advice / comments "portraits"

windoze · August 17, 2005

im not looking for people to tell me how beautiful Heather is ( i know she is ! ) what im looking for are honest comments about the quality of this image... the lens was rather expensive and doing this is very differnt from shooting gorillas at a zoo. here is the exif data:

Date Taken: 2005-08-17 00:36:20 Date Digitized: 2005-08-17 00:36:20 Date Modified: 2005-08-17 12:48:59 Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 20D Size: 2937x2350 Bytes: 845309 Aperture: f/2.0 ISO: 200 Focal Length: 135mm (guess: 126mm in 35mm) Exposure Time: 0.0015s (1/640) Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode Exposure Program: Aperture priority Exposure Bias: 0 ColorSpace: sRGB

is this what you would expect? is it sharp enough?? i tried to focus ( handheld) kinda between her eyes....

is the lens good but my skills "suck"? any advice is appreciated!!

hopefully my limited skills in pp didnt render this image too bad...

troy

Ann McRae · August 17, 2005

Hi Troy

I think that what happened here is that your dof is too small - f 2.0 is pretty razor thin and I am thinking you were close enough to your subject that f4 or f6 would have been better. It looks to me as though the plane of focus is in front of her eyes - the shirt is crisp but not her face (well, maybe the tip of her nose).

Of course, I am no pro so take this FWIW.

ann

gluwater · August 17, 2005

I think Ann is correct that the focus is slightly in front of her.

Don't get discouraged Troy. It's a new lens and it will take you time to get used to it. Keep testing shots here and hopefully we can help you get what you want out of the lens.

I think changing the aperture like Ann said would help, also maybe use a fill flash. I'm no portrait photographer but I have been using a macro lately and trying to get things in focus at 2.8 was hard enough, I can't imagine what it is like at f/2. Good luck!

Nick

advice / comments "portraits"

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