Portraits of my youngest

JulieLawsonPhotography

Ok first let me explain my set-up. I know the major things I did wrong in these. I have some fabric, which I used on the floor and then I bought poster board and taped them all together. I know, cheap, but I am improvising until I can get enough to get seamless paper. That is kind of low on my list right now. Anyway, natural light from one window. Big problem for me as I really could have gotten better pics, I think, if I had used the room with two windows.

Also, how are the colors in these and how do I get rid of the dark circles under her eyes?

Thanks for any advice you all can give.



2

3

4 this copy with a prettyizer effect

CarnalSigh

Photo 3 cracks me up....I love it! These are great shots Julie.

Are u shooting in RAW then adjusting the color temp before further processing? I can't help but think that if you did, the skin tones would smooth out a little bit for you. Number 1 looks just a tiny bit over-exposed to me. Maybe dropping down in iso or an f stop or two would suffice.

As for your imaginative background....I can't count how many portrait sessions I did using material I bought at walmart. I got three 12 foot lengths and sewed them together to make my black background. Below is a walmart fabric background shot I did of my daughter's best friend a couple years ago in our living room with a film camera someone gave me. I had all of $17 invested in the whole thing. Necessity is the mother of invention. Nobody has to know you are low budget. Looks like a studio to me

JulieLawsonPhotography

I don't have RAW capabilities yet. I am going to be ordering the Nikon D40x at the end of the week. I'm also going to order a speedlight. Do you think that will help to reduce the "raw" red look I think I see in my pics? I mean, without major PP, my pics don't generally look the way I feel others look. crisp and clean looking. I have a kodak z650 at the moment

Scott_Quier

JulieLawsonPhotography wrote:

I don't have RAW capabilities yet. I am going to be ordering the Nikon D40x at the end of the week. I'm also going to order a speedlight. Do you think that will help to reduce the "raw" red look I think I see in my pics? I mean, without major PP, my pics don't generally look the way I feel others look. crisp and clean looking. I have a kodak z650 at the moment

I think you already know the answer - see bolded text above. Most people pass their images through some sort of edit before they are finished with them. Many do quite a bit of work on them to get the image to reflect what they saw rather than what the camera saw. I can't remember the last time I released an image without first setting/correcting white balance; increasing contrast, saturation; adjusting levels; and a whole host of other things.

The raw, red look could be a combination of a couple of things (and, I'm guessing here):

• You could be seeing the effect induced by your on-camera flash. It may be a little warm
• Your camera processes the data that comes off the sensor and may be inducing a magenta tint to the photo

At any rate, the tint and "raw red" look can be corrected in post processing.

CarnalSigh

JulieLawsonPhotography wrote:

I don't have RAW capabilities yet. I am going to be ordering the Nikon D40x at the end of the week. I'm also going to order a speedlight. Do you think that will help to reduce the "raw" red look I think I see in my pics? I mean, without major PP, my pics don't generally look the way I feel others look. crisp and clean looking. I have a kodak z650 at the moment

Man, I missed that one. I assumed u were using a dslr and processing the photos on your puter before posting. Sorry. As Scott said....pretty much everyone processes after taking the shot to get that perfect feel they desire. That is the way to get the "crisp and clean looking" effect u seek. I look forward to seeing the great shots u get with your new camera.