first time doing some 'portrait' work= impressed with myself

austriker

TPF Noob!
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
439
Reaction score
1
Location
PNW
Website
www.dlindahlphotos.com
Can others edit my Photos
Photos OK to edit
hi,
so for my school newspaper i interviewed one of my friends who mixes music as a DJ and then shot some photos of him. I have a bunch of him in action so i went over to his house to get some of him portrait-style. i have never done this type of photography, i dont really like to shoot people when they know im taking photos of them/i dont even really like people photography.. im kinda new to photography, i have been only shooting with my d40 for about 10 months.

i used my d40 and my two lenses (50mm 1.8 and 18-55mm kit lens) and an old film strobe flash that really made the difference i think.

tell me what you guys think, give me some critiques.. remember honesty makes me better..

these are my favorite 3:

1. i have heard this shot should have him in focus not the board, but i think this way its more intentional and so cliche
3995213336_28a11d63b3_b.jpg


2.
3994453623_79d2f8bcd8_b.jpg


3. this is my fav by far- i really think it worked out, especially the pp.
3994893556_d6ae58be1f_b.jpg


cheers!
 
1 is neat, but im not quite sure how to approach it context wise. 2 comes off a bit cheesy because of the crossed arms/head up cocky type look that i feel when people are "trying to be cool"

3, however, i think is brilliant. a dj to me should present a calm, cool, relaxed, fun personality. i get that from this shot. it feels very natural and doesnt come off forced or posed.
 
Unflattering angles in all photos:(

also, be mindful of your background. windows, gear cases, and wall seems and sockets are distractions.
 
1 is neat, but im not quite sure how to approach it context wise. 2 comes off a bit cheesy because of the crossed arms/head up cocky type look that i feel when people are "trying to be cool"

3, however, i think is brilliant. a dj to me should present a calm, cool, relaxed, fun personality. i get that from this shot. it feels very natural and doesnt come off forced or posed.

thanks! i love 3. and as far as 2 is cheesy, well i did not really tell him how to pose or anything (not used to this whole portrait scene) so i guess i probably should have told him not to do the whole cocky thing..
 
Number 3 is really nice, as for first two are, really nothing special.
 
Unflattering angles in all photos:(

also, be mindful of your background. windows, gear cases, and wall seems and sockets are distractions.

oh really how could improve angles? i thought they were better than most shots that are like straight on (etc)..

also i was mindful of the shades but there wasnt much we could do (we are in college and at his house and there wasnt really a better spot). but the other two are quite distractionless which is why i like them. i just love the composition of the 3rd one too much not to include it.
 
shooting from below the level of your "model"'s face = unflattering the vast majority of the time.

as far as distractions,
#1, vertical corner in wall + towel
#2, roof/wall corner + towel again
#3, window, road case top, wall socket, that towel again, the speakers under the desk

I don't know why the towel bothers me so much, but it's probably the fact that it's so far out of the color palette for the rest of the picture. you have very muted tan/cream colors and this green towel that is just very distracting. I know it's there to protect the desk, but for the sake of the photos, I would have removed it. I know there isn't anything you can do about corners, but they're still distracting, so I would probably have removed them in PP.

as far as better angles, I might have tried standing on a chair shooting down at him with the tables in the background... I dunno... just my 2 cents.
 
well thanks for your input. i agree about the towel, next time i will think more about those kinds of things (my first time doing shots like this...). i disagree with the wall things, i kind of like them how they add dimension to the shots. also i did not have a lot of options and do not know how to pp them out... maybe i should have desaturated the greens to decrease the towel and how much it stands out.. thanks for the input!!

and i actually tried shooting above him like you mentioned. some of the shots like that worked out, but i chose not to edit them because i am doing it for a slideshow and a lot of my shots from a dance where he was DJing where shots above and behind him..
 
Last edited:
I like your angles...guess I'm the odd one. The first thing that I noticed was his skin color it seems a bit orange.
 
I really like #3 - it's not so much a portrait but an editorial photo though, so I think that's why I don't mind the things that have been pointed out. That said, it doesn't fit with the other 2 photos you posted because they look forced.
 
the first two are really staged, and have a contrived feel to them, the thrid one is golden because it's the only image where us, the viewer, isn't talked down upon and we can feel like we can relate to him. It's more personal in nature becuase of his pose, your angle, and his facial expression.

EDIT:

Take a look at Sam Jones's work of celebrities. He's got some great images of Bob Dylan, a couple of Gerard Butler, Robert Downy Jr (by himself), Dustin Hoffman, a couple of George Cloony, one of Mark Wahlberg, another of Robert DeNiro, all that have this human element to them, where it's not fabricated.
 
Last edited:
I'll be the odd one and say that I really like the first one; I like the DOF. I agree with the others about the odd angle of #2...and #3 does nothing for me...you put a guy next to something and took his pic...big deal. Sorry....I prefer the more creative shots.
 

Most reactions

New Topics

Back
Top