Practice on People

PedalGirl

I don't have much practice at shooting portraits so my BFF headed to the park so I could get some practice. These are a couple of my favorites.

1.


2.

D3Sshooter

Good start , I do like the second one. Although the first one isn't bad, however the crop compo is a bit odd (not full body, or American plane, torso or head). Maybe a bit more legs or no legs.

Gotham

#2 is very nice. But to make it jump more, I think you would need to get some light onto her face -- some reflected light or an off-shoe flash coming from frame left to give her eyes some sparkle and some shape to her face would really help.

jimpurcell

I love the second photo! Well done.

Quincy T

I think 1 might've been good had you just used her face and the brim of the hat as a really close up shot, and #2...I'm not sure what's going on with the post-work, but the pose is nice.

PedalGirl

How about this one... this is from a shoot with a co-worker yesterday. She actually paid me... so I guess I could say I've now had my first "paid gig".

Bridget

Quincy T

pedalgirl wrote: »

how about this one... This is from a shoot with a co-worker yesterday. She actually paid me... So i guess i could say i've now had my first "paid gig".

Bridget

iris enhance. Activate. Form of: She Who Must Not Be Named.

PedalGirl

Quincy T wrote: »

iris enhance. Activate. Form of: She Who Must Not Be Named.

I did VERY Little on her eyes... she seriously didn't need it, she's got eyes that just won't quit. And NO teeth whitening either.

RyanS

PedalGirl,

On your picture of Bridget, I noticed a couple of issues you may want to be aware of.
* You were shooting a 50mm on a crop @f/6.3 ISO 100. Consider shooting at f/2.8 (or below) for this type of shot.
* This exposure gave you a shutter speed of 1/25th which is causing some big quality issues in the photo due to either camera or subject motion. Try to keep the shutter speed above 1/60th.
* The smaller aperture left the leaves in the background too much in focus, resulting in a less-than-pleasing background. Open that aperture.
* Her head is tipped slightly to (her) left. Putting her on the right side of the frame with that head tilt gives a compositional sense that she is part way out of the shot. You might have had the subject tilt in to the frame, or, placed her a bit more centrally (not too far) back in to the frame.
* The skin tone is really off. Setting a WB should solve a lot of the issues, but you may also need to make other adjustments.
* When shooting digital, always check that histogram.
* You've got almost zero tone variation on the face, making it look very flat. To see how flat it is - convert the image to B&W with a green filter effect. You'll see her nose almost disappear in to white. There isn't any way that I know of to fix this in post. Therefore, a re-shoot may be the only way to fix the lighting across the nose.
* The background is just a tad too bright.
* Because of the color issues, etc, you might get a lot of mileage by using a post technique that moves the colors in to a more pleasing range. Like a cross-processing look, etc. It might also help her eyes pop even more. And I know that may seem counter-productive in this shot - but trust me. Make the eyes REALLY pop.

Here is a visual example of what I mean (for illustrative/educational purposes only):

PedalGirl

Thanks for the tips Ryan... I'll work on this one a bit more. One question... seems like when I shoot people with a wider aperture, I don't get all of their face in focus. So, to be safe I upped my aperture to make sure I was getting her face in focus and the background did suffer. Any tips on how to avoid that?

This is a friend of mine who has seen my photos, mostly NOT Portraits, and I think she thinks I'm better than I think I am... no pressure! I clearly need more practice in regards to portrait type photography...some day I hope to be as good as she thinks I am. I appreciate the helpful suggestions on how to improve.

RyanS

Everyone has their tricks, but here are the basics.

* Shoot at 2.8.
* Keep the eyes in the same "focal plane" which means that they need to be parallel to the front of the lens.
* Focus right on the eyes. What I do is set the camera to use only the central focus point, aim at an eye, lock focus, wait for the subject's expression, then shoot.
* If the subject's head is turned, that is fine. Close down to f/4 or f/5.6 and then just pay attention a bit more to what is in the background.
* You can get a really dreamy effect at 1.8 and below. It is possible, it just takes practice. I think it is worth mastering "wide open."
* Hate to say it, but some cameras are just better at locking focus wide open than others. Your camera may just have a hard time with that. Dunno.

Quincy T

ryans wrote: »

everyone has their tricks, but here are the basics.

* shoot at 2.8.
* keep the eyes in the same "focal plane" which means that they need to be parallel to the front of the lens.
* focus right on the eyes. What i do is set the camera to use only the central focus point, aim at an eye, lock focus, wait for the subject's expression, then shoot.
* if the subject's head is turned, that is fine. Close down to f/4 or f/5.6 and then just pay attention a bit more to what is in the background.
* you can get a really dreamy effect at 1.8 and below. It is possible, it just takes practice. I think it is worth mastering "wide open."
* hate to say it, but some cameras are just better at locking focus wide open than others. Your camera may just have a hard time with that. Dunno.

+1.