My first "real" portrait attempt

Dionysus · January 25, 2009

I've taken some half set up portrait attempts with my oldest daughter before, but this was the first one where I tried to plan everything: from the backdrop to where my flash was to be located, the white poster board i bounced the flash off of, the fan i placed to blow her hair around, and the poses.

Anyway, I know there are some flaws, but for the most part I wanted to see how the masses thought I did. I like them for my first serious attempt.

anyway..

Agnieszka · January 25, 2009

Oh my!!! Your daughter is adoooorable!!!

lust

My only comment (beside that the photos are absolutely wonderful) is that they seem to be a bit too dark ++ I wish the hair wouldn't blend into the background that much ... (though I see that being a tough thing to avoid)

I hope you put them as a series on your wall!!

Dionysus · January 25, 2009

ya i just noticed that..i upped the exposure on them, and reuploaded the photos. hopefully it helped them out...thanks so much for your kind words about my daughter. shes a great kid.

Agnieszka · January 25, 2009

Muuch better

(maybe #2 is a bit too bright now?) ... now you just need to watch the wrinkly background

Haha, don't mind my (picky) comments, REALLY love the set ....

lust

divamum · January 25, 2009

She is beyond adorable! What a charmer.

For lighting, I especially like #4 and the last one; on the others it sometimes seems like the light is perhaps a little low (as in height, not as in strength) and is cacthing her chin more than her cheekbones.

But as captures? I think the entire series is beautiful

Dionysus · January 25, 2009

no no, i do appreciate the critique..trust me. I know about the background, and its distracting being so wrinkly..i thought the same thing..just that thats all i had to work with at the time. I just found some plain black/white fabric at walmart today.

I'm having trouble finding big sheets of white and black paper...the biggest I've seen is the poster board size.

Agnieszka · January 25, 2009

I hear 'ya about the background!

but hey, you should be able to fix it in photoshop without any big problems.

Dionysus · January 25, 2009

ya i agree..the light was low..i had no choice but to put it on the ground, since i dont have a stand or gorilla arms or whatever theyre called...i realy need to buy a flash stand.

These pics were taken w/ her crosslegged on the ground and everything pretty much ground level. Soon i'll have a flash stand and umbrella, and hopefully the portraits will look better.

NateW · January 25, 2009

Dionysus wrote:

...i had no choice but to put it on the ground, since i don't have a stand or gorilla arms or whatever they're called...i really need to buy a flash stand....

You could try a couple of scraps of lumber screwed together, or a chair, or something like that, too. (I made a new stand tonight with a long thin scrap of plywood and a couple of short screws: put a spring clamp on each side and wallah! We'll see the effectiveness over time, though...)
Esp at ground level, stick the light on a chair and you're set.

For a one off set, though: the lighting angle is great! It adds a different perspective to the images. And I've used a white pillow as a reflector in a pinch (worked great!), so don't let not finding the exact thing worry you.

I've also got a 4'x4' sheet of foil (1 side) covered Styrofoam insulation as a really big reflector: check the home stores or a lumber yard for it. One side's foil but not a mirror (lumpy, softening the reflection a little) and the other's white (mostly, gray lettering here and there) to further soften/lessen the reflection.
Heck, for that matter, grab a white shirt and the back of another chair and drape away!

Dionysus · January 25, 2009

thanks man..

ick i just noticed how much raising the exposure settings messed up the background. i gotta reprocess these i think.

codiac2600 · January 25, 2009

Beautiful pictures and I love all of the expressions.

My only advice is pull her a bit farther away from the backdrop to make it pure black and get yourself a reflector to bounce some light into the hair for slight separation.

Thank you so much for sharing!

Dionysus · January 25, 2009

hmm i never thought of that...so pulling her further away from the backdrop would have made it come out more evenly black ? im learning so much from one thread :P thanks for the advice..ill remember that for future shots.

divamum · January 25, 2009

Dionysus wrote:

ya i agree..the light was low..i had no choice but to put it on the ground, since i dont have a stand or gorilla arms or whatever theyre called...i realy need to buy a flash stand.

