Portraits for C&C - a long way to go

Hi everyone. I am new to portraiture and would appreciate some C&C to get me on the right track.













Would you be kind enough to review and comment on them please? I have a few events lined up and want to get set on the right track.

Thanks in advance.
--
I'm an opportunist, not a photographer.

http://mapleleafphoto.smugmug.com/

Hmmm.... well, ok. Just know that I'm not trying to be harsh, ok?

You didn't say what your lighting setup was. Honestly, they look like snapshots made with an on-camera flash, and the only "portrait" part was posing, sort of, a subject in front of a blue bed sheet. Two of the shots are greatly overexposed, and the third shot -- the subject taking a picture -- is just odd.

Cancel those events for now. You're at the very beginning and need lots of work. Start with ONE LIGHT. Get it off camera. Play with it and experiment with it, seeing how differing placements affect the portrait.

Get a book on basic lighting. Get a book no basic portraiture. Put the bedsheet away. And, most of all, LOOK at good portraiture. You won't imitate the best -- or even the most average -- immediately. But you've got to start training your eye to see the difference between the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Once you do that, you be able to judge your own pictures for yourself pretty well.

tlove1966 said:

Hi everyone. I am new to portraiture and would appreciate some C&C to get me on the right track.













Would you be kind enough to review and comment on them please? I have a few events lined up and want to get set on the right track.

Thanks in advance.
--
I'm an opportunist, not a photographer.

http://mapleleafphoto.smugmug.com/

Click to expand...

--
Michael Thomas Mitchell

1. Your model is standing to close to the BG. If there’s room bring her about 1.5 to 2 meters away. Use f/4 or so and your BG will appear much softer.

2. Notice her left shoulder (pic1), it’s turned to far into the camera. Position her shoulders so that they’re 45° to the camera.

3. Your lighting is flat. Determine what type of lighting pattern you want to use to accentuate your subject. For example, are you going to use Loop, Paramount/Butterfly, or Rembrandt? Are you going to light your subject with narrow or broad lighting? Have a plan before you press the shutter.

4. Posing: It appears your model is standing. If so, turn her body as mentioned above and separate her arm from her torso it will help to slim the upper body. Tilting her head towards the near shoulder (camera) is considered a feminine pose. Typically, women can be posed in either feminine or a masculine pose. Also, when you are beginning to learn choose one of the classic facial positions and learn the rules for facial posing. Later you can break the rules but first understand the basics. I would start with a seated model using a 2/3’s view of the face.

5. I hope you continue to practice and take my comments with good intention. Practice, and practice some more and come back and show us what you’ve learned. Study people like Monte Zucker and Don Blair. You can start here:

http://www.studiolighting.net/book-review-portrait-photography-the-art-of-seeing-light-by-don-blair-with-peter-skinner/

--

I once had a perfectly exposed image of a white cow in a snow storm eating marshmallows.

Well, I'm glad you clarified that you weren't trying to be harsh. ;-)

I had an SB-800 off to the left using a lighting umbrella with a spot light to the left as well. My on camera flash was set to Commander mode and I was in a very dark room, using a daylight bulb. That 'bedsheet' was a backdrop used by someone I purchased used lighting gear from to get me started.

I thought that the first picture was too bright, but I included it to see if I was wrong. The other shot was still lighter than some of the ones I had done, but included it based on someone else's opinion. The third shot was to be inlcuded in one of the DPreview Challenges, but by the time I finished, the challenge was full.

Thanks for your comments, I will get a book and start learning.
--
I'm an opportunist, not a photographer.

http://mapleleafphoto.smugmug.com/

1. Unfortunately, that's all the room I had.

2. Thanks for the shoulder tip.

3. I will read up on lighting techniques.

4. Actually the model is sitting. But I will read up on posing and facial positions.

5. You've given me good food for thought, and thank you for the link. Hopefully my next attempt is much better.

--
I'm an opportunist, not a photographer.

http://mapleleafphoto.smugmug.com/

the exposure is way off did you meter it?
--
beam me up scotty

do you consider yourself lucky?

Looking at the images, the first appears to be normal or close to normal exposures. The second and third one are darker and under exposed.

