another portrait attempt

DanielB

Hello again all :wave

It's been awhile. but here is my latest and greatest. we are doing a portrait unit in Photojournalism and this is what i came up with. Any critique would be fantastic since i enjoy portraiture and the challenges that come with it.

my best friend Jasmine:



DanielB

gmonkeh

I like the image overall great work. Lighting is good, and I like the way you framed the shot. It would have been nice to get more detail in her eyes though. What color are they?

Lex
edit:

I just took a closer look and I noticed that her pupils are dilated. A nice trick to get some iris detail is to use a table lamp and position it behind the camera and shine it on her eyes. This will make sure that her pupils will contract. That or turn up your modeling lights a little bit.

Ted Szukalski

Daniel, I like the photo. Quite a pretty girl in a good pose. The light is a bit bright but than again she looks like a bright girl.

This is where I'd finish my comment normally but you have had this in your post "we are doing a portrait unit in Photojournalism".

This is where this photo fails. Sorry but this is a studio portrait there is no "photojournalism" component to it. Think it over.

DavidS

I like the composition. She is a pretty girl.

gluwater

Zombie lighting! That's what they call lighting from below. It's usually not very attractive for portraits, but I don't think it's too bad for this one. I would rather have the light coming from above though.

DanielB

Ted Szukalski wrote:

Daniel, I like the photo. Quite a pretty girl in a good pose. The light is a bit bright but than again she looks like a bright girl.

This is where I'd finish my comment normally but you have had this in your post "we are doing a portrait unit in Photojournalism".

This is where this photo fails. Sorry but this is a studio portrait there is no "photojournalism" component to it. Think it over.

not so much a photojournalistic portrait as i mean that while we do photojournalism for our newspaper and yearbook our teacher wants us to play around with portraiture as well so she had us do this unit. basicly off the beaten path from our usual shots.

thanks for the advice

DanielB

gluwater wrote:

Zombie lighting! That's what they call lighting from below. It's usually not very attractive for portraits, but I don't think it's too bad for this one. I would rather have the light coming from above though.

i'll try to keep that in mind next time. not like i'm trying to make excuses but the rod was broken on one of the lights so it had to be from about 2ft off the ground but i had the other one about 7ft up. and was working with a softbox too but i think i had it on a little bit too low because some of the harsher shadows still came through.

System

nice, dan'lb-

and so's the shot-

DanielB

gefillmore wrote:

nice, dan'lb-

and so's the shot-

thanks george nice to see you around

saurora

Hi Daniel, good to see you! Not a typical portrait with the unusual lighting, but it's still effective in it's own way. Cute friend. Great eye contact....I could be mistaken, but with those pupils dilated the way they are, it sure looks like she's got a thing going for the photographer!!!

DanielB

saurora wrote:

I could be mistaken, but with those pupils dilated the way they are, it sure looks like she's got a thing going for the photographer!!!

shhh i'm secretly workin on that part.

ian408

DanielB wrote:

i'll try to keep that in mind next time. not like i'm trying to make excuses but the rod was broken on one of the lights so it had to be from about 2ft off the ground but i had the other one about 7ft up. and was working with a softbox too but i think i had it on a little bit too low because some of the harsher shadows still came through.

It's not an excuse, it's a fact. Your equipment wasn't what you wanted or
expected but you made the best with what you had.

Making due when things aren't what you expect is a valuable skill to have.
It's the difference between success and failure.

My only comment is that I think the face is a bit too OE. Look at the
shoulders and then the face. You'll see. Otherwise, it's a very nice
portrait.

DanielB

ian408 wrote:

It's not an excuse, it's a fact. Your equipment wasn't what you wanted or
expected but you made the best with what you had.

Making due when things aren't what you expect is a valuable skill to have.
It's the difference between success and failure.

My only comment is that I think the face is a bit too OE. Look at the
shoulders and then the face. You'll see. Otherwise, it's a very nice
portrait.

thanks ian actually her face was darker than that on the origional i just brought it up some to make it pop a little more. i'll see what i can do and post a re-work.

Thiago Sigrist

Hi Daniel!

Nice best friend you have there!

I like your picture of her a lot, the slightly tilted composition, and the fact you've included her hands too, are things that I really enjoy in portraits.

Thanks so much for sharing!
Take care!

-- thiago

Jeffro

It looks as if you missed the focus. Her fingers are in perfect focus, but her eyes are not. Unless you were trying to make that french manicure the main subject.:D