First shot at Photographing someone

[matt_paul85]

A friend of mine was nice enough to let me photograph him to get some practice in. Let me know what ya think.

#2 I like the reflection, thought it turned out pretty cool looking

#3 I think this one turned out ok.

#4 This one too

Any comments are welcome! I'd love advice on how to make them better. Oh, sorry for the sizes I don't know where to go to make them smaller to post, any suggestions? Photobucket would let me turn the photo on the website but when I posted the link they're still to the side as well. :x

 

[luftwagon]

Pic #1 ... his head is shaded while his body is lit by the sun ... creates a weird effect. You have to be really mindful of shadows and lines when you're doing black and white ...

Pic #3 ... I think this is the best one of the four, although it's pretty dark ...

Pic #4 ... between the background, the reflection in his glasses, the wooden post ... it's all a bit too distracting for me ...


Personally, I think you just need to be a little more mindful of shadow/light when you're shooting black and white, and try and make the picture more about the subject you're shooting ...
Hope that helps ... keep shooting and post up what you get next time ...

 

[matt_paul85]

Thanks For the comments! They do help a lot. On the first one, would some kind of light help? or I guess just waiting for the entire porch to be in a shadow or something like that? I'm glad you like the third one! It turned out a lot better than what I thought it would ( i can't get on the ground due to a knee injury so I just bent over and took it). Any other comments are greatly appreciated!

 

[tirediron]

Agree with Luftwagon's comments and I'll add that for #1, yes, your best bet would have been to wait for even illumination of the whole area, either light or shade. A fill-flash would have helped, but because of the large shadow area would have had a somewhat artificial look to it.

#2 is a good capture, a tried and true commposition, but for it to really work, there has to be a scene of interest in the reflection. Quite honestly, I don't see a lot of interesting a porch and some shrubbery.

#3 Would have benefited greatly from fill-flash. It's a good composition, but the subject is just a little darker than he should be.
Just my $00.02 worth - your milage may vary.

~John

 

[matt_paul85]

#1 Do you mean like doing a force flash with my camera?

#2 I thought about having his girlfriend walking around or doing something so i could see it in the reflection but then decided against it. I guess I should've gone with my first instinct lol.

Thanks for the comments. Sorry to ask so many questions.

 

[tirediron]

#1 Do you mean like doing a force flash with my camera?

Yes, that would work, although on-camera flash is not generally ideally suited for that sort of thing; a different time of day would have been the optimum solution.

#2 I thought about having his girlfriend walking around or doing something so i could see it in the reflection but then decided against it. I guess I should've gone with my first instinct lol.

Thanks for the comments. Sorry to ask so many questions.

That would have made the image, IMO

 

[matt_paul85]

That would have made the image, IMO

Appreciate it. I think I'll try to re-shoot that and go with having her or somebody doing something. I'll post it up sometime next week.

I guess I'll have to learn to time the lighting better during the day. Guess those are the trials of learning. haha

 

[tirediron]

Appreciate it. I think I'll try to re-shoot that and go with having her or somebody doing something. I'll post it up sometime next week.

I guess I'll have to learn to time the lighting better during the day. Guess those are the trials of learning. haha

Yep! :thumbup: