50mm f/1.4 - Senior Portraits

[AmeliaP]

I did these senior portraits for a friend. Was able to do them in auto focus with my 50mm (for the first two I was set to 2.8 aperture, I can't remember about the third). What do you think?

 

[ronlane]

Not bad at all. The b&w, sort of seems blown out to me.

 

[frommrstomommy]

Focus in 3 looks like it may have been on his belt or something?

 

[Derrel]

I think #3 is the best overall portrait. I bet his parents like the shot.

 

[jowensphoto]

I prefer the first over the other two, though the third is also a great shot.

What was your conversion process like (color -> BW)?

 

[The_Traveler]

Pictures are OK.

By the third one, I wanted to not see that smile ever again.
His smile is so overwhelmingly large that it overshadows the picture.

 

[Patrice]

Pictures are OK.

By the third one, I wanted to not see that smile ever again.
His smile is so overwhelmingly large that it overshadows the picture.

That smile likely cost his parents a small fortune.

My wife, who is British, calls that "An american smile, i.e. a mouthful of perfect teeth."

 

[KmH]

His eye sockets are dark in all 3, which gives him a somewhat sinister look.

Light wise he is not well separated from the background - no 'pop'.

 

[AmeliaP]

Yes, they do, Derrel. I'm very happy about that.

@jowensphoto, Yes, I shot in color, and converted to BW in photoshop.

Keith, how would you recommend keeping eye sockets from being dark. Perhaps not shooting on a cloudy day?

 

[Trever1t]

A number of techniques can be used to prevent (or even correct) dark eyes, a reflector is the easiest.

 

[Patrice]

As Trevor said a reflector to get a bit of light in under his brows works. You could also use a flash to add just a touch of fill, your pop-up is good for that.

 

[KmH]

Shooting in direct sunlight poses similar problems, and the Sun is an apparently small light source so it produces sharp edged, harsh, dense shadows.
Outside, open shade is often used with the subject near the edge of the shade so the open sky becomes the main light, and so reflectors can still be used.

Dark eye sockets happen because the light source is above the subject.
When doing available light photography the fundamentals of photographic lighting still apply.
In your case you had just 1 light (main light) and it was essentially directly above your subjects head so his deep eye sockets are in shadow.
Direction & Quality of Light: Your Key to Better Portrait Photography Anywhere

Reflectors don't work to good on cloudy days, so flash can be used for 'fill' lighting.

Many new to photography don't know that supplemental light like flash is often used in daylight by pro photographers.
Flash, reflectors, black flats, overhead diffusion are all used to modify/control available light.
Lighting ratios and lighting styles like short light, broad light, loop light, split light, etc still apply to available light photography too.
Most available light photography books include a chapter that covers using strobed light (flash).

Doug Box's Available Light Photography: Techniques for Digital Photographers
Available Light: Photographic Techniques for Using Existing Light Sources

 

[Designer]

All of these were shot at f1.4, FWIW.

 

[KmH]

View attachment 43279

I globally sharpened in ACR - 25, 1, 25, 0 and some color noise reduction
In Photoshop I selected (and saved) the boy, fence rail and fence post.
I inverted the selection and reduced the exposure of everything else 0.5 EV. I cropped some off the right side of the image.
I retrieved my saved selection and used a Curves Adjustment layer to make a preset linear contrast adjustment to just the boy, fence rail and fence post.
With that selection still active I used a Levels adjustment layer and moved the black point triangle to the left end of the pixel distribution in the histogram.
I zoomed in and worked on the area around his eyes and mouth.
I lightened and desaturated his teeth and eye whites. I did some spot healing, cloning, local sharpening, dodging, patching in the eye area.
Again retrieving the saved selection I boosted the mid-tone contrast of just the boy, fence rail and fence post, and lastly added a thin black border.

 

[kanuski]

Wow, it doesn't even look like the same picture. Nice work.