Portrait practice

Dave Lee

I'm going to have some senior portraits to do very soon, so I am getting in some practice. This is my son, who will be one of my senior subjects. As you can see, he is sporting the Maynard G. Krebs look these days. :rolleyes



There is a blown out area on his nose, any other C&C?

DavidTO

Skin tone's off: too much magenta not enough yellow. Too much head room. Try a larger aperture to give a shorter depth of field to offset him more from the BG.

System

wwooorrrkkkkk!!!!

you rang!?!?

Frog Lady

Nice shot - but it's interesting in that it looks like his eyes are smiling, but his mouth is grimacing (I know, not really a photo critique, but isn't it part of the photogs job to make their subjects comfortable in front of the camera...). Is this an "awe dad" look or is that how he really smiles?:D


Also, I agree w/ what DavidTO says about the aperature - it might also help hide an unlevel horizon line (oh, but that can be fixed in PS)

(cute son, by the way - reminds me of my 1st boyfriend, oh so many years ago )

Colleen

leebase

Do you have any other shots to show? It's not the most exciting or dramatic pose in the world...but, I have plenty just like it in my latest shoot. It's the other photos that will tell the tale.

I think a wider aperture would be helpful as someone else mentioned.

The background is busy by his head. As you mentioned, it's over exposed -- the reds seem blown. Did you use fill flash?

His expression could be better. This is the difficult part. Very few people can "smile for the camera". I'm not the greatest portrait shooter myself -- but I've been getting better results by telling the subject to just smile when they are ready -- to relax their face whenever they want to. I'll just capture the expressions as I see them.

I have my own thread that's just a few down from this one if you want to check out my own attempts. We can learn together.

Lee

Dave Lee

Thanks everyone,

Now that I look at it again, it is a little too red. I didn't use flash so the overexposure is a bit puzzling.

As far as aperture goes, I think I was wide open. I'm using a sony h1 - the lens is 2.8-3.5. Of course, I can add more blur to the background in gimp.

I will take the advice given here and give it another go!

Dave Lee

Frog Lady wrote:

Is this an "awe dad" look or is that how he really smiles?:D

Colleen

I would have to say there's a little "awe dad" in there. He does tend to smile more with his eyes though.

leebase

Dave Lee wrote:

Now that I look at it again, it is a little too red. I didn't use flash so the overexposure is a bit puzzling.

On the contrary -- flash would help you to NOT overexpose. It may not seem intuitive -- but sunny days are every bit as in need of flash as indoor shooting.

I used to HATE flash -- but only because I was terrible at using flash.

Reds blow out in evening sun. The rest of the photo can look fine, the histogram (when it's not separated into red/blue/green) can look fine. But the reds are blown anyway.

The hotspot on his nose is the only point on his face that's "over exposed". That's where flahs would have helped even things out. You could expose less to keep from blowing out on the nose, and had fill flash to keep the rest of the face from being underexposed.

Dave Lee wrote:

As far as aperture goes, I think I was wide open. I'm using a sony h1 - the lens is 2.8-3.5. Of course, I can add more blur to the background in gimp.

Ah....hmmm. The background was fairly distant...you appear fairly close to him. If you were wide open -- there should have been more blur. I wouldn't add it in post. You're just not going to get the same kind of look as shooting f1.8 or f1.4 with a "portrait lens" on a DSLR.

Lee

leebase

Just looked up your camera. The "dof" you are getting is a factor of the small sensor your camera has. It's great for when you want lots of DOF -- like with landscapes. It's nice for when you have low light (assuming you can get good high iso shots) and you want more than one person all in focus.

It's not as favorable for a single person portrait where you want that creamy f1.8 bokeh.

I've noticed an improvement in my bokeh when I went to the 5D with it's larger sensor and no "cropping factor". But that doesn't mean I can't get good shots with my 20D....and it doesn't mean you can't get good shots with your H1.

Lee

Dave Lee

leebase wrote:

Just looked up your camera. The "dof" you are getting is a factor of the small sensor your camera has. It's great for when you want lots of DOF -- like with landscapes. It's nice for when you have low light (assuming you can get good high iso shots) and you want more than one person all in focus.

It's not as favorable for a single person portrait where you want that creamy f1.8 bokeh.

I've noticed an improvement in my bokeh when I went to the 5D with it's larger sensor and no "cropping factor". But that doesn't mean I can't get good shots with my 20D....and it doesn't mean you can't get good shots with your H1.

Lee

Thanks for your help, Lee. I have taken some suprisingly good photos with really crappy cameras. That was mosly luck. Now I need to work on getting consistently good(or better than good) photos with the camera I have.

leebase

Dave Lee wrote:

Thanks for your help, Lee. I have taken some suprisingly good photos with really crappy cameras. That was mosly luck. Now I need to work on getting consistently good(or better than good) photos with the camera I have.

Yep. Just because you can't get a "certain look" that you could if you had a full frame digital SLR and sharp f1.4 prime lens -- does not mean you can't get fantastic photos.

One of my favorite photographers gets photos from his Coolpix 990 that are beyond my ability with the Canon 5D -- he's just that much better of a photographer.

Lee