Two of my friends

vivdub · May 2, 2017

Hi,

I am posting in some pics of my friends and need review on these, as to know my progress.
Thanks

GWWhite · May 2, 2017

Is there some reason you shot at f/2? The DOF is WAY too shallow and the images come off as soft when enlarged. The sharpness just wasn't there.

vivdub · May 3, 2017

GWWhite said:
Is there some reason you shot at f/2? The DOF is WAY too shallow and the images come off as soft when enlarged. The sharpness just wasn't there.

Yes the images of the girl were shot at evening, and my camera is not a latest one.
I find this problem at times when I take a shot from distance, its not that sharp, however closeups are more sharp.
Can it be due to lens ? These are taken from yongnuo 50mm

GWWhite · May 3, 2017

Your aperture is too big. When I shoot single person portraits I shoot at f/5.6 unless I am using a crop body with a wide angle lens. In that case I can push it as low as f/3.5 but don't drop below that.

Your options would be 1. Use a flash or 2. Increase ISO.

vivdub · May 3, 2017

GWWhite said:
Your aperture is too big. When I shoot single person portraits I shoot at f/5.6 unless I am using a crop body with a wide angle lens. In that case I can push it as low as f/3.5 but don't drop below that.

Your options would be 1. Use a flash or 2. Increase ISO.

ok Thanks for the suggestion, will keep in mind.
I also see some beautiful portraits being taken at wide aperture, using 1.2, 1.4 lenses, how do they achieve sharp focus ? I also focus on eye, but it misses at times.

GWWhite · May 3, 2017

It depends on what your goals are in the photo, the focal length of the lens and the size of the sensor. The larger the sensor the more pronounced the DOF will be. The longer the focal length of the lens and the closer it is to your suject the more pronounced the DOF will be.

I have seen some GREAT shots here using DOF as a tool with large apertures. But it is a TOOL, not a normal thing. Experience will teach you when to use it as a tool. In my opinion these images don't lend themselves to such a shallow DOF. You lost a LOT of detail because of it.

vivdub · May 3, 2017

GWWhite said:
It depends on what your goals are in the photo, the focal length of the lens and the size of the sensor. The larger the sensor the more pronounced the DOF will be. The longer the focal length of the lens and the closer it is to your suject the more pronounced the DOF will be.

I have seen some GREAT shots here using DOF as a tool with large apertures. But it is a TOOL, not a normal thing. Experience will teach you when to use it as a tool. In my opinion these images don't lend themselves to such a shallow DOF. You lost a LOT of detail because of it.

ok
I was using crop sensor here, thus shot it from quite a distance.

GWWhite · May 3, 2017

You were shooting a Canon crop body which has a 1.6X crop factor with a 50mm lens. That would equal out to an 80mm equivalent. I think either you are not quite understanding what I am talking about or you are set in your ways and if so, that's fine. You did request a "review". But take a look at this photo:

Red Hot and Boom 002 B&W by Gordon White, on Flickr

It was shot on the fly existing light as I was headed to the stage for a band shoot. My crop body was set up for the band shoot so there was no flash on it. Normally I like catch lights but that wasn't in the cards with the lens I was using for the stage shoot. My EXIF data gives you my settings: 1/500, f/5.6 at an ISO of 400. The only change I made to this image was the conversion to B&W. Compare the details of this image to the details in yours and you can see the difference in what I was talking about. By comparing this to your photos you should be able to see the difference. This was shot with a 70-200mm zoom set at 70mm, a 112mm equivalent. That is a substantially longer equivalent focal length than you used. It should illustrate my point.

vivdub · May 4, 2017

GWWhite said:
You were shooting a Canon crop body which has a 1.6X crop factor with a 50mm lens. .......... That is a substantially longer equivalent focal length than you used. It should illustrate my point.

Ok Next time I will try to shoot at aperture you have suggested.

thebellangerk62 · May 9, 2017

GWWhite said:
Is there some reason you shot at f/2? The DOF is WAY too shallow and the images come off as soft when enlarged. The sharpness just wasn't there.

The images are fine. Don't listen to mr perfect

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thebellangerk62 · May 9, 2017

They are test shots in low light. Very good dof for portrait photography

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thebellangerk62 · May 9, 2017

Why do you need to be sharp?

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FITBMX · May 9, 2017

These aren't bad at all, considering they were shot with a DOF.
But I am with GWWhite, and agree with him. Shooting with a really shallow DOF isn't easy, and takes time to know when to use it and when not to. Next time you are taking some portraits of friends like this, experiment. Switch your DOF around as high as f10, this will give you a feel for what works for your style and what doesn't. And don't be afraid to bump your ISO up, it may make some of the photos a little noisy, but noise can work very well in some photos. Noise isn't always a bad thing.

vivdub · May 10, 2017

thebellangerk62 said:
Why do you need to be sharp?

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Thanks for all your messages.
The images could have been a bit sharp, but I think I lost a bit of it in post processing also.
The girl had pimples on face and the guy had beard (which I wanted to reduce).
May be I need to improve in post processing.

vivdub · May 10, 2017

FITBMX said:
These aren't bad at all, considering they were shot with a DOF.
But I am with GWWhite, and agree with him. Shooting with a really shallow DOF isn't easy, and takes time to know when to use it and when not to. Next time you are taking some portraits of friends like this, experiment. Switch your DOF around as high as f10, this will give you a feel for what works for your style and what doesn't. And don't be afraid to bump your ISO up, it may make some of the photos a little noisy, but noise can work very well in some photos. Noise isn't always a bad thing.

Noise is a big hurdle for me, since I am learning with an old body (Canon T1 i) .
Even at ISO 200 it starts to show up, thus shooting at f10 is not at all possible, unless I carry a strobe with me.
I have tried shooting at f3.5 - f5.6 with a longer lens, but then shutter speed is a problem.
But yes I can shoot till f5-f7 on a sunny day with 50mm.
Will try next time.

Thanks