1st portrait attempt need some help

[chojan]

A good start, and I'm sure you are going to have a lot of fun
developing this skill! It's getting late, so this will be brief,
but some thoughts that came to mind (from a purely technical point
of view):

-Need to watch the shadows, especially those on her forehead.
Sometimes it is useful to look at the shot upside down, or squint
your eyes so that you disassociate the face from the "bright"
regions and any "subject mergers". Besides choosing a different
location / direction / time of day / weather, look into a reflector
(such as a 5-in-1) that can work as a white scrim. Outside, you
will get beautiful soft light through the scrim without the hard,
short shadow transfer. Also, with the lighting, note that if all
areas are in focus, the eye will often be drawn the the brighter
region, which might be her arms in this case (which are brighter
than her face).

-Your model's comfort: if it is bright, shield them from the sun as
otherwise they'll be squinting and you will get a harder
expression. Plus, you might lose the "twinkle" in their eyes, which
gives life to your models. A scrim/reflector will solve this.

-Watch for subject mergers and points where joints are "cut off".
Hands are a good example of something that one should be careful
about (as they can sometimes draw too much attention). Sometimes
rotating them away from the plane of the camera, or (in the case of
your photo) moving them to a different position (eg. move the guys
hand) may help to diminish them.

-Your lens might be a bit short for typical, flattering
portraiture. A good starting point would be an effect length of
85-135. Otherwise, you have to be careful about positioning of arms
(or other parts) closer than the face, as you can get some
unflattering exaggeration/distortion.

I know you're going to enjoy this, so keep at it & good luck!
Cal.

Cal,

You raise lots of good points and it gives me something to think
about before I try this again. I am going to look at reflectors
and see just what is involved . On the rare occasion that I do this
though, I imagine it will be just me and person(s) that I am doing
this for. I am trying to figure out a better way of using the
flash. Maybe a wooded area next time. I think the biggest problem
was the time of day and the harshness of the natural light. Thanks
again and happy holidays.

Gary

Gary --

Without an "assistant" (spouse, friend, etc.), it can be difficult using a reflector properly. I have had some luck using some Manfrotto light stands with a boom to hold the reflector. However, this does not work if you have any amount of wind

No matter what, having the reflector (like a 5-in-1) can offer so much to your outdoor, natural-light portraiture. It is also very cheap and compact (they fold up into a disc).

Good luck,
Cal.

A quick example of how a reflector can help my in-the-sun shooting:

 

[chojan]

Cal,

You raise lots of good points and it gives me something to think
about before I try this again. I am going to look at reflectors
and see just what is involved . On the rare occasion that I do this
though, I imagine it will be just me and person(s) that I am doing
this for. I am trying to figure out a better way of using the
flash. Maybe a wooded area next time. I think the biggest problem
was the time of day and the harshness of the natural light. Thanks
again and happy holidays.

Gary

Gary --

Without an "assistant" (spouse, friend, etc.), it can be difficult
using a reflector properly. I have had some luck using some
Manfrotto light stands with a boom to hold the reflector. However,
this does not work if you have any amount of wind

No matter what, having the reflector (like a 5-in-1) can offer so
much to your outdoor, natural-light portraiture. It is also very
cheap and compact (they fold up into a disc).

Good luck,
Cal.

A quick example of how a reflector can help my in-the-sun shooting:

Just wanted to add that my photo did not use a flash, only available light and a reflector. This way you can also keep the colour temperature roughly the same, whereas with fill-flash you may end up with a mismatch (depends on the time of day, etc.).

Cal.

 

[BrianZ]

Jack,

I think you took a great portrait - that's a wonderful pose, and you had a good idea to use the fill flash.

I took the liberty of making my own adjustments to your image to see what you think:



I only did 3 steps in photoshop:

First, I used Noel Carboni's "dSLR Tools", a very handy set of photoshop actions for improving images (see http://actions.home.att.net ), and used his "Shadows +1" action. This of course made the entire image even lighter than it was before, but evened out the exposure in the shadow areas a bit more. To compensate, I adjusted the levels, by resetting the black cutoff point to 40 (40/1.00/255), then adjusted Hue/Sat to +2/+4. That's it.
I think you have a great image there.
-BrianZ

My son calls on Friday and informs me that the so called
professional pictures that he and Rebecca had taken for Christmas
here unusable and wants me to take some that day. The conditions
were horrible with 45 degree temp 20 mph wind and very harsh
sunlight with no clouds. I grabbed the 10D with the Sigma 15-30
and 420 EX flash and off to the beach we go. I have never shot
portraiture before and decided to use the flash as fill. As you
can see the shadows are fairly prominent and I was wondering what
advice you could give me as I know this will not be the last time
for this type of pic. Here is the one they liked the best. It is
cropped and sharpened with CSPro level 2



Thanks in advance.
Gary

 

[NKH]

hi jack,

just wanted to share some thoughts i had while reading through this thread. first, i think i would have grabbed a longer lens...this would give you better working distance, be more flattering for the subjects: less wide angle distortion) and reduce the depth-of-field. secondly, maybe positioning them with their backs to the sun would solve the problem with the hot highlights and the shadows...this way, the sun acts like a hairlight and your external flash provides an even fill (which, btw, the 420EX is plenty powerful enough for). finally, try this pose with your son leaning in the opposite direction so that you form converging lines that lead the eye into the picture. having him put one of his hands on rebecca helps the picture convey the relationship they have.

-norm

 

[Jack Crevalle]

Jack,
I think you took a great portrait - that's a wonderful pose, and
you had a good idea to use the fill flash.
I took the liberty of making my own adjustments to your image to
see what you think:



I only did 3 steps in photoshop:
First, I used Noel Carboni's "dSLR Tools", a very handy set of
photoshop actions for improving images (see
http://actions.home.att.net ), and used his "Shadows +1" action.
This of course made the entire image even lighter than it was
before, but evened out the exposure in the shadow areas a bit more.
To compensate, I adjusted the levels, by resetting the black cutoff
point to 40 (40/1.00/255), then adjusted Hue/Sat to +2/+4. That's
it.
I think you have a great image there.
-BrianZ

Thanks for the help. I like what you did with image and it will give me some more to play with. I am going to try and reshoot this at near sunset in the next few weeks so hopefully I can put some of the things I have learned here to use

Happy Holidays

Gary

 

[Jack Crevalle]

hi jack,

just wanted to share some thoughts i had while reading through this
thread. first, i think i would have grabbed a longer lens...this
would give you better working distance, be more flattering for the
subjects: less wide angle distortion) and reduce the
depth-of-field. secondly, maybe positioning them with their backs
to the sun would solve the problem with the hot highlights and the
shadows...this way, the sun acts like a hairlight and your external
flash provides an even fill (which, btw, the 420EX is plenty
powerful enough for). finally, try this pose with your son leaning
in the opposite direction so that you form converging lines that
lead the eye into the picture. having him put one of his hands on
rebecca helps the picture convey the relationship they have.

-norm

Norm,

Thanks for the input. I acutally did try what you suggested and it just didnt look right but I am going to try again. When I try this again I will do it at sunset with the technique you describe Hopefully a different time of day will help. Thanks again and happy holidays

Gary