HELP! Need some honest feedback :)

I am just someone who wants to shoot portraits on the side. I've been "shooting" friends and family for about a year and want some general feedback on my photos. I have ZERO classroom experience in photography. I shoot with a Nikon d5100, with a Nikon DX AF-S NIKKOR 35mm 1:1.8G lens. I use lightroom to edit my photos. I would appreciate any honest feedback and tips. Thanks!

Well I like them all.

I think the ones with the softer colors are better, they look a little more professional, somehow. Dreamyer? Except for the one with the lady in the furry vest, which is a little too unsaturated for my liking.

First of all, these are all quite good portraits so please don't be disheartened by my comments.

35mm on an APS-C camera like yours is not ideal for a portrait lens and you might like to try shooting at slightly longer focal lengths if you have a kit lens, say 50-80mm if your lens goes that long.. This is especially true if you want head and shoulders shots which can be a little distorted with a wider lens.

Whatever software you have used to post the shots has stripped off the EXIF data so we can't see your camera settings. However, if you want to have the background more out of focus, e.g. in the last two shots, you need to shoot with a larger aperture (small f/ number). That means taking your camera out of auto mode and shooting on A (aperture priority instead).

You have blown highlights on the boy's shirt especially in the 3rd, 4th and 5th shots. All the detail has gone from the shirt - compare with the second shot to see the difference. The second shot has a bright background and the camera has reduced the exposure to compensate for it and that means that the shirt is exposed correctly. The 4th and 5th shots have darker backgrounds and the camera has increased the exposure to compensate which results in overexposure of the shirt and loss of detail.

Two of the children's faces in the last shot are also blown for the same reason.

To avoid this you really need to take the camera off auto mode and put it into A or P mode. You will there be able to use EC (exposure compensation) which may be called EV (exposure value) on your Nikon. This brightens or darkens the exposure. Your camera should also have an option to show up blown highlights by having them blink on and off during replay. Turn this on and you will then know whether you have to adjust EC/EV. If you get them try dialling in -1EV and see if they disappear.

If you are underexposing to avoid blown highlights then you will need to learn how to brighten shadows after you have downloaded the photos to a computer. Just about any image processing software will do this, e.g. Picasa or the software that came with your camera.

You can also reduce the problem by shooting in shade and having the children wear darker clothes.

Don't pose somebody in a white shirt against a white background as in the 3rd shot - the shirt tends to disappear into the background.

Watch the edges of the frame when you are composing the shot to avoid cutting off tops of heads and bottoms of feet as you have done in the 2nd and 3rd shots in particular. The last shot might also be better if you could see the children's feet.

Also check that the "horizon" is straight or adjust in post processing. The fence in the last shot isn't vertical and is very distracting.

The little boy has exactly the same artificial looking grin in all the first 3 shots. The 4th and 5th are much better. You will have to find a way to make him relax and look more natural. Try taking lots of shots and talking to him as you do so.

I think that your composition for the first shot is very nice, the best of the 6 , but all of them are quite good except for the white shirt against the white background. I also like the second composition (apart from the cut off feet) but this type of shot taken into the sun is pretty tricky. It almost comes off and could look much better with some (fairly skilled) post processing.

Keep shooting and keep experimenting.

Not bad. C&C:

• All of the photos look way overexposed.
• The smile on the boy looks a little forced. Perhaps it's just how he smiles, but my gut is you posed him and asked him to smile. Work on your bedside technique. You need to tell a joke, or something similar to capture an actual smile.
• For C&C, include some EXIF data. We can give better feedback if we know the settings. Second-to-last-one is very low contrast. If I knew what aperture you were using, and how much leeway you have in opening it up, it would be helpful to giving alternative ways to achieve a similar effect.
• I'd prefer #1 as a much tighter crop, likely landscape. I'd personally do similar for #3 (and portrait), but with #3, it's more a question of my style.

Alphoid said:

Not bad. C&C:

• All of the photos look way overexposed.
• The smile on the boy looks a little forced. Perhaps it's just how he smiles, but my gut is you posed him and asked him to smile. Work on your bedside technique. You need to tell a joke, or something similar to capture an actual smile.
• For C&C, include some EXIF data. We can give better feedback if we know the settings. Second-to-last-one is very low contrast. If I knew what aperture you were using, and how much leeway you have in opening it up, it would be helpful to giving alternative ways to achieve a similar effect.
• I'd prefer #1 as a much tighter crop, likely landscape. I'd personally do similar for #3 (and portrait), but with #3, it's more a question of my style.

