Couple of New Tries - One Serious Senior Pic and Some of 26y/o Blonde

jhelms

I've recently purchased LR2 and am trying my hand at some RAW captures finally...

Still just getting my feet wet but I'm liking the direction of these.

1st, this one of Blade:
#1



Plus 2 out-takes (unedited)
#2 - The Serious



#3 - The Smirk



And here's a few that I just re-edited in LR (took a couple of months ago) of Margaret:

#4



#5



#6




Am I headed in the right direction or do I need to do a u-turn and change some stuff before I get too far down the wrong road? :scratch

Miguel Delinquento

I see a few issues that can be fixed pretty easily.
-The first of Blade is not in focus. It is also an unflattering perspective. Chopping off the top and bottom of his head is a little strange to me, but that's just me.
-The second one of Blade is also a strange perspective in that his right side is chopped arbitrarily. I also don't like the background as it's distracting.
-The third shot is the best in that he looks more personable, but I would have zoomed in a bit more. Same background issue. Technically, your white balance/skin tones are seriously off--too red. Is your monitor calibrated? Also his eyes should be whiter.
The shooting perspective on Margaret in the first and third shots doesn't add much over a conventional straight-aimed shot. I don't see the benefit of the vignetting on the first shot. I like the lighting on her face. I don't like her pose on the ball as it makes her look heavy.
-The second shot is much better, though she looks a bit over-serious. Too much tree on top and the white balance is still off. Have you used LR's eyedropper for white balance?
-I would prefer a horizontal crop for the third shot. Too much blown background to the left and on the right the greenery is too dark. The vignetting doesn't serve you here. And it's too much work to turn my body to view her lovely face. Nice lighting though.

Lightroom is a wonderful tool. I'm sure after a spell you will be quite proficient.

M

jhelms

Great comments so far - and I should clarify (my original post was worded poorly): The 3 pics of Blade were casual, he just happens to be a senior in HS but these weren't his "senior portraits". Actually we were just with a group of people eating at IHOP!

And pics # 2 and 3 are exactly out of the camera, no WB, edits or other corrections done before posting them here. I thought they were neat but just as extras.

Miguel Delinquento wrote:

I see a few issues that can be fixed pretty easily.
-The first of Blade is not in focus. It is also an unflattering perspective. Chopping off the top and bottom of his head is a little strange to me, but that's just me.

It was taken with a 50mm 1.8, but at f4.5, ISO800, 1/60th. The eyes look focused when I zoom into 1:1 but you aren't the first to mention the focus of that one. On my work laptop and my 28" LCD monitor at home a full size look at the eyes looks good?

-The second one of Blade is also a strange perspective in that his right side is chopped arbitrarily. I also don't like the background as it's distracting.
-The third shot is the best in that he looks more personable, but I would have zoomed in a bit more. Same background issue. Technically, your white balance/skin tones are seriously off--too red. Is your monitor calibrated? Also his eyes should be whiter.

Pics # 2 and 3 are exactly out of the camera, no WB, edits or other corrections done before posting them here. I thought they were neat but just as extras. He was moving around a lot, hence the cutoff ears, etc. But he really liked how pic #1 turned out, chopped off chin and all.

My monitor is calibrated (Spyder2Express) but I didn't edits those 2 extra pics before posting them here.

The shooting perspective on Margaret in the first and third shots doesn't add much over a conventional straight-aimed shot. I don't see the benefit of the vignetting on the first shot. I like the lighting on her face. I don't like her pose on the ball as it makes her look heavy.

Cool, I need to go back and look at possibly cropping/rotating those a little more conventionally. I did add the vignette and I don't like it either, consider it gone. I liked the ball pose but looking back I see what you are talking about the way the shirt is kind of puffed up.

-The second shot is much better, though she looks a bit over-serious. Too much tree on top and the white balance is still off. Have you used LR's eyedropper for white balance?

I haven't, but I need to. Once you select that, are you looking to pic something in the picture that is totally white or neutral / gray / black / or what?

-I would prefer a horizontal crop for the third shot. Too much blown background to the left and on the right the greenery is too dark. The vignetting doesn't serve you here. And it's too much work to turn my body to view her lovely face. Nice lighting though.

Lightroom is a wonderful tool. I'm sure after a spell you will be quite proficient.

Gotcha, good comments - keep 'em coming! For the lighting I was just using an SB600 off camera, controlled by the onboard built in flash of the D200. I really do want to improve and take consistently better shots and then edit them in the right way.

Thanks!

joshhuntnm

A little too much vignetting on 4 and 6 for me.

davidweaver

joshhuntnm wrote:

A little too much vignetting on 4 and 6 for me.

Bump on 4 & 6.

Otherwise, very good work!

Cheers,
David