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brave gf poses for my first portraits(7pics)

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Jake19732

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This weekend my girlfriend and I went out to take pictures a few time(yes, of course she shoots nikon, d50) and it turned into a portrait session. Trying portraits is something i've wanted to try for a while so i used my d50 and 50mm 1.8 with the sb-600. I would love any imput on these. What i'm doing right/wrong, things that need more PP, too much PP, how the black and white conversion looks, anything you can tell me about these portraits are greatly appreciated.















--
http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/free/gallery.asp?memberID=172261
 
The one on the bleachers is outstanding great shot!! Great pose on her part and nice location and framing on yours.

Not to fond of the beetle in the backround on the other shot, a little distracting.

Overall well done!

-Scott
 
Jake19732 said:
This weekend my girlfriend and I went out to take pictures a few
time(yes, of course she shoots nikon, d50) and it turned into a
portrait session. Trying portraits is something i've wanted to try
for a while so i used my d50 and 50mm 1.8 with the sb-600. I would
love any imput on these. What i'm doing right/wrong, things that
need more PP, too much PP, how the black and white conversion
looks, anything you can tell me about these portraits are greatly
appreciated.
Click to expand...
They're all very good. I like #1 and #3 the most. Great job.

aparat
 
I like all of them, looks great.
I just got my F1.8...hope I will get some like yours..!
thank you for postting these.
 
I cant say much about the lighting as I'm still learning a lot about that, but I think the composition of the backgrounds on photos 1, 2, 4, and 6 are excellent. You are very good at seeing the background and making it part of the picture. The beetle in the background of that one photo is distracting though. I know you said to another poster that you included it because it was her car, but if you were going to do that I would suggest putting her closer to the car and making it more central to the whole composition. Make the car either part of the subject, or just the background. Try to avoid making it just another part of the background, and putting directly behind her head. I like your photos, the lighting is good, and the composition on the photos I mentioned stood out to me. Some good stuff.
--



Technical Info: Roseart U.S.A. Gold #2 pencil, Pentel High Polymer eraser, Academie sketch pad drawing paper. Drawn clumsily under relatively poor light.

http://www.geocities.com/wild_tiger_1

http://flickr.com/photos/selrahcharles/
 
I think that in some cases you meed to be more concious of the background and total picture. For example in #1 the chain link fence is not IMO a good background, the pose and expression in #2 is very good but the bokeh on the handrails in the background is not nice. You could probably crop off just a bit off of the dead space on the left side in #3 and #4. What a lovely smile in #5, only you have a yellow car sticking out of her head. The last two again have bad backgrounds, not so bad in #6 but the vertical lines in the last one are a bit too much. This is just my .02 and it's easier to see things after the fact as opposed to the moment one takes the picture. I've made a concious effort of trying to be mindful of what the final picture will look like when I'm about to press the shutter release, as time goes by I'm doing that more often and my results get better. She's got a great smile and seems to be willing to let you take her picture, lucky you, so go out and take more pictures :)
--
Stan ;o()



In the spirit of Occam’s Razor one should embrace the less complicated formulation or simply put, less is more.
 
DStan said:
I think that in some cases you meed to be more concious of the
background and total picture. For example in #1 the chain link
fence is not IMO a good background, the pose and expression in #2
is very good but the bokeh on the handrails in the background is
not nice. You could probably crop off just a bit off of the dead
space on the left side in #3 and #4. What a lovely smile in #5,
only you have a yellow car sticking out of her head. The last two
again have bad backgrounds, not so bad in #6 but the vertical lines
in the last one are a bit too much. This is just my .02 and it's
easier to see things after the fact as opposed to the moment one
takes the picture. I've made a concious effort of trying to be
mindful of what the final picture will look like when I'm about to
press the shutter release, as time goes by I'm doing that more
often and my results get better. She's got a great smile and seems
to be willing to let you take her picture, lucky you, so go out and
take more pictures :)
--
Stan ;o()



In the spirit of Occam’s Razor one should embrace the less
complicated formulation or simply put, less is more.
Click to expand...
Wow, Thanks a lot! I know it sounds weird but i love that kind of criticism. You can't get better unless you know what you're doing wrong. Now that i read what you had to say and looked at the pictures, I agree with most of your points and see how all of them are valid. I'll pay more attention to the background next time for sure and even try to notice things like vertical vs. horizontal lines. Again, Thank you.
--
http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/free/gallery.asp?memberID=172261
 
--

She sure has a nice, natural and pleasant look and I like the informal portraits.

Regarding the photos, I'd be inclined to try some adjustments to the contrast and brightness of several of them. (Not in #2) Also try adding some sharpening as a last step.

