First portrait post

jethibod

The dgrinners are an inspiring bunch! After lurking and reading and pretty much spending all my free time checking out the forums, I thought I'd post a few shots from a second 'shoot' that I did this last weekend. I've done one other, with a pregnant friend, but she's requested they be kept private, so...

I have pretty limited gear, but my friends have a lovely big window in their living room, so there was lots of natural light. I tried to set up a rim light, of sorts, on a shelf above their heads, but I don't think it was powerful enough (really just a desk lamp with a halogen bulb). Plus, I recently bought an SB-800 and am still learning about 'bounce' flash, so I'm not sure if my tactic worked or not.

They have a couple of little boys that they wanted some shots of, and a couple of family photos, so I tried my best with my limited skills. Side note: little boys are fun to hang out with, but not to do photography around...

#1 Mom and the 3 year old


#2 Mom and the 7 month old


#3 The three year old - one of my favorite people, and a real character

I just realized that the edge of my backdrop is showing. *sigh*

#4 Mommy taking a minute


#5 The 7 month old, who is almost even with his brother on my list of favorite people


#6 And finally, the whole family (well, except for the teenager, who couldn't be found!)

I can see that the whole family shot seems to be quite soft - I was having a hard time with my flash at that time, but how's the lighting?

I was so happy to have had a second 'shoot' to do, and have actually offered a session to a couple who just recently got engaged. I'm going to end up shooting all my friends, I'm almost positive!

Thanks for any feedback and advice you might have!
Jen

PS. Please bear in mind I have no PP software - I spent all my money on the camera!

divamum

Welcome! And yeah, this place is inspiring... and has certainly kept me glued to the computer like a crazy person of late! It's just been an incredible learning experience.

All that said, I'm at the bottom of the learning curve still, so please take anything I say with a grain of salt!

I think the soft light in these is beeeyootiful - I think you did great!

My main concern is that they're all a bit soft - the first one, and mom's profile are the best on that score, I think. In the first one you've used the fairly shallow depth of field really well for the book, but particularly when you have more than one person in them as you said, or when the focus may have latched onto something other than what you wanted it to (ie the baby - the mat is tack sharp, but his eyes are not), they aren't coming over as dead sharp on my monitor.

I'm going to guess that you were shooting with a fairly wide aperture? I love wide open lenses for the light and their ability to blur, but sometimes that can be a problem too... ie when what you WANT in focus isn't. When I've been shooting my recent SP's and daughter's pix w/my Tamron 17-50mm lens (usually around 35mm) I've needed 5.0 at least to get decent dof just for one of us, never mind more than that. And even then I've had plenty of shots where i forgot to select the right focus point and wound up with something other than her eyes crystal clear!

Btw, I don't use it but I hear that GIMP is a great free (did I say free?) and feature-heavy piece of processing software. Also, google's picasa (the one you download) is pretty good for basic editing... also free

Great start!

thegreenegg

Hi,
I would agree with divamum on her comments about aperture and focus. Some of your photos show focus on the wrong part of the photo or not both subjects- as the second one with the baby.
I really can't comment on you light set up. I actually am a bit of a starving student and only use natural light but its becoming more and more of a choice and not only a necessity.
It would be nice to try these shots again and only use the natural light of the window.
Its a good start to portrait.
But as you go further you might want to consider cloning out certain blemishes on the face (a little bit on Mom because of the closeness of the shot) and cloning out distracting parts of the background- like where the white walls show throw on the edge of your black sheet set up.
I still have problems on what works and doesn't work as part of non-distracting background. It takes work.
But again, good start.
a.

Qarik

I think this is a decent start.

Overall the shots are soft as you noticed.
Also shots with the dark background? The hair seems to just blend in leaving heads a bit formless. I do think they are underexposed as well. Fianlly for window light..it seem rather flat. What I mean is there is little shadow, tonal changes in the skin. It almost appears that you shot with the window light directly behind you? If so you may want to shoot with window light towards one side or the other..that way you get more interesting play of light across the faces.

Don't get discouraged..I have been only shooting for year and I think I have improved leaps and bounds by posting here and looking others critques and photos.:D

jethibod

Thanks for your feedback everyone! This is such a huge learning curve, I must say. I don't usually shoot people, so I know I've got a lot to learn. I'm looking forward to finding more volunteers to sit for me while I practice!

Mike J

Like divaumum, I am also at the beginning of the learning curve so... my 2 cents are probably only worth 1.

These type of shots are some of my favorites - capturing the candid moments in a family. I think in all of them, you can see a glimpse of who they really are.

Technically as others have stated they all do appear a little soft.

#1 - I like being able to see the title of the book. I think that will be a talking point in 10 years as they look back through these - "oh remember that book - it was one of your favorites" - sort of memories. I do wonder if there was another shot here - to your right and maybe a little lower to see up into their eyes?

#2 Looks like the bounce flash was used here? This is one where having her backlight (with a second flash) would have helped separate Mom from the background.

#3 I like this one. Did you bounce the flash again? Couple thoughts here... are those his feet growing out of his head? In this pose, move to your right a little or have him angle his lower body away. Also a little tighter crop on the left to get rid at that little band in the upper left of the frame as well as cloning out the wooden-looking object towards the bottom.

#4 - This is my least favorite. I don't think a silhoute works for her.

#5 - Adorable.

#6 - As you noted, this one is really soft which kind of makes the picture not work. What were your camera settings for this one?