My first try at Portraits

[SHWELL]

Well this ThnxGivng I decided the entertainment would be to do portraits of the friends and family in attendance.... I played with lighting and exp as much as I could. Please let me know what you think, and where I can improve.....

D60 and some of those hi powered shop lights for lighting.


This was earlier in the day, and the only lighting was from a window...

These are some of the shots I took after dinner.... I know the lighting is not erfect, but I ws working with what was avail.

I could not get the lighting right and the color in all the pics seem to be way off... I thought it may have been because of the red paint on the walls in the room, and the fact that the lighting was not ideal for this project...

My wife and I

 

[osirus]

im no pro, but

i like #1
#2 id crop out the space behind the head, maybe mid shoulder back.
i think that would make the picture much nicer. and i think that would look great in B&W

the bottom ones, was the white balance off? giving them the orangish look
id move away from the background some, so you dont get the shadows on it

I see your pics are ok to edit
so i played with the one a bit

 

[Flash Harry]

tungsten lights = orange cast, also colours in the room can affect your shots, change white balance to tungsten, studio type shooting scenario means to control the light, strobe is better, hotlights like these are pretty much cr*p for portraiture. H

 

[SHWELL]

Thanx for the info and the retouch.... The walls in that room were a dark Red, and I knew they were going to be a problem, so I tried being closer to the backdrop to eliminate some of the color reflection from the walls.. But the White balance sure is off.... But I think you guys have my thinking going in the right direction. I did not realise how much cropping could change a photo in such a good way. Usually I only use it to remove unwanted items from a pic, I never thought to try and create a diff feel using the crop function. Thank you both very much for the guidance.