For contrast and brightness adjust the levels sliders so the image tones cover the full range from dark to light, and for contrast try moving the midtone slider of the levels adjustment. Then try the curves adjustment. I often think my photos are improved by using the curves adjustment to pull down the lower left portion, and pull up the upper right portion. this gives an S shaped curve similar to film with more contrast in the midrange. The result is more snap or whatever slang you prefer. These adjustments are available in Nikon Capture, Photoshop, etc. I don't think Elements has the "Curves" adjustment. All of this can also be done for the B&W. I'd try the adjustments prior to the B&W conversion, but experiment.

What looks best is partly personal preference of course. My suggestion is to play with these adjustments and see if it improves the look for you.

Have fun, and good luck,
RLD
 
Jake19732 wrote:
:
Jake19732 said:
Wow, Thanks a lot! I know it sounds weird but i love that kind of
criticism. You can't get better unless you know what you're doing
wrong. Now that i read what you had to say and looked at the
pictures, I agree with most of your points and see how all of them
are valid. I'll pay more attention to the background next time for
sure and even try to notice things like vertical vs. horizontal
lines. Again, Thank you.
Click to expand...
I'm glad that you took it well, some people get mad. Like I said the best time to be critical is when you press the shutter release. For some unexplained reason it's easier to say than to do - lol. Remember about things in the background, not just the yellow car but take a look at the first picture and notice the pole sticking out of the top of her head. Man I hate when that happens. Recently I took a great picture of my nephew and after the fact noticed a light fixture on the ceiling meeting with his head, now I've got to clone it out in PS or PSP. It would have been easier and smarter of me to notice it and reposition myself to get it right in the first place. Over the years of gaining experience these goofups happen less often.
--
Stan ;o()



In the spirit of Occam’s Razor one should embrace the less complicated formulation or simply put, less is more.
 
Jake-

Hi :) I think Stan's comments about watching what is in the background are excellent. I would also add that you might try to custom set your white balance as much as possible, or at least use a preset (cloudy, daylight, etc.). There are a couple photos (#3 for instance) in which the color seems very cool. Do you shoot in RAW or jpg?

I really like the pose in the second photo, though!

Travis
--
Travis Marler
http://www.flickr.com/photos/this_hope
 
RLD said:
--
She sure has a nice, natural and pleasant look and I like the
informal portraits.

Regarding the photos, I'd be inclined to try some adjustments to
the contrast and brightness of several of them. (Not in #2) Also
try adding some sharpening as a last step.

For contrast and brightness adjust the levels sliders so the image
tones cover the full range from dark to light, and for contrast try
moving the midtone slider of the levels adjustment. Then try the
curves adjustment. I often think my photos are improved by using
the curves adjustment to pull down the lower left portion, and pull
up the upper right portion. this gives an S shaped curve similar to
film with more contrast in the midrange. The result is more snap or
whatever slang you prefer. These adjustments are available in Nikon
Capture, Photoshop, etc. I don't think Elements has the "Curves"
adjustment. All of this can also be done for the B&W. I'd try the
adjustments prior to the B&W conversion, but experiment.

What looks best is partly personal preference of course. My
suggestion is to play with these adjustments and see if it improves
the look for you.

Have fun, and good luck,
RLD
Click to expand...
thanks for the suggestion. I did mess a little with curves and levels but I will try doing what you suggest. Sharpening is another thing that I have to work on a little bit. I know very little photoshop so I guess I just have to keep playing with it to find what works. Thanks much!
Travis Marler said:
I'm glad that you took it well, some people get mad. Like I said
the best time to be critical is when you press the shutter release.
For some unexplained reason it's easier to say than to do - lol.
Remember about things in the background, not just the yellow car
but take a look at the first picture and notice the pole sticking
out of the top of her head. Man I hate when that happens. Recently
I took a great picture of my nephew and after the fact noticed a
light fixture on the ceiling meeting with his head, now I've got to
clone it out in PS or PSP. It would have been easier and smarter of
me to notice it and reposition myself to get it right in the first
place. Over the years of gaining experience these goofups happen
less often.
Click to expand...
Again, thanks. I guess it's good that these shots were just playing around and nothing for pay. Theres just so much to notice and pay attention to when you're taking a picture that it's hard to get everything right, like composition, lighting, background, everything.
Travis Marler said:
Jake-

Hi :) I think Stan's comments about watching what is in the
background are excellent. I would also add that you might try to
custom set your white balance as much as possible, or at least use
a preset (cloudy, daylight, etc.). There are a couple photos (#3
for instance) in which the color seems very cool. Do you shoot in
RAW or jpg?

I really like the pose in the second photo, though!

Travis
Click to expand...
Sadly, I shoot in jpg. I've tried shooting in raw before but never really got the hang of it. I know that I should start. I've never preset my white balance but I was thinking of asking for a grey card for christmas. Thanks for the comment!

--
http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/free/gallery.asp?memberID=172261
 
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