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Can you share some of your photos?
Your Style might be interesting.

Numbers 1, 2 & 5 are quite low contrast, while 3, 4 & 6 are higher contrast. I presume this was done deliberately in Lightroom. What was your aim in doing this?

Personally, I like low contrast portraits, but I find it is often an improvement to apply a little extra local contrast enhancement and/or sharpening to improve the 'clarity' of the low contrast image. The Clarity slider in Lightroom does some of this for you in a standard sort of way, or you can use a more general image editor (like Photoshop or GIMP) for much more flexibility in how you do it.

Some great comments so far, especially from Chris. Keep in mind that a long list of problems or fixes does not mean you did a horrible job. Most of these items can be fixed in Lightroom and some would need to be addressed in the field on your next shoot. So I’ll summarize what I see based on these two categories.

In the field:

Pay attention to how you frame the shot. There are some good online resources for posing people and where it acceptable to cut off limbs. I general if you just barely clip the feet, an elbow, or the top of the head, it becomes distracting.

The setting… as mentioned white on white is problematic. Also the distance from subject to background, combined with your f-stop, will determine how background objects appear. A wide aperture (f/1.8-f/4) will help throw background objects out of focus. But if the background is just a foot or two behind your subject then it will only be slightly out of focus which can be distracting. This is something you really need to experiment with, perhaps with a family member, so you can get used to achieving the look you want.

Horizons… our eye expects the scene to be level. That means porches and brick walls should have level lines, and trees and fences should be vertical. Occasionally you can intentionally tilt the camera for a creative affect, but in general try to get the image straight (see #4 & #6).

In Post:

There is a lot of room for personal taste here. For me, #1 & #5 look particularly flat. Some would consider this a dreamy affect, but to me it just looks washed out. If you want to experiment, try lowering the exposure in Lightroom and playing around with the contrast a bit.

Crop & Level – If the originals have a little extra room, you can recrop so the feet and head are not clipped. There should also be a tool to level the ones that are leaning a bit.

So in general I would say that you are on the right track. I appreciate the variety of poses and settings. Working with people is a skill in itself, so getting more natural smiles from kids will be an ongoing process.

Looks better than those forum guru with FF and expensive prime lens.

Great work!!

brittany c said:

I am just someone who wants to shoot portraits on the side. I've been "shooting" friends and family for about a year and want some general feedback on my photos. I have ZERO classroom experience in photography. I shoot with a Nikon d5100, with a Nikon DX AF-S NIKKOR 35mm 1:1.8G lens. I use lightroom to edit my photos. I would appreciate any honest feedback and tips. Thanks!

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First, the portraits and timing and composition are good. You've got a good eye. The problems arise from simple technical flaws. I'm seeing lens flare (use a lens hood, remove any filters), watch out when shooting into light sources or bright backgrounds, watch your exposure, fix the muddy blacks and overexposed highlights. I'd recommend shooting raw.

Basically, learn to zero in your exposure and practice your post processing skills, maybe even take a night class or two. You've already solved the hard part--shooting a good portrait and showing a bit of style. You just need to tweak the technical stuff, which is much easier.

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photojournalist

hotdog321 said:

I'm seeing lens flare (use a lens hood, remove any filters), watch out when shooting into light sources or bright backgrounds,

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I think you have a vivid imagination! I see no evidence of lens flare. Some of the images are certainly low contrast, but I cannot see any sign of nearby bright lights that might cause flare. Also, in my experience, flare is much more likely to be coloured and to be strongest nearest the light source.

It's possible that the low contrast is caused by a very dirty lens, but that seems unlikely for these images as only some of them are low contrast.

Perhaps the OP can provide some more information about the lighting used and what he/she did when processing the images?

I'd say just about the same as Chris and NikonNature so I'll save myself some typing.

Low contrast isn't a bad in itself but dullness is. I've tweaked a couple, mainly just by setting a black point (in Lightroom that means just moving the Blacks slider until the warning - tiny triangle above left-hand end of histogram - appears, then back off again).

Also some cropping: here to put more attention on the boy (background is good for ambience but not too much of it)





... and from the left: nothing wrong with void space as such but it's usually better to have more in the direction the subject is facing







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Gerry
_______________________________________
First camera 1953, first Pentax 1985, first DSLR 2006
[email protected]

zuikokiuz said:

Looks better than those forum guru with FF and expensive prime lens.

