Black and White Portraits

mpaulie

Hi everyone, new to dgrin and only been into photography for a few months and loving it. The wealth of knowledge here is immense, I've spent the last couple weeks just reading through the forums.

Anyway, I would like to post some of what I've been doing. Any critique and criticism is much appreciated.



Thanks

ShepsMom

Welcome to D mpaulie! Glad you joined the madness I like 3rd shot the best of this set. Keep posting!!

Azzaro

I like 3 and 4 the best.
The pictures seem a little flat. Contrast would help.
Picture 2 is cropped a little tight ....I think head and shoulders would be more pleasing.

look forward to see your next post.....AZZARO

Scott_Quier

Welcome to the fray! I'm sure you'll enjoy it almost as much as I do.

Some thoughts:
1 - Just a little fill light on the shadow side would have made this so much more interesting. Need just enough to bring out some texture or contour of the face.

2 - The crop on this one is just a touch tight. Also, the light is just the opposite of the first. Here you don't have enough shadow - something that is commonly referred to as "flat lighting."

3 - This is soo cute! Love the capture. All that's left to do is to apply a little curve adjustment to increase contrast a touch.

4 - Excellent focus and very good light. This is very much a candid. Were it posed, I might suggest that the pressure of the finger on her cheek be reduced or remove the finger from in front of the face completely.

mpaulie

Thank you all so much for the replies, I'm taking notes! Great advice all around. I may have to pick your brains on bringing the contrast out in the photos.

Scott_Quier

mpaulie wrote:

Thank you all so much for the replies, I'm taking notes! Great advice all around. I may have to pick your brains on bringing the contrast out in the photos.

A good place to start is the DGrin Tutorials (see the top of the page)

See the tutorials section here: http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1100284

Curves and Contrast Tute: http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/2292454/1

saurora

Welcome to the forum! You'll love it here and learn alot. I happen to like tight head shots, sometimes they work really well and sometimes they don't. I think so far you are very observant and doing well at capturing candid shots. I like #1 a lot even though it might be a bit dark and could use some 'pop'. I can see the beginning of a smile on her face and it makes me wonder what she might be so happy about. You might want to straighten the photo a bit so the leaning window frame doesn't distract from her expression. The rest look good on my monitor.