One of the first things to do is to make sure that you have the correct brightness set on the LCD on your camera. Remember this. Camera, monitors and computers are dumb, until you tell them what to do.

Make sure the camera LCD brightness is correct. Make sure the monitor that you are going to process you images on is calibrated (brightness, contrast and color).

Do not mix light sources like you did. The flash gives one color, the light bulb another color. If you must mix like that, then filter the flash to match that light source. It will make life easier.

If you plan on doing an event at this stage, it would be a mistake. There are a lot more things involved than just putting a flash on a camera and saying that you're a photographer. If you charge money for the event and you screw up, you can ruin your reputation even before you get your career started.

jk said:

the exposure is way off did you meter it?
--
beam me up scotty

do you consider yourself lucky?

Click to expand...

That is what I find stands out the most. Put your camera on manul, ISO 400, f5.6 and shutter about 1/125 and ignore your camera meter. Put you flash on manual. If you don't have a meter get a white towel in the image. Set you flash to about 3/4 power and take a test shot. Look at the histogram. The data to the right is the white towel. There should be some information all the way to the far right as you can get it without touching or spilling into the far right wall. Adjust flash power until you get it.

If you cannot achieve this with you flash on full power you can open your aperture and or bump up the ISO.

--
The solution is always simple. Getting there is the hard part.

Zee Char said:

jk said:

the exposure is way off did you meter it?
--
beam me up scotty

do you consider yourself lucky?

Click to expand...

That is what I find stands out the most. Put your camera on manul, ISO 400, f5.6 and shutter about 1/125 and ignore your camera meter. Put you flash on manual. If you don't have a meter get a white towel in the image. Set you flash to about 3/4 power and take a test shot. Look at the histogram. The data to the right is the white towel. There should be some information all the way to the far right as you can get it without touching or spilling into the far right wall. Adjust flash power until you get it.

If you cannot achieve this with you flash on full power you can open your aperture and or bump up the ISO.

--
The solution is always simple. Getting there is the hard part.

Click to expand...

I forgot to mention. I don't know how many lights you are using. If more than one the process I desribed is for your key light. Turn the orthers off. When you get the key exopsure then introduce one light at a time. Fill, etc flash should be less than your key.

--
The solution is always simple. Getting there is the hard part.

You need to start over again. I'm pretty sure that your CLS/AWL is NOT working for you in these shots.
Start back at the basics and read up on using CLS/AWL.

In the first shot I see what appears to be only your on camera flash lighting her and no light contributing from any flash that you said is at camera left.

The second image is way underexposed and seems to be illuminated by tungsten light only coming from camera left. Did you have ambient (tungsten?) camera left?
Same for the third image, just more underexposed than the second.

I am guessing that you have flash synch issues that you are not aware of here. IOW, the flash units are going off, but they are out of synch with your shutter and as a result, are not adding to the exposure, even tho you see them going off. And/or, your monitor is quite a bit out of adjustment due to the underexposed images being posted and the skin tones which are way too warm and appear to be tungsten lit.
Regards, Jim

tlove1966 said:

Hi everyone. I am new to portraiture and would appreciate some C&C to get me on the right track.













Would you be kind enough to review and comment on them please? I have a few events lined up and want to get set on the right track.

Thanks in advance.
--
I'm an opportunist, not a photographer.

http://mapleleafphoto.smugmug.com/

Click to expand...

--



Odds N' Ends album here:
http://www.pbase.com/jimh/inbox&page=all
Z album here: http://www.pbase.com/jimh/marilyn_the_car&page=all

Just commenting on exposure, all three look under-exposed on my calibrated monitor, and the histograms bear that out. #1 is closest to right but still a good way off. Here are my adjustments, just for exposure. See if the adjusted versions look too bright on your monitor.





--
~ Peano
http://www.radiantpics.com

Thank you for all your comments and advice. I have ordered a book and anxiously await its arrival so that I can learn the basics.

If I ever improve, I'll be sure to post images for critique.
--
I'm an opportunist, not a photographer.

http://mapleleafphoto.smugmug.com/