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Portrait of my daughter - what do you think?

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Korim

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This is a protrait of my daughter, it wasn't planned, she was standing in the half-open front-door and I realised the very nice light. The light from your left comes from a self-made gold reflector I had handy. D700 with NIKKOR 50/1,4; raw conversion in CS3.



Your C&C are very welcome.

Cheers,

Korim
 
The DOF seems little thin....and, at least on my monitor, her left eye is soft.

Sometimes I see the subject's nose is soft because of narrow DOF, but you didn't do that. From my first impression, I like the lighting and it helps that she's really photogenic. Not bad for impromptu moment.

Leswick
 
Awesome, as the old rule goes as long as the nearest eye is in focus the portraits a goodun'. A very nice photo indeed, it could have been very cold but the gold reflector brings in some warmth which really makes it stand out in my oppinion, but could have done with being larger and further away perhaps?

Nice one.

:)
--
'Perfection is a flaw in itself'
 
For some reason the shallow depth of field just looks very gimmicky, in this photo. Maybe it is because there is no background to blur, no need to separate subject from background. But all in all, it does not really work in this photo.

The shallow depth of field seems out of place for some reason.
 
I absolutely love it, and the shallow DOF is entirely appropriate despite having a plain background for me. Having both eyes in focus isn't always important, just another rule to be broken. Keep them coming!
 
screw the rules...

great shot...

was this the Af-D or AF-S version of the 50?
Leswick said:
The DOF seems little thin....and, at least on my monitor, her left eye is soft.

Sometimes I see the subject's nose is soft because of narrow DOF, but you didn't do that. From my first impression, I like the lighting and it helps that she's really photogenic. Not bad for impromptu moment.

Leswick
Click to expand...
--
'Procrastinate now, don't put it off.'

'Vista is the ME of our generation.' - John C. Dvorak

 
Since you wanted C&C I decided to bite :-)

First of all, lovely daughter... sometimes we forget that the subject is as important as our technique. The lovelier the model, the less we notice the technical details

Now, I think you could have done better by moving her INTO the light on the right. Perhaps facing the light and then turning slightly towards your lens. Right now it looks as if she is partly in shadow directly in front and tons of light to her left (your right) and some light (fill?) from her right (your left)

Note how her left eye is somewhat dark. It looks off balance with the other eye. I try to make sure there is lots of light in the face if a portrait I am making.

Catch lights are also a good part of a nice portrait and her left eye has not as much as her right eye. Symmetry is important to humans subconsciously ... we notice the smallest asymmetrical detail yet ignore poor ANYTHING as long as it is symmetrical. Just look at a photograph with a slanted horizon, it makes you look and notice ONLY the horizon being off :-) So I try to have balance in the portraits. I mean, go ahead and break rules and do whatever, just try and keep it symmetrical.

Finally, your POSITION I would change next time. The focal length of a lens DOES NOT MATTER remember... it is the Subject Distance that matters. Lenses simply magnify or demagnify (is that a real word? LOL) the image to project it on the sensor/film. But the Subject Distance is what matters. In this case, you could have moved back a little more. If your subject is too small on the frame, well, crop! or get a longer lens but DO NOT compensate by moving in to fill the frame as that changes the subject distance and that matters.

For portraits, I like to be at least 3 to 4 meters away for pleasing angles and perspective. DOF is subjective. I love SHALLOW DOF because is what we humans see in real life. IF you ever stand in front of another person and focus on their eyes, their ears are slightly OOF... try it for yourself :-) So I like it.

I did some quick PP on your image to enhance color and light. Tell me if you like it!

Cheers...



Manny
Korim said:
This is a protrait of my daughter, it wasn't planned, she was standing in the half-open front-door and I realised the very nice light. The light from your left comes from a self-made gold reflector I had handy. D700 with NIKKOR 50/1,4; raw conversion in CS3.



Your C&C are very welcome.

Cheers,

Korim
Click to expand...
--
Manny
http://www.pbase.com/gonzalu/
http://www.mannyphoto.com/
FCAS Member - http://fcasmembers.com/
 
Hello there.

Lovely girl.

Lens for portraits: 100mm plus.
The crop or framing is sort of passport type.

Regards
 
... to allow any texture on the wall as well as the overcoat behind would have resulted in an overall stronger image. I find the best use of shallow DOF is to strategically highlight a single striking feature of a subject or to separate a subject from a distracting background. Neither applies here, so more rather than less DOF would served to heighten the mood of this image which, to me, seems all about atmosphere.

That's my $0.02.
Korim said:
This is a protrait of my daughter, it wasn't planned, she was standing in the half-open front-door and I realised the very nice light. The light from your left comes from a self-made gold reflector I had handy. D700 with NIKKOR 50/1,4; raw conversion in CS3.



Your C&C are very welcome.

Cheers,

Korim
Click to expand...
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- -
Kabe Luna

http://www.garlandcary.com
 
Greetings!

Change it to b/w or with horrible false colors, add (lots!) of noise and strong vignetting and then post it on the Leica forum - and they'll say:

"Wow, good portrait, nice capture, a bokeh just a Leica M-camera/lens can give you"!

;-)

regards,

--
Michael S.
Austria/EUROPE; dpreview since 2001
NIKON NPS Member
(check equipment via profile)

http://www.jdf-events.at
http://www.pbase.com/bountyhunter
 
The lady is an absolute stunner.
The photo itself is very nice as well
by the way the original photo is more powerful then the enhanced one.
can we get more? :-)
Max
 
your daughter is very beautiful, I also like the small DOF, such a simple portrait can look quite powerful, however if you re- take the shot with a 85mm lens, and compare it with this one, you may notice that a 50mm lens on FF for portraits adds too much distortion of natural proportion of a face.

--
regards,
Bernie
 
When I first saw this photo this morning I thought it was just another snapshot and that there was nothing special about it, but then I took a second look and have changed my mind a bit.

The photo means something to you since it is of a family member and I respect that. I also respect that you are willing to show it to the world for their critiques (good or bad). I also thought about the difficult lighting you were shooting under and then I changed my mind and will give you a grade of 8/10 stars or a B+ in grade school academia. No, I'm not a teacher, but I do think there are a few things that would have made the photo more dramatic, but maybe drama wasn't what you were going for. If so, you get an A. It's a nice quick natural light portrait and I am happy for you and your daughter that you are taking photos and learning, especially of her. If you like it, that's all that really matters, but a few technical aspects could be improved upon such as the bright white out of focus background and nothing else that makes the photo pop. A little time practicing with post processing and you'll be there. Play with saturation, contrast and levels to start with, but this photo looks to me to have proper white balance and saturation, so I think you're doing well in that department.

Overall, not a stunning photo, but great as a family home portrait and something to learn from tecnically speaking.

Thanks for posting and I apologize if my post came off as snobbish or rude. I'm just trying to give as honest feedback as I can and hope it helps. If you don't like my opinions, please ignore them and be glad that you like the photo.

Sincerely,
Chris
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thewenzels/
 
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