First real portrait session

itsaduck

By real I mean hired by the mom and she will be buying the prints from my site. Yay!! I'll be posting another thread in the Pro accounts support thread to help me figure out how that whole thing works, but for now, two processed but not PP shots:

#1


#2


The first shot with a 40D using my EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 at 1/100, f/6.3 ISO 200.

The second shot using an EF50mm f/1.8 II at 1/60 f/7.1, ISO 200, no flash.

C&C welcome. I anticipate some minor PS work on the background so input on that welcome too.

EDITED: A huge thanks to Urbanaries for suggesting the 50mm, I love it even though it looks super funny on my camera.

Cheers-

Agnieszka

I really like the first shot, well done, it might need some light adjustments, but that's an easy/quick fix in photoshop.

The 2nd shot needs some background fixing ... hmmmmm ... The backgrounds are expensive (experiencing the same problem myself at the moment), but I would at least iron the sheet, so you can cut down on the post-processing time

jeffreaux2

I really like the first shot, well done, it might need some light adjustments, but that's an easy/quick fix in photoshop.

I don't find anything with the light to complain about. The skin tones have some red patches that might could use some attention.

The 2nd shot needs some background fixing ... hmmmmm ... The backgrounds are expensive (experiencing the same problem myself at the moment), but I would at least iron the sheet, so you can cut down on the post-processing time

I agree the BG should be ironed or hung outside in warm sun for awhile to get the creases out. In addition to that, moving your subjects away from the BG will help. Especially if you open the Aperature on that 50mm up a tad.




and....

EDITED: A huge thanks to Urbanaries for suggesting the 50mm, I love it even though it looks super funny on my camera.

Lucky you. She talked me into a much more expensive lens !!!


Her advise, however, was right on the money.

itsaduck

but I would at least iron the sheet, so you can cut down on the post-processing time

Ha! You caught that, huh? Aside from hating to iron, that's my emergency "the best light is over here" sheet that hasn't seen action in a bit. I figured it was better to use that than to try to PS out a dishwasher .

The skin tones have some red patches that might could use some attention.

Yes, he actually has some reddish birthmarks on his face that his mom requested that I tone down. I haven't done it yet b/c I wanted her to see them in situ, as it were. When she makes her picks, I'll work on that. Good catch though, I was wondering how noticeable they were. I've been looking at them for a day so I didn't see them too much.

As an aside, when you are crammed into a corner (as we were, but next to a huge windowed french door), how can you move the subject so the background isn't so noticeable? What have you done in those situations? Any suggestions welcome. I'm in the city so house spaces are limited and light sources are hard to come by.

Oh, and as for the lens, since I went ahead with the 40D purchase, the 50mm was about all I could do .

Cheers-

jeffreaux2

As an aside, when you are crammed into a corner (as we were, but next to a huge windowed french door), how can you move the subject so the background isn't so noticeable? What have you done in those situations? Any suggestions welcome. I'm in the city so house spaces are limited and light sources are hard to come by.

Well first, get them as far away as possible. Second I would experiment with wider aperatures. The pose of the two of them would need also to be adjusted. Basically, you want both sets of eyes in the same focal plane....the same distance from the camera. Mom looks closer here. If both were on the same focal plane, you could have used a shallower depth of focus by choosing F4 instead of F8. It can be frustrating to use shallow DOF on more than one subject, but it isn't impossible. You maybe could have gone farther than F4....say maybe F3.2?

Despite it's price, the 50mmF1.8 produces amazing results. At the end of last year I put together a gallery of my favorites....what I consider my best....photos from 2007 and was dumbstruck by how many of them were taken with that lens. I have found that at F4 all of the finickiness of it disappear and it is amazingly razor sharp. Also...FWIW...I have found 50mm to be a very useful length on a 1.6X crop sensor camera for portraits.

Absolutely NOT a waste of $$.

Hope that helps some.

beetle8

#1 is great, something about the color is throwing me, is the sheet white? I think the lighting is fine it's a tonal thing. I also think you could bring the bottom left corner in on a crop slightly, or play with it and see what works.
#2 mom looks like she leaned in as an after though and the picture seems akward. The light is great though if that is all ambient then consider yourself lucky.
Regarding the more than distracting wrinkled BG, I had to laugh when you said "oh you noticed?" you really have to pull yourself away from it to look at the rest of the picture. That being said, I've taken more than my share of wrinkled sheet shots. A different tip to try and get rid of it in the future, for a white BG you can use a light to try and blow it out in the exposure, sometimes it works, other times it ends up being equally distracting.