NTP: Challenge VIII - Portraiture

[Chris G]

@MC: First image kinda work's for me, though it dosnt at the same time.. The perspective of the photo give's me the illusion that you have your subject tilted on a very steap angle, thus in saying that look's very unconfortable for the subject lol, even though he look's quite content.. lol

In my opinion, shooting a subject with them being at such a low angle (head resting on the floor). You may wan't to try and really get down to there head level, looking them almost head on or around 45degree's so to say. And last thing, choping off the elbow's (body part's), sometime's not a good thing with a full or half body shot's .. Like many other's will say here, alway's try and experitment with differnt angle's and level's and of course keep practicing

Apart from that, lighting (white balance ect) spot as far as I can tell (no expert though), the photo is nice and sharp with a good DOF.

Photo 2: I really like this one, the B&W treatment has been done well, look's studio to me. Well to be honest, I thought they all where done in studio when I first saw the image's . Anyway, the 3rd is my fav / pick, there's abit of everything there. From emotion being the mother and the child, the B&W treatment that enhance's it and just the generule layout all in all.

Topstuff matey..

Chris

[Chris G]

Here's one I took of a friend of mine, to me everything look's fine apart from maybe asking her not ware a somewhat of a tank top / singelt lol.. I believe this due to when taking a should to head portrait, you don't other bit's of the skin showing as it can distract the viewer from the main feature your trying to present / photograph. Of course by all mean's, correct me if I'm wrong.. lol

EDIT: quick note. photo was taking only couple of week's back during a very late afternoon at around 6ish.. Just as the sun was getting ready to set.

F/N: 5.6
Shutter: 1/350
Focal: 105mm
ISO: 800

What do the good people at AP think?

[FallingHorse]

Okay - portraiture (and everything else in photography) is new to me but I've given it a go.
f 4.5
1/80 @ 95mm
ISO 800
Removed distracting object from r/h side in PS

[BeeB84]

Hello

This is my first post with a photo, I took this one a few months ago (3 days after I got my DSLR) of my dog, Maggie.

[mcmahong]

Falling Horse... I'm definitely no expert but am learning more and more about portraiture each day. The subject is great for portraiture - rugged and with a somewhat menacing expression. What kind of lighting did you use, or is this natural light? His face and body are entirely lit up, so I think the mood of the image could be enhanced if there was more shadow cast across the face and a darker background. Also, his tattoos are part of his personality... it may be good to see more of them perhaps? Otherwise it's a good shot (could perhaps be a touch sharper?), and you've captured expression well. Good one.

[mcmahong]

BeeB84. Cute puppy! It's a gorgeous photo. Is it cropped down at all. 'm just wondering if the pup's head is maybe a little too cut off with the ears out of frame? Nice and sharp with good DOF though. :-)

[FallingHorse]

Falling Horse... I'm definitely no expert but am learning more and more about portraiture each day. The subject is great for portraiture - rugged and with a somewhat menacing expression. What kind of lighting did you use, or is this natural light? His face and body are entirely lit up, so I think the mood of the image could be enhanced if there was more shadow cast across the face and a darker background. Also, his tattoos are part of his personality... it may be good to see more of them perhaps? Otherwise it's a good shot (could perhaps be a touch sharper?), and you've captured expression well. Good one.

Hi McMahong - it was taken as the sun was setting in natural light under our side veranda which has an opaque roof. My subject doesn't like his photo being taken and thought I was capturing the dog on the chair next to him (though I think he is secretly pleased with the outcome lol). Funny you should mention the tattoos as that is what someone else said as well - it probably could be sharper - I think you're right. Was taken more as a grab shot rather than a formal portrait. Thanks kindly for your feedback.

[BeeB84]

BeeB84. Cute puppy! It's a gorgeous photo. Is it cropped down at all. 'm just wondering if the pup's head is maybe a little too cut off with the ears out of frame? Nice and sharp with good DOF though. :-)

Thanks for the feedback, unfortunately it hasnt been edited at all so I cant include more of the image. I will take that on board and try not to cut off any more body parts

[SnowA]

Continuing on the animals theme... taken on an old P&S which I no longer have. I suspect a weak fill flash may have helped?



I'll also throw this one in for a bit of comic relief. Nothing much redeeming about the photo, but I only had a very basic camera phone with me.

I suppose it shows why having a camera, almost any camera, handy is worthwhile

[FallingHorse]

Hello Snow - not sure if it's just me but I can't view your images in the thread

[SnowA]

Sorry about that - is it any better now?

[FallingHorse]

The first picture has shown up but the second is gone completely.

[I @ M]

I think I got better results this time however could someone please suggest a way to stop the glare of the sky in the background? Thanks

Under those conditions I think that you would be better off using the lowest ISO possible and then setting the exposure compensation to around -1.7 to -2. That would give you around 1/60 @ your chosen aperture of F/11 and "should" control your background light a bit better. To counteract your deliberate underexposure you should then raise the flash exposure compensation by +1 but it may take a few tries to get the ratio correct.

Go and experiment on a child sized object in similar conditions and try a variety of settings to obtain a reasonably well exposed background and subject. Be warned however that foreground "distractions" like the grass in that shot may influence the flash metering system by reflecting light back to the camera earlier than is desirable and confuse the flash and camera metering.

[I @ M]

Chris G, the light in that shot is great and warms people up perfectly. There is a good reason that so many outdoor portraits are taken under similar conditions, you have found that good reason.
The actual composition with regard to "skin showing" is (to me) not a great drama to me as there is enough to show that the lady actually has arms and shoulders and at the same time doesn't overpower her face as the main focal point of the picture.
Unfortunately there is an overall softness to the shot that I feel is due to the compression in resizing this to 52 kb, I am sure that it would look better at around 250 kb and certainly fine at full resolution.
Another thing I would have suggested is to halve your ISO value to 400 and it would still have given you a shutter speed of 1/125 and at 105mm that should still have been entirely adequate.

All up I reckon it is a very good start at portraits, your composition works and you have got a good handle on focussing to get the subject clearly defined.

[I @ M]

FallingHorse, there is a fairly golden rule about keeping your shutter speed equivalent to or greater than the focal length of the lens you are using when hand holding to avoid "motion blur" and it appears that you have broken that one straight up with this shot. Other than that a bit more careful metering to avoid the hot spots on his left forehead and cheek area would have given a cleaner image as well as introducing a little darkness to his left side which as a bit of contrast may have suited this shot.

Go out and get the same fella to pose more for you, buy him beer if necessary as it is entirely justified for your learning curve in portraiture.

[SnowA]

The first picture has shown up but the second is gone completely.

I really don't know why that's happening. I'll try uploading it here instead of linking to it.

[FallingHorse]

FallingHorse, there is a fairly golden rule about keeping your shutter speed equivalent to or greater than the focal length of the lens you are using when hand holding to avoid "motion blur" and it appears that you have broken that one straight up with this shot. Other than that a bit more careful metering to avoid the hot spots on his left forehead and cheek area would have given a cleaner image as well as introducing a little darkness to his left side which as a bit of contrast may have suited this shot.

Go out and get the same fella to pose more for you, buy him beer if necessary as it is entirely justified for your learning curve in portraiture.

Thanks for the helpful feed-back You are right - the shutter speed was 1/80 and focal length 95mm - although I must have missed the motion blur I was using Evaluative metering mode, should I have used Partial or Centreweighted.

I wont tell him you said to bribe him with beer - he might expect beer all the time. Although seeing that he is a rather uncooperative subject, perhaps I could feed him beer first and then photoshop the bleary eyes..... but seriously, thanks for the input - I shall have to learn a bit more about metering.