These pics were taken w/ her crosslegged on the ground and everything pretty much ground level. Soon i'll have a flash stand and umbrella, and hopefully the portraits will look better.

I don't have a lightstand, but I've been using my flash attached to my monopod via one of those umbrella/hotshoe adapters. My monpod has legs which extend to make it a sorta kinda tripod and I've been using that with my homemade softbox (thread here - read through to the end as I modified it and posted some finished product pictures in post #23)

The results have been pretty amazing to me - I had NO IDEA I could achieve this much with this little equipment (or experience! Major learning curve here...)

In these, my one flash was supplemented by a couple of el cheapo clip lamps from Lowes (workman's lights) and a bunch of pieces of foamcore as reflectors. The bg in this one was cleaned up in photoshop afterwards.

And this one was only flash and reflectors; the "background" was a white sheet.

In this shot (bad stitch together - scuse the poor alignment) you can just see the monopod w/softbox on it (this is a FAR from ideal setup as the room is small and crowded - it's music room - but at the moment it's the only option in the house, so I make it work.... no good for standing shots, but for seated head&shoulders it's ok)

The background you can see there is a tablecloth (ignore the colour difference - that's the bad pano effect); the stripy cloth on the floor is some old curtains. I recently picked up a cheapie black velour blanket to use as a black bg; I want a microsuede curtain, but I have ZERO money right now, and at $25 those were a little more than I wanted to spend. I'll wait till they go on sale, or I find them at Goodwill for cheap...

Dionysus · January 26, 2009

awesome setup....it obviously works for you, as those pictures are very nice indeed.

codiac2600 · January 26, 2009

Dionysus wrote:

hmm i never thought of that...so pulling her further away from the backdrop would have made it come out more evenly black ? im learning so much from one thread :P thanks for the advice..ill remember that for future shots.

It can (it really depends on the direction of light) because the light should fall off more the farther away you are from the backdrop. hen I shoot low-key I typically pull the model 7 feet from the backdrop to maximize my lighting ability without spilling light into the backdrop.

Examples:

The last one was pushing it with the subject being about 4.5 feet from the backdrop which is actually a wall I painted black in the studio.

Dionysus · January 26, 2009

i wish i can paint a wall black..i have to see what i can do. i wish i could find a place to get that huge backdrop paper from. What i had to work with for these was a piece of cloth that was a square yard. were moving soon to a much bigger place so maybe ill have wallspace big enough to have a bigger backdrop.

codiac2600 · January 26, 2009

Dionysus wrote:

i wish i can paint a wall black..i have to see what i can do. i wish i could find a place to get that huge backdrop paper from. What i had to work with for these was a piece of cloth that was a square yard. were moving soon to a much bigger place so maybe ill have wallspace big enough to have a bigger backdrop.

Do it with what you have there is never a rush

If your space is small and you want to purchase black felt because it will absorb more light than plain fabric so you shouldn't have to place the subject as far away. That will help for now until you can find a place to put paper, but know that black seamless paper is not black and you may want to invest in a 10X20 black muslin which will cost you less and last longer than a paper roll with good care.

NateW · January 26, 2009

codiac2600 wrote:

Do it with what you have there is never a rush

If your space is small and you want to purchase black felt because it will absorb more light than plain fabric so you shouldn't have to place the subject as far away. That will help for now until you can find a place to put paper, but know that black seamless paper is not black and you may want to invest in a 10X20 black muslin which will cost you less and last longer than a paper roll with good care.

As another option: get a 3 yard long section of black velvet. It'll cost ya a bit (~$15 / yard when I got it a couple years ago), but it is _so_ worth it if your subject can stay within the bounds. (My kids certainly can't in many cases, though can in some, so it's still worth it.)

The velvet just eats light. I had a full power SB800 pointed at it on a fairly good angle when a friend and I were playing around; the velvet ate all but like 2 pixels of light. And those were probably wood chips or something that had gotten thrown up from the workshop in the other room...