Great work!!

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I agree. They are basically very good shots, perhaps mauled a bit too much in Lightroom (the burned out shirt).

It would be nice to see the unprocessed versions.

As for the lens, the focal length that was used is fine for half- or full-length portraits, as these are. It is only when you want to shoot head-and-shoulders only that you should think about a longer lens. Think in terms of staying at the same distance and zooming in and out to get less or more of the person in shot.

I think the boy's expression is OK: he comes across as a good lad who is willing to grin when asked. What more can you expect ? Telling jokes would probably produce an expression of agony.

Gerry Winterbourne said:

I'd say just about the same as Chris and NikonNature so I'll save myself some typing.

Low contrast isn't a bad in itself but dullness is. I've tweaked a couple, mainly just by setting a black point (in Lightroom that means just moving the Blacks slider until the warning - tiny triangle above left-hand end of histogram - appears, then back off again).

Also some cropping: here to put more attention on the boy (background is good for ambience but not too much of it)



... and from the left: nothing wrong with void space as such but it's usually better to have more in the direction the subject is facing

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Yes, good examples. Give them somewhere to go.

I think you're doing pretty well, the last one in particular is just about perfect, a few do look slightly overexposed. You might want to check out a slightly longer telephoto around 80mm to complement the lens you have.

Your less successful shots tend to have busy backgrounds that detract from your subject.

Any repeating pattern will draw the eye. So, vertical fences, horizontal siding, etc. should be avoided. It is fine to have an environmental background that places the subject(s) in context but a house siding does not do that. For example, a picket fence makes a good place for a model to lean against, rest and arm and create an environmental context. Then, compose so that the fence leads from the corner of the frame into the subject and you have a nice leading line drawing the viewer's gaze to the subject.

So, reposition your subject(s) with respect to the background. Always, always check the background before you take any portrait. You can always use the sky, which you effectively did in another shot as a non-busy background if you are stuck.

I hesitate to say this because it is so over used and in my opinion does not make a good photograph. But if you are really stuck and there is no suitable way you can select a good background, pull the subject(s) away from the fence, get yourself closer to the subject(s) than the subjects are to the fence and open up the aperture. That will assure that the background is blurred.

This is a cheap/lazy photographer's trick and should only be used when there is no other choice, e.g. subject against a brick wall.

Tedolph

The photos are very close to being great and your suggestions will put the icing on the cake.

Really excellent comments Chris,

jbf

brittany c said:

I am just someone who wants to shoot portraits on the side. I've been "shooting" friends and family for about a year and want some general feedback on my photos. I have ZERO classroom experience in photography. I shoot with a Nikon d5100, with a Nikon DX AF-S NIKKOR 35mm 1:1.8G lens. I use lightroom to edit my photos. I would appreciate any honest feedback and tips. Thanks!

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Believe you are shooting in matrix metering mode, means the camera decides exposure for you based on everything in the picture. Problem you need to solve is blonde hair, light skin, light shirt and dark hair and clothes.

Suggest one option is select spot metering, meter off the boy's face assuming he is the main subject. Otherwise meter off both the boy, lady and average the readings to come up with the best of both worlds. If you are indeed using spot metering, then I am sorry but my basic assumption is wrong.

brittany c said:

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The above is decent but the white shirt fades somewhat into the beige/white background.

brittany c said:

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Good .....

brittany c said:

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Shirt fades to much into the background, however interesting effect. Boys cheeks are overexposed.

brittany c said:

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Like it with the darker background better but the boy is overexposed. Are you checking your histogram?

brittany c said:

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Too much stuff in the background. Crop closer, meaning take in Portrait mode, take the trees out, not part of the main subject.

brittany c said:

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Cute but that matrix metering is tough on the subjects. The little girl is overexposed. Would have left part of the structure in but shot in portrait mode.

Good overall but needs some finesse in terms of i) matrix,spot or center weighted. ii) Use the histogram luke. iii) Last is take extraneous elements out of the picture, too much forest, barn etc. iv) Also you are using aperture priority or manual right?

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Regards,
Sanjay

I love the low contrast look and the color treatment.
They have a film quality that I like and that compliments the subject's look .. Kinda 60s ..

There is little I would change