]You're right about the background. Could crop from the left to remove some of that. Cropping from the right would also remove some of the clutter, but would completely change the character of the shot. I also love the light on her face, the expression, and the conversion. Well done!
[*]The light's good, the light on the background is just right, and the expression is very intense.
[*]I like this image soooo much more than #4. You have a strong, contemplative expressin, the light is in keeping with that sense. The strong, masculine hand just adds to the image. And you did a very smart thing with the hand - he's not resting his head on his hand and, thus, is not distorting his face. Well done!
[*]Doesn't do much for me - too much OOF, not enough DOF for my taste.
[*]This is just too cute. I think cropping this to remove the diaper would improve the shot. I like how you have the light focusing attention on the child (it's either very good work with the light or very good work applying a vignette in post).
[*]Not doing it for me, but that's just me
[*]But, I love this one - the expression is great!
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My Photos
Thoughts on photographing a wedding, How to post a picture, AF Microadjustments?, Light Scoop
Equipment List - Check my profile
Thanks! These were all shot with a Nikon D40 and an old manual focus 50mm 1.4 lens, except #3 which was shot with a D50 and 18-55mm kit lens (my D50 was tragically ran over by my friend's car in May 2007... RIP).
2, 4, and 5 are all natural light through windows with blinds. 3, 6, 7, 8, 9 are all bounce flash off the ceiling, and 1 was done with a hand held flash and a homemade foam-and-velcro diffuser thingy. Since I don't have a off-camera cord for my flash, I had to turn all the lights off in the room and set the shutter speed at half a second, then manually fire the flash after I heard the shutter open! It was dark enough that the long shutter speed didn't matter because no ambient light was picked up... pretty low-tech, but it worked. I really need to get a flash cord, though... When shooting the baby, however, I was consistently surprised at the quality of light that I could get just by bouncing my flash off the ceiling... I think the key was that I was bouncing it off at a 45 degree angle and slightly backwards, so that the light wasn't coming from directly overhead but from a similar direction as a standard key light in a studio environment.
Scott, thanks for all the feedback... especially on #7... I did add the vignette in PP, and I was slightly worried that that was a little too obvious. Glad to hear someone say that it looks good!
http://blog.timkphotography.com
Well that explains the first thing that I noticed about the 1st shot....I have never seen pupils that wide open in a portrait shot before. I was going to ask if she was sitting in the dark until the shot was taken, but you just answered that. These are nice shots. I really like the one with the baby and the bear and also #5. Can't add much more to what everyone else has said without being nit-picky. I like your style......
John
Yeah, I didn't notice the pupils until after the fact, but in retrospect I really like the way it looks... I'll probably do it again sometime, even after I get a cord for my flash.
http://blog.timkphotography.com
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