Seriously, that stuff is awesome. (I get spoiled with it: distance from subject is almost a non-issue, which is good in my somewhat cramped* studio.)

*Note: Divamum's got me cornered on this one; I certainly can't claim to have the most cramped studio! Good job for getting it done with what you've got!

Dionysus · January 26, 2009

awesome advice guys, thanks so much. its such a different world with this portrait stuff, as i am usually an outdoor shooter, but I wanted to be able to at least take my own good pictures of my kids.

Also, I want to earn extra money with photography, not really for a living (since i know myself enough to know that if I did that I would lose my passion for it), but basically just make enough to fund all the photography upgrades i want (lenses, lighting, etc.), without having to take the funds from my family's cash flow. I know taking kid portraits is a good steady way to do that, so I need to learn how to do it right. Even with these flawed pics I've caught a lot of attention with friends that now want me to shoot their kids, so honestly, thanks all for the pointers. I'll be putting them to good use.

Trevlan · January 26, 2009

She is absolutely adorable. Wow. #2 is a wall hanger for sure. Great personality. Great job, not bad for your first 'planned' shoot. The more practice we get, the better we get.

Dionysus · January 26, 2009

thanks man.

divamum · January 26, 2009

NateW wrote:

As another option: get a 3 yard long section of black velvet. It'll cost ya a bit (~$15 / yard when I got it a couple years ago), but it is _so_ worth it if your subject can stay within the bounds. (My kids certainly can't in many cases, though can in some, so it's still worth it.)

Black velvet = wonderful, but remember that dress material fabrics are usually only 45" or occasionally 60" wide. If you're gonna go the velvet route, check out the upholstery section where material is generally sold in wider widths; it is, of course, more expensive the wider it is, but at least you get what you need that way.

I'm going to experiment with my $6 black velour blanket over the next few days; assuming it looks ok, I'll share shots - my hunch is it will eat light in much the same way but it's wider (and was WAY cheaper). Plus, of course, since we've been below freezing for over 2 weeks, it's also been a nice extra throw rug when watching TV!!

(I'm all about multipurposing...

)

For a cheaper alternative for backdrops, go to your local discount store that has curtains and check out both shower curtains (plenty in fabrics these days) which are nice and wide, or just ordinary curtains which are often very LONG and can be turned through 90 degrees to get extra width. They're better bang per buck and with a bit of creative manipulation work really well. I'm definitely diggin' the microsuede one I picked up cheap at a thrift store, and want to get a black one in a similar fabric. I also found a shower curtain that was faux brown leather on one side, but lined in solid black on the other that would make a great reversible backdrop. In both cases you would have had more area for fewer $ than if you bought material. It's pretty easy to find velvet curtains as well and, to my surprise, there were plenty of black ones. The bonus with curtains is you can just stick them on a dowel to hang them (I use an old garment rack that used to live in our basement).

Locally both Ross and Burlington Coat Factory had loads of pretty nice curtains and shower/curtains for not big $. If you have either near you, worth checking out, perhaps.

*Note: Divamum's got me cornered on this one; I certainly can't claim to have the most cramped studio! Good job for getting it done with what you've got!

Thanks. It really is a case of "necessity is the mother of invention" right now - I'm amazed how much I can "get away with" until I have some funds to set things up a litttle more conventionally!!! I'm eyeing our basement at the moment....

Dionysus · January 26, 2009

yet another useful nugget of info...i never thought of curtains, and you're right they'll probably cheaper, and all you need is one panel. you guys are awesome.

ttbest · February 17, 2009

Adorable
These are soo darn cute. SHe's adorable. I love the lighting. When you say flash, what did you use for the lighting? ALso, I like the black & white that you ended up with. It's very subtle with not so much gray. Did you run an action for that?

I see that my post ended up posting under your lady picture but my reply was to your daughter's pictures- just in case you're wondering!!

My first "real" portrait attempt

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