Portrait of my Turkish Pizza Man! (c/c)

Hi,

Just two quick pix I took two weeks ago of my friend the Turkish Pizza Man (best turkish pizza's around).





Picture taken with Nikon D700 with 28-70/f2.8. ISO 400, 1/60s/f4.0

SB-800 on stand with white shoot-through umbrella camera-right; large reflector camera-left. Second SB800 in kitchen aimed at ventilation-unit.
PP in LR2 and PS3 (perspective correction)

Comments and criticque encouraged! What could I have done better?

--
Rogier Bos
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Digital communication and imaging
web: http://www.rogierbos.com/
photoblog: http://ourjourney.typepad.com/photo/

Hi Rogier,
I'll give it a try. With all that skin I think you have to be
careful of the reflection from the flash. I'd try having a
way to take some of the oil off, either a towel,or women's
powder.

Otherwise I like the 1st pict.

Second pic I think you need to get a little more light on
his right/camera left. Maybe turning the umbrella a little
more towards the camera, and moving reflector closer
to the subject and the camera would have given you
better fill. Also I think you could look at a flash above the
camera to illuminate the eyes a little better.

Other wise, enjoy your pizza (what, no pics of him
pulling the pizzas out of the oven ;0)

thanks
jim cowan

I think when you shoot a person in the environment he's woking in, that's called editorial rather than portrait. It's pretty important to distinguish, because lighting the two things are quite different.

What bothers me the most is the different light colors. You should either put gel colors on your flash units, or mask out the ambient light all together. Mixing it doesn't look good. This is a difficult situation, since the wall paper has color as well.

The light works well for editorial, as it looks pretty natural (other than the color difference). It's a good idea to put light in the kitchen to bring attention to it, and at the same time divert attention from his face. This is especially true in the second picture.

However, if this were a portrait, you failed to make him look good. The light source on his side emphasizes his bald head, makes wrinkles darker, and makes his nose looks more crooked. A good portrait requires more light into the eyes as well.

--
What the hell is a turkish pizza?!

And we won't even mention the old Baskin Robbins apron!

Overall, great shots. As dylan said, the ambient light of the kitchen and the flashgun light don't mix. The blue of his sweatshirt and the blue of the sign in the background don't match. The sign is more of a purple. There are two ways of fixing this.

If you like the warm ambient feel, gel your flash with orange.

Second, you could try bouncing the flash off the wall behind you. Its not as directional, but depending on the room size, should light your subject and environment in a similar fashion.

Did you WB for ambient light or your flash? If you did a custom WB, you may be able to shoot the same setup and get the colors to match.

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tgillespie

One Word

White Balance

Gel the light, then White balance (3rd mention of that) ;-)

But in general, I like the pictures.
Brings out the proudness of the shops owner very well.
I#d go to him, if I'd live near him now.

--
http://www.holger-urbanek.de/

dylanbarnhart said:

I think when you shoot a person in the environment he's woking in,
that's called editorial rather than portrait.

Click to expand...

I thought that an editorial was any commissioned photos made to illustrate a story or an article within the context of a magazine or any publication !?!?

Therefore, a portrait can be used for editorial purposes. But, it still remains a portrait!!!

As for the portraits offered by the PO, I wished to see the guy in action. In fact, unless the "concealing" of his profession by not showing what he does, was intentional (I could make up that those in the background were out of focus pizzas only by reading the post) I would have also included in the photos the products that he "makes" or at least one photo of him while making a pizza!?!?

--
Nicola (mr)
http://www.nicolacammisa.com

Thanks to all who responded. very helpful comments.

Couple of responses/questions:

• I should have gelled the flash in the background
• Can someone tell me more about making the skin less shiny?
• I agree the photo's are more editorial.
• I wanted to photograph him in a natural way in his natural environment. I was not disturbed by the apron or the fact the colour of his shirt does not match the sign in the background. These kinds of stores are not styled in amazing ways.

• The most critical thing your comments have me thinking about is White Balance. How should I have created a better white balance in this situation?

Rogier

These are examples of Environmental Portraits and not editorial photos. Its a portrait of the Turkish Pizza Man in the place where he works, giving the viewer a context in which to place the subject.

http://digital-photography-school.com/environmental-portraits
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_portrait

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/09/AR2006050901061.html

Having said that.... the only comment I have to make is to watch the white balance.

Joo

--

• Maybe one day I'll take a decent picture. In the meantime, I'll blame the equipment.

https://www.singularlight.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dcphotogs/

Ok... white balance wasn't the only thing I have to say about the photos.

On #2, I think I would have had him facing the opposite direction. The extended arm is leading to some dead space. I think it would be better if he was facing the opposite direction with the extended arm leading to the counter and the overhead menus. Also, it looks like the main light is coming from the right with the majority of the face being in shadow. Again, posing him in the opposite direction should resolve that.

--

• Maybe one day I'll take a decent picture. In the meantime, I'll blame the equipment.

https://www.singularlight.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dcphotogs/

...something about number 2 is off for me.

I like number one and think with a little tweak to the wb it works very well.

Number 2 is off for me because its an image of a proud owner welcoming us the viewer into his establishment - but the establishment cannot really be seen... its the dof. For me, my eye goes to him first, but then it travels along his right arm, which leads me to the oof counter and background... using the exact same settings for an arm's crossed shot works quite well, but its just doesn't do it for me on the 2nd shot...

Just my CAD$0.02

I could get by the WB issue, I mean it's not pretty but in this setting it could be OK. My big thing here is the DOF, no one would ever know what the guy is doing there if you would not have explained that he is a piza man, that kind of shot (environmental portrait) needs to be tack sharp from the front to the back IMHO.
As it is, he looks like a proud owner pointing at his blur of a shop
--
Alfred