Outdoor portraits of my daughter

NJMAN · May 13, 2007

I took some outdoor portraits of my daughter this weekend. She is not much for posing, but tries to do the best she can. I took a lot of shots, but only a few were worth showing in my opinion. She got pretty tired of it quickly. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

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oldnavy170 · May 13, 2007

I like #2. I think her pose and the colorfulness of the photo works well together!!!

JimmyJaceyMom · May 13, 2007

Such a pretty girl! These are great. I keep trying to get simial results but ugh! Just doens't work yet. Good job - thanks for shareing!

NJMAN · May 13, 2007

Are you kidding kathi?? I've seen your work on flickr, and you are awesome! Anyway, thanks for the nice comments!

Scooter · May 13, 2007

These are really nice photos. A pretty girl for sure. Good job.

NJMAN · May 14, 2007

Thanks scooter, and thanks to everyone else who commented!

rp1600 · May 14, 2007

I think she did a good job with the posing. Seems relaxed and at ease. Here's my .02 on each image.

1. A tad bit soft on the focus and would have like to have seen some fill light splashed back into her face to get rid of the shadows around eyes and mouth. I like this pose though. Nice work.

2. Fill light much better on this one and i like the "daddy's little girl" expression on her face. The image is a bit too center IMHO and it seems the grass dominates the photo. I might have had her pose diagonally across the frame (head in upper right or left corner with legs going down to lower right or left corner.

3. Fill light on her face would make this photo pop a bit more. The fence shadows on her shirt bother me a bit but maybe that's because I'm always running into the same problem. I bought a rather inexpensive 5 in 1 reflector from adorama.com which included a white diffuser panel. I've used this to soften not only the shadows like in this picture but also to difuse direct sunlight.

By the way you have a very pretty daughter. I'd have her out there all the time modeling for me if I were you.

Hope my comments help.

Ron

NJMAN · May 14, 2007

Thanks for the tips Ron! Just about everything you have said is what I was thinking too. Believe it or not, a reflector is next on my list to get for portrait work. Which one did you get at adorama? I shop there quite frequently. I think I want a large full frame reflector. Regarding your comment about soft focus, what can I do to get a sharper focus from the lenses I currently use? I used the 28-135 mm on this shoot, because I wanted to stand back quite far and zoom in for good bokeh on the background. ISO was set to 100, aperature was set at 5.6 and shutter was at 1/125 I believe. Is there a good way to achieve better focus/sharpness without having to spend a fortune on an L lens?

rp1600 · May 14, 2007

Well i'm by no means an expert because it wasn't until recently that I was able to correct the softness in some of my shots, and even still have problems with it.

I found out that it wasn't so much a matter of missin the focus completely as much as it was not focusing in the right area. For example, I'd focus on the eyes and have that locked then, then when recomposing the shot, I'd end up refocusing on something else without realizing it. So the damn buttons in the picture would be sharp as hell and the eyes wouldn't be. Look at the dark stripe thing across her shirt in the first pic. It looks as though that was the focus point.

Something else to consider is the focal length at which you're shooting. I see you shot it at a shutter speed of 125. I'm not sure at what focal length you were zoomed in at but unless it was no more than 50mm you're probably getting some camera shake as well.

I too found this out the hard way. Took what I thought were some great zoom shots of my daughter. Only to find everything soft, blurred and otherwise aggravating.

I then discovered that you really can't shoot at a shutter speed of 125 or so with a 200mm lens unless you're on a tripod. Now I try to always make sure that my shutter speed is at least twice the focal length at whifh I'm shooting. For example, if I'm shootting at 200mm , i'll set my shutter speed to usually 500 or so. That eliminates camera shake if the camera is hand held.

Looks like you're dealing with the same issues I had when I first started shooting again last year.

P.S. The first lens I bought was the 50mm 1.8 (for about $80). And shot everything that. Images were sharp considering the plasticky feel of the lens itself and depth of field was acceptable.
I've sensed moved up a bit with my lenses but still experience similar problems.

I picked up the 85mm 1.8 USM for around 300.00 and it stays on my camera 90 percent of the time. Great lens for not being L glass.

Ok, I got a bit windy there, sorry about that.

Hope this helps as I proudly profess I'm no technical expert. lol.

P.S. About the reflector. I thought it was adorama, but now I realize i bought it on ebay. It's a basic 43" reflector with a silver, gold, white, black reflector AND white diffuser. I think was 15 or 16 bucks.

NJMAN · May 14, 2007

No, you are not too windy at all. I need to pay attention to more of the technical aspects, so thank you! By the way, if you have any further information on the make and model of your reflector, I would be interested in knowing. Thanks!

rp1600 · May 14, 2007

Ahhhh the old paying attention thing huh. HAHA That's my biggest problem. Often get so caught up in capturing the right expression or position that I often overlook the technical side.

I'm quite sure my reflector is of a generic brand as on ebay there was no make and model .. google "5 in 1 Reflector" and you'll see some pop up.

Hope this helps.

stellar_gal · May 14, 2007

Such a pretty girl and so nice of her to pose like that for you. I just bought a circular reflector- 22" Photoflex with gold and silver $37 at B&H. I love it- but its the only one I have ever had. I'd like one of those full frame ones some day. Just wish I had someone- or the frame to hold it for me on my last shoots. It really makes a huge difference when you use one- it's just hard to do alone if your subject is moving though. I need an assistant- like my husband!! LOL

You mentioned sharpness. Do you use photoshop? CS2 has a great Unsharp Mask- when used correctly. It's saved me more than once. I hate using a tripod, since most of my shoots are kids and they move ALOT!!

NJMAN · May 14, 2007

Hi stellar,

Yes, I use photoshop extensively and always use the Unsharp Mask to some degree on just about every photo. But I try to be careful not to apply too much, because I dont want the image to look flat and fake, which can happen easily with too much sharpening. What I am looking for is a better technique for getting sharper and more clear images with lenses I currently have. Someone else mentioned using an aperture of 8, 9, or 10 rather than 4 or 5 in outdoor shots. I should maybe try that and see what I come up with. Anyway, thanks for the nice comments. Much appreciated!