My 1st Portrait Job

SoonerShawn · April 22, 2009

I was asked by a friend from church if I would mind taking some shots of her daughter for her Sr. Pictures, having never done any portrait stuff, I hesitated to do it, but thought it would be a great opportunity for me to learn on a willing subject who was not real picky. Here are a few shots from a couple of the settings. Please let me know what you think. The only way to learn is to hear from the best, so give me your critiques.

The last shot was just a fun shot we wanted to play with. Doesn't work too good for Sr. Photo but something I thought we could use in a photo book.

All images taken with:
Nikon D3
50mm 1.4 lens
Natural light

Nikolai · April 22, 2009

Very nicely done! R35p3c7!

Snowgirl · April 22, 2009

Nice set and a lovely girl.

#1 Nice DOF and good focus on her eyes. That 'looking up' pose is very flattering to many people. It seems a little dark, though, to me.

#2 This one doesn't do it for me, but I can't articulate why - whether it's the crop or the angle - but it seems less flattering. Perhaps a 3/4 crop instead?

#3 & #4 are nice although, again, #4 seems a little dark.

#5 I would have really liked a lot if she'd stood up a little straighter as opposed to rounding her shoulders forward and down.

#6 nice concept but what's the focus - her or the cross?

All this said - I'm a beginning photographer so take it for what it's worth

anonymouscuban · April 22, 2009

WOW. Very nicely done. These are better than some I've seen from some that do this for a living.

1 and 5 are probably my favorite. She looks very relaxed and the poses don't seem forced. I don't like the pose and crop on #2. Doesn't seem natural. Her face is very pretty in that shot as is the hair blowing in her face so maybe crop in a bit tighter on her face.

The last one with the crop is nice but I would suggest you try brightening her up a bit, but do so locally so the rest stays the same. I think it will really make that a nice capture.

Good job though.

Tim Kamppinen · April 22, 2009

Good job! I absolutely love the first one with the blue flowers. Great image. As for the last one, I'm assuming that you did one of photoshops lighting effects to get that look? Anyway I don't think it works but you could probably reprocess it with a different technique and get a much better result. As it is it looks much too artificial and "overlaid" to me. Also, I had to look twice to see the girl in the photo becasue the cross dominates the whole image, whereas I'm guessing the point was supposed to be her faith and devotion, etc. That's pretty much lost if you don't notice her in the shot, right? But the biggest thing obscuring her seems to be the post processing effect so I think you could easily make this into a winner with a second run through. Maybe burn down the sky around the cross while dodging it and the girl a bit? Even a soft focus effect to make it look more "ethereal" could work... just ideas.

imagesofhim · April 22, 2009

Stunning! #'s 1, 4, & 5 are my faves... The dof and color in #1 are exquisite. In #4, she looks at peace and I like that expression. I particularly like the still waters and the reflective aspect of #5.

I think #2 could have been something if the wind hadn't been blowing and if the camera were angled ever so slightly...

GREAT job! Thanks for sharing as now I've learned some new posing techniques!

sweet caroline · April 22, 2009

Beautiful work! The crop in #2 doesn't bother me. If we were talking about a curvier girl, a crop at her little waist would be more flattering, but this girl is so slender.

Love the bluebonnets- haven't found a great patch yet. I take that back, I found a lovely patch of bluebonnets at the wrong time and not at a location I would normally have access to. The other wildflowers were to die for, as well.

Caroline

rhondavid · April 22, 2009

Number 1 and #4 are my favorites. Agree that number one is a little dark but should be easy to correct. Love the shallow depth of field and the way the flowers frame her. Number four is probably my best because of the peaceful expression, totally at ease with what is going on, sort of daydreaming look on her face. Great job on all of them. You may have found your niche.

Darren Troy C · April 22, 2009

#1 is stunning! Her eyes are quite beautiful!

GemGem · April 22, 2009

Great Job!
My faves, 1,2,4,5. Awesome! She must be very happy with these. She is beautiful.

