A few of my portraits

H1945 · Mar 23, 2008

First post, heh. Hi everyone. Here are a few of my portraits

Any criticism is appreciated.

Also, I recently found out that I'm colour blind, so if the colour balance is off let me know.

Thanks!
mathew

gizmo2071 · Mar 23, 2008

Hey man, some real sweet shots in there. It's hard to say which ones as they aren't numbered. Were you using a small aperture or blurring in post processing?
1. It's alright, just not as good as some of the others.
2. I wasn't to keen on this crop, although I think it works well on the other one.
3. Nice shot. Tack sharp and good lighting. I like the d.o.f aswell.
4. Again really sharp on the front of the face and I like the depth.
5. Good lighting and sharp. Not keen on the pose or crop though.
6. Commenting purely on the technical side, looks like you tried to salvage an out of focus shot with sharpening and it looks a little rough. Not to my taste.
7. Nice shot with natural light. Has an edgy photo-journalism feel to it.
8. Sweet shot. I wouldn't change anything. Natural light again?
9. I like the crop for this shot, I think it works with the coolness and the water.
10. My fav. Cool model, great lighting, good B+W conversion and again I like the depth.
11. I'm in 2 minds about this one. I think I'd like him against a brick wall, but he's not so I can't comment on that. You could clean then marks off the wall as they don't add enough grunge to make it work. Good lighting and bold colors, which would work well against a brick wall.

12. Hard to fail with a beautiful model. I like back lighting, but maybe use a reflector to bounce some back into her or a fill flash. The lighting on her front just looks a little flat.

Of course personal critique and opinions.

Matthew

H1945 · Mar 23, 2008

Hey thank you. About the out of focus one, I was a bit hesitant on posting it, but its not that its out of focus, but rather that I shot it with bounced flash, and the shutter speed was dragged a bit and she moved after. In the larger version you can see the double of the cigarette. But I do agree that its the worst of the bunch.

Thanks for the crit!

oh, and yes 8 was natural light.

Emerana · Mar 23, 2008

everyone is so sad

spiffybeth · Mar 23, 2008

i think 7 is amazing. and he's hot!

Dubious Drewski · Mar 23, 2008

Very, very nice - although #1 and #6 need to go.

Otherwise, these are quite excellent and they are perfect examples of what I aspire to achieve with my portraits someday!

Really, the biggest hurdle for me is finding subjects and setting up the sessions - how do you go about it? Are some of these people your friends? Are they strangers off of the street?

Do you do this for a living? Have you already built up a name for yourself within your local community? These are things I'd like to know!

H1945 · Mar 23, 2008

Dubious Drewski said:
Very, very nice - although #1 and #6 need to go.

Otherwise, these are quite excellent and they are perfect examples of what I aspire to achieve with my portraits someday!

Really, the biggest hurdle for me is finding subjects and setting up the sessions - how do you go about it? Are some of these people your friends? Are they strangers off of the street?

Do you do this for a living? Have you already built up a name for yourself within your local community? These are things I'd like to know!

Thank you,

My subjects for these photos are mostly friends and acquaintances. I just asked some people to come into the studio, or shot it spur of the moment where ever we were.

I'd like to do this for a living, I'm just starting out as far as photography as a career choice goes (I'm still only 18). But I men, this is what I plan on making a living doing.

Dubious Drewski · Mar 23, 2008

What's your setup? I've got a 15" softbox, umbrella and a I think it's enough, but I'm unsure. Do you bring that stuff around, and if so, do you have portable power?

By the way, the lighting and skintone of #4 combined with the nice DOF make it my favourite shot of the bunch. You could make real cash with portraits and skill like that.

H1945 · Mar 23, 2008

Dubious Drewski said:
What's your setup? I've got a 15" softbox, umbrella and a I think it's enough, but I'm unsure. Do you bring that stuff around, and if so, do you have portable power?

By the way, the lighting and skintone of #4 combined with the nice DOF make it my favourite shot of the bunch. You could make real cash with portraits and skill like that.

Currently I use a shared studio with this setup:

All of the shots outside of the studio were done with natural lighting, but I plan on buying some alien bees strobes or something along those lines over the next few months to build up a home studio.

And the lenses used in those photos are just Nikon's 50mm F1.8 and the Nikon 18-70 F/3.5-4.5G AF-S