1st EVER Portrait's

[Kyna]

C&C Please!

DISCLAIMER-Only had my Canon for 3 weeks. Only have 1 lens. Trying to train myself in portrait style photography. I love the natural/ambient light look so that's what I'm starting with. They are my kids but....I took the photos on a technical level not an emotional one. There is no emotional attachment to these pics.

I know NONE of these are perfect but if I put up a perfect photo I don't need critisism do I??? So that's why they are in the BEGINNER forum

Thanks in advance!

1. Cut 2 of his fingers off and slightly OOF....

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

I took these on AV mode, F/5.6, exposure 1/50, ISO 400.

 

[Derrel]

Well, one thing you have is simply gorgeous COLOR. And extremely good exposure levels, which lead to wonderful white whites, and detailed,rich blacks, and high color saturation. Your fleshtones on all these are very pleasing and consistent. Shot #2 shows a slight bit of blurring due to subject movement, it looks like. For a three week ownership period, your color and exposure levels look exceptionally good--MUCH better than the typical beginner's forum early efforts. This looks like a large window or sliding glass door type natural light, which this time of year is a bit weak most days, due to winter and your latitude. No doubt, you're on the right track, most definitely!

 

[3bayjunkie]

Good start! I like the dog =)

 

[Kyna]

Well, one thing you have is simply gorgeous COLOR. And extremely good exposure levels, which lead to wonderful white whites, and detailed,rich blacks, and high color saturation. Your fleshtones on all these are very pleasing and consistent. Shot #2 shows a slight bit of blurring due to subject movement, it looks like. For a three week ownership period, your color and exposure levels look exceptionally good--MUCH better than the typical beginner's forum early efforts. This looks like a large window or sliding glass door type natural light, which this time of year is a bit weak most days, due to winter and your latitude. No doubt, you're on the right track, most definitely!

Thanks! Yes it's a big bay window in my living room, south facing, so the light was minimal.

 

[Karri]

I really like #2 and #4. #3 seems a bit on the bright side to me. This is just a personal preference but I think #5 would be the best to me if the blanket/throw/white thing on the floor went all the way across the picture. I like the pictures but having the 'background' be two different colors/textures/patterns takes attention away from the beautiful little girl. Great focus on the eyes too which is a must for portraits!

 

[Twisted_Pixel]

Nice work, number 2 looks to be a future model

This is one area I want to get into also.

 

[Jack3d]

The lightning was all from the window? i like !

 

[Photogger]

You did good! Great first portraits, favorite is #2, try for even backgrounds next time, I wasn't a fan of the two textures. # 3, would have liked it more if you were on her level, not shooting down. You're off to a really good start, keep at it.

 

[AprilEye]

All very good but amazing color in #5!

 

[Kyna]

You did good! Great first portraits, favorite is #2, try for even backgrounds next time, I wasn't a fan of the two textures. # 3, would have liked it more if you were on her level, not shooting down. You're off to a really good start, keep at it.

I live in a SUPER small town and we only have a Pamida, I didn't want to drag 3 kids 30 miles away to Walmart just for a white and a black sheet So hubby will bring those home with him after work. So I knew the sheet wasn't the greatest......I was just bored and wanting to play.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Kyna]

I guess one thing I am really trying to learn is when to use what settings and modes?

I had been reading in a different forum and someone who had really nice natural light portraits gave me some settings to try. She told me to use F/3.5, 1/160 and ISO 400. Now obviously she wasn't here with me seeing my light.......I put my camera in M mode and took shots at these settings, they were WAY to dark. I ended up having to lower the shutter speed to 1/50. Things still didn't look quite right in full M mode.

So I ended up putting it in AV mode and setting it to F/5.6, Shutter speed of 1/50 and ISO 400. So luckily some turned out, but it was all just a process of elmination.

I'm rambling here but I gues what I'm curious about is first and foremost....is there a correct "mode" to shoot portraits in? Manual, AV, A, P......etc.

Thanks everyone for the help and the compliments, I'm glad they weren't a total flop.

 

[Twisted_Pixel]

Will be interested to see what information you receive Kyna. Most of my recent shots have been in clubs/bars with low light.

 

[Marc-Etienne]

I not a pro, others might correct me, but I would say go aperture priority. If you know your lens, you'll know how much you have to stop it down to get the sharpest results. You also want the widest aperture (smaller f-stop) to minimize the DOF. It's a trade off. Use that aperture and do your best to get a shutter speed equal or above 1/focal length.
Hope that helps!
By the way, I wish my first shoots were that good! Amazing!

Edit : Look at this site if your lens is among it, they give a pretty sweet graph of aperture-focal lenght-sharpness graph. Its really nice to know! That way I know to avoid 150mm on my nikon 18-200mm VRII because it's horribly soft!

 

[swedberg311]

any PP on these? and what programs do u have to pp with?

 

[Kyna]

any PP on these? and what programs do u have to pp with?

Just some slight adjustments in hue, saturation, contrast etc. very slight though.

I just have the freebies, paint.net and gimp. I used gimp for these.