Mike J · April 22, 2009

You've been hiding your talents from us! Fantastic. #2 and #4 are my favorites. The only one I don't like is #5 and that is only because I don't care for her facial expression (and maybe little fill here?)

austinstrobist · April 23, 2009

I love #1, it's perfect!

SoonerShawn · April 23, 2009

Tim Kamppinen wrote:

Good job! I absolutely love the first one with the blue flowers. Great image. As for the last one, I'm assuming that you did one of photoshops lighting effects to get that look? Anyway I don't think it works but you could probably reprocess it with a different technique and get a much better result. As it is it looks much too artificial and "overlaid" to me. Also, I had to look twice to see the girl in the photo becasue the cross dominates the whole image, whereas I'm guessing the point was supposed to be her faith and devotion, etc. That's pretty much lost if you don't notice her in the shot, right? But the biggest thing obscuring her seems to be the post processing effect so I think you could easily make this into a winner with a second run through. Maybe burn down the sky around the cross while dodging it and the girl a bit? Even a soft focus effect to make it look more "ethereal" could work... just ideas.

Thanks Tim...I agree with everything you said. I'm just not real good with the dodge and burn tool yet. I need to work on it. I appreciate your ideas. I'll play with it some more and see if I can make it better.

SoonerShawn · April 23, 2009

Thank you for all the kind words. I have a question...2 people said that #1 appeared a bit dark...does everyone get the feeling this is a bit dark, because I may need to calibrate my monitor.

Mike J · April 23, 2009

SoonerShawn wrote:

Thank you for all the kind words. I have a question...2 people said that #1 appeared a bit dark...does everyone get the feeling this is a bit dark, because I may need to calibrate my monitor.

Not bad but it is just a tad dark IMO. I think you could just lighten her face a bit.

Quincy T · April 23, 2009

Wow, amazing shots, especially for a first time. 10/10!

Tim Kamppinen · April 23, 2009

SoonerShawn wrote:

Thanks Tim...I agree with everything you said. I'm just not real good with the dodge and burn tool yet. I need to work on it. I appreciate your ideas. I'll play with it some more and see if I can make it better.

Unless you have photoshop CS4, don't use the actual dodge and burn tools. They suck in the older versions. It's like painting over your image with a low opacity white or black brush. A better way to do it is to create a new curves layer. Drag the curve down until the sky looks just as dark as you want it to be. Everything else will get way too dark but only worry about the sky for now. Click ok to close the box. Now the curves layer will have a layer mask already but it's filled with white so nothing is actually masked. Get the paint bucket and fill the layer mask with black. Now everything will be hidden and the photo will look like what you started with. Now take a white paint brush and start painting in the areas that you want to be darker. Wherever you paint with white will reveal the effects of the darkening curves layer, and it will still look like the same colors that were in your original shot, just darker, as if you underexposed the shot a bit. Use a soft edged larger brush so that there are not hard edges to the mask that show up. Now you can use the same method to dodge the areas that you want brighter. Just open up a curves layer but this time drag the curve up until things are as bright as you want them to be. Then mask it and paint in the bright areas the same way you painted the dark areas in before. If this seems complicated, just try it out; you'll get the hang of it quickly once you play around a bit. It's simple once you "get it" but it's a very, very powerful tool to have in your box. (Sorry if you know about curves and layer masks already, I wasn't sure. Even if you do, maybe someone else reading this will benefit. Learning layer masks is pretty much the key that opens the gate to photoshop success in my opinion.)

Ed911 · April 23, 2009

Just thought I would show you what plus one stop of exposure looks like...plus a little contrast adjustment. I think you can see that you are a little under exposed. You will have to select the skin and do an adj and then the inverse and adj the background separately...other wise you will blow out the girls white top. This is just a quickie fix...not meant to be other than for demonstration purposes.

Original

Warmed slightly and adjusted plus 1 stop exposure with added contrast...

Photosbychuck · April 24, 2009

Very Nice shots

1) Great Shot
2)I would crop more off the bottom.
3)Grat Shot
4)The jeans in the bottom left distract me a bit.
5)I wish her arm was on the front side of the rail/pole.
6)Love it

Take Care,
Charles,

My 1st Portrait Job

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