1st Mentor Assignment

iphotolyfe · Apr 25, 2016

I'm really grateful to tirediron who has agreed to mentor me. My first assignment was as follows

So why don't we start off with an indoor portrait of your wife (it will cost you at least a dinner out I'm sure, but that's a small price to pay, right?) using only ambient light. Wait for a nice, bright day, pose her beside and see what you can do.

My wife really hates having her photo taken but she's really supportive of the photography habit and (having agreed she would be pretty descriptive as to which was the final shot). We have a very small house with very little window area and so I was limited as to where I could place her. Our bedroom is in the dormer and there are two skylights in there so I set a chair up next to one of them. I decided to use the opportunity to push myself by shooting and processing the shot in a more traditional style as my own is very much more stylised and I particularly prefer black and white.

The shot was taken with my D5500 set at f5.0, 1/125th of a second and an ISO of 500 with my 55mm-300mm AF-S set at 150mm.

kate portrait by Mike Capener, on Flickr

I'm reasonably happy with the result. Because of the size (and colour of the room) I'm not so happy with Kate's separation from the background and had to introduce a little vignetting in order to bring her forward. The spot repair that I've done in the shot is a bit too rudimentary but thats my level of Lightroom skill at the moment. The shot was handheld even though I have a tripod, but there is some camera shake I think visible in the shot.

By the way, in addition to the above I managed one of my son, although I cheated and used a puff of flash from the onboard flash dissipated using a light scoop.

noah portrait by Mike Capener, on Flickr

Same rig as before, F4.8, 1/200th of a second at ISO 320 and the lens at 125mm.

Constructive critique is welcome.

tirediron · Apr 25, 2016

So, aside from the fact that she looks like she's desperately trying to think of the most expensive meal at the most expensive restaurant inside of a day's drive from home to extort from you in payment, not bad at all! The main issue I see is the light/shadow on her face; had you turned her a bit more to her right, I think you would have achieved a more appropriate look. Right now you have more-or-less split lighting, which can work well, but I don't think is maybe the best here. If turning wasn't an option you could also have used a reflector to bring some fill in to the shadow side of the image.

A couple of small nits regarding her glasses. The lens over her right eye is fine, the one over her left is both a bit low and showing some reflections. Chances are, since the right side is fine, her glass are slightly out of adjustment, but it's one of those minor points to keep in mind; ideally we want the top of the lens above the brow, but if not, it must be above the eye. For someone with bent glasses or an asymmetric face, a small ball of Blue Tac or similar under the low side nose-pad to level them out. The reflections are usually controllable just by slight changes to the position of either the glasses or the light(s).

The shot of the young fellow is very nicely done; the exposure on his face is excellent, with nice, off-centred catchlights. The only very minor nit is the background, particularly the orange area behind his head, but that could be easily made to go away in post.

ronlane · Apr 25, 2016

John did a great job on c&c on this one. The only thing I would add would be to have her turn her left shoulder a little more towards the light as well. This would be a more flattering pose for her and brought the face around to help with the split lighting. (For example, you could have changed poses with her and the little one and been fine)

robbins.photo · Apr 25, 2016

Great start, agree with the others - one thing I'd add, as to the camera shake issue you can avoid this shooting handheld by upping your shutter speed. If possible for nice, sharp, handheld shots you want to have a shutter speed at least equal to the focal length your shooting. In this case if your shooting at around 150mm or so up your shutter speed to 1/200 and you won't need a tripod. Looks like at ISO 500 you had enough light that upping your shutter speed by that much shouldn't push your ISO so high that it introduces a ton of noise.

Other than that like the others said, your off to a great start here.

astroNikon · Apr 25, 2016

tirediron said:
A couple of small nits regarding her glasses. The lens over her right eye is fine, the one over her left is both a bit low and showing some reflections. Chances are, since the right side is fine, her glass are slightly out of adjustment, but it's one of those minor points to keep in mind; ideally we want the top of the lens above the brow, but if not, it must be above the eye. For someone with bent glasses or an asymmetric face, a small ball of Blue Tac or similar under the low side nose-pad to level them out. The reflections are usually controllable just by slight changes to the position of either the glasses or the light(s).

A wise photographer once told me to lift the rear ear part of the glasses to tilt them (or adjust them) a bit to minimize reflections, light & balance. Oh wait, it was John that told me !!

Also practice your handholding technique .. here's a bunch of what i learned in the past ==> Stability - making yourself a tripod versus using one

jcdeboever · Apr 25, 2016

Boy looks like his Mama

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iphotolyfe · May 2, 2016

Thanks everyone for the feedback. John and I independently came to the conclusion that a reshoot was in order. So I borrowed a reflector from a friend, ensured that she was turned more towards the light and changed the angle and the length of the lens (she forbade me to use bluets under her glasses) and came up with the following.

kate by Mike Capener, on Flickr

There was another shot from the shoot that i really enjoyed and whilst its a little "Jim Marshall" I love the playfulness in this shot and I hope no one is offended.

MEC_1568 by Mike Capener, on Flickr

Both were taken at F5.6, 1/50th of a second, ISO 2000 and a focal length of 70mm.

JacaRanda · May 2, 2016

I'd like to applaud you for taking the opportunity to use the mentor offering by Tirediron. Kudos to you and him!

I also like the smile and that your wife seems to be having more fun with the reshoot!

jcdeboever · May 2, 2016

Nice improvement. Beautiful wife.

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tirediron · May 2, 2016

Nicely done; big improvement in the lighting on these two and the boss seems much happier. In the first the only significant issue is that of her body's position with respect to the camera. Posing people, especially women in this manner is referred to as "football shoulders" and generally isn't considered desirable (unless in fact she's a football player). The reason is because it tends to over-emphasise how broad a person is. Turning their body slightly away from the camera has a huge slimming effect, as well as generally showing a more pleasing aspect.

In the second image, you've committed the unpardonable sin of a longitude amputation on your wife's right arm. It's fine to crop limbs if you need to, but always do it boldly and avoid cropping at/near joints, or along the length of a liimb.

Starting to think in terms of details, watch things like necklaces; in this case the pendant is nicely centered, but the clasp is visible image right.

I really like the playfulness of the second image, and this shows why it's important to be ready for anything during a session. I really like it when clients try and have a little fun. To wit: Below is one of my favorite images from the last year; totally spontaneous and resulting from the gent's wife telling him to put his plate down and get ready for the **** picture!