First studio portrait, feedback wanted

photocat

Hi, this is my first studio portrait ever... I used the lamps in school,
and Alex is a co-student, willing to pose.
He was pleased with how I portraiyed him, but I wonder if this is an acceptable picture as to photographers qualities...
This is a new and exiting field for me, and certainly further time is needed to explore and get a good feel of it.
Any suggestions or feedback would be greatly appreciated. I am here after all to learn.

photocat

Second studio portrait shot
This is the same evening, school studio. A dad and his daughter. I knew I wanted those two together, they both are on my course.
I wanted them to show how they relate and comnunicate with each other, they get along so well, and this picture shows a father and a daughter in a nice moment.
I have no idea of what I am doing really, it is all so new to me.
Any feedback again welcome

Head in the Clouds

nice shots!
first one (handsome man by the way! - a bit sean connery dare i say?) a bit grainy? what ISO setting? might need a bit of cropping to get rid of a bit of the black on his shirt
second one, really nice shot, i like this a lot, they are obviously very comfortable with each other! i can't tell if it would be better with the shot centred or whether it works being a little off centre - kind of gives it a contempory feel ?
nice ones though!

tmlphoto

I like the both. #1 is a little contrasty, but it works quite well with this subject. I think I would crop #2 a little tighter, but still keep it off center.

photocat

First portraits
The grain came when I converted it to black and white. They were originally shot in color, and I probably got more grain with the contrast tweeking.
I might crop off a bit of his shirt...
I wondered about the off center position off the dad and Pippa, but was not sure if cropping would be right. Personally, I would crop it a bit, but still leave them off center, as Thomas advizes.

Thank you guys. I am grateful for the comments.

cmr164

photocat wrote:

Hi, this is my first studio portrait ever... I used the lamps in school,
and Alex is a co-student, willing to pose.
He was pleased with how I portraiyed him, but I wonder if this is an acceptable picture as to photographers qualities...
This is a new and exiting field for me, and certainly further time is needed to explore and get a good feel of it.
Any suggestions or feedback would be greatly appreciated. I am here after all to learn.

I like this and I realise that the grain is from the conversion. How does it look in orig colour? Also I know you (like me) prefer not to PS shots but you might consider blurring the sharp edge transition above his head

photocat

How does it look in color
The original of Alex is gone! I am always careful and work on copies, but I guess this one went wrong.
I do have another shot in this series though, they all looked like that.
The lamps were very hot, and poor Alex was sweating so much... grin
I decided to turn him into black and white to avoid the redness...
They were all underexposed too, I need more practice time in the studio.
I hope I won't loose to much sharpness when I soften the edge on his head... I had not even noticed that. Thanks for the feedback