Any Comments/Advice Appreciated

vansnxtweek · Sep 16, 2010

I was asked to do some senior pictures by someone and I finally got around to doing it. They asked me to take the pictures at the local golf course. I had some curveballs that I wasn't sure how to take such as a sort of crappy sky mixed with him wearing a white shirt. I also am not used to taking portraits and I'm sure it shows. Is landscape orientation like a "concrete" no no in portraits? The mother who asked me to take these is ecstatic with the results but I'm pretty sure I could have taken my phone camera and got him smiling and she would've been super happy. Please tell me what I need to work on with these for the next go round.

Just to lay out my issues...
-I couldn't seem to get the WB right in camera. Thankfully I shot in RAW so I was able to help that a lot.
-The sky was so bright and white but when I metered for the sky it was much too dark for the rest of the picture. From what I've read on here this is where fill flash would help?
-Maybe I should crop in on some of the shots? I am very hesistant to do so since I don't want to lose tons of quality. They want a few enlarged to a decent size...cropping is something I should be concerned with right?

Thank you.

#1

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#3

#4

Cam_Assassin · Sep 16, 2010

the picture screams out "take my lunch money" :lol:

vansnxtweek · Sep 16, 2010

hah...Thanks for the worthwhile comments and advice.

Blake.Oney · Sep 16, 2010

I like the shots, but I think they may need some more contrast. Haha I wish I could be a lot more help, but I'm a lot better at taking photo's than I am at telling people to fix problems with them.

For the sky you could dup the layer, adjust the levels, and them mask him so he's back to normal exposure. Don't go too far with it, though or the contrast will be too different.

ababysean · Sep 16, 2010

He looks a tad orange?
I think for this situation you need to meter off his skin, and really forget about the background if you do not have off camera flash. The sky/background will then of course be blown.... however, the subject in the photo will be just fine.

cjkriebel · Sep 16, 2010

played with the contrast and smoothed the face a little.

Blake.Oney · Sep 16, 2010

I was thinking something like this. Kinda quick and sloppy, but you get the idea.

pbelarge · Sep 16, 2010

vansnxtweek

I will comment on one aspect of the portraits you have made.
Remember to pay attention to the backround of the images. The one with the building, the roofline intersects his neck and head - it is very distracting.
One other image has the trees and birds behind him, also distracting.
I see you do not normally do this type of photography, but if you decide you liked it, you may want to get a faster lens so you can work on making the background less distracting from the subject.

Here is a Google link to portrait lenses
Google

vansnxtweek · Sep 16, 2010

Thank you all for taking the time to give me advice..its much appreciated.

Blake:
This is one of the things I noticed like crazy! It was even worse before I made some adjustments in RAW. All I really did was change the white balance and some I adjusted some contrast and brightness. Should I meter in a different spot? Maybe Spot meter on him?

BabySean..I think you are def. right. Next time I will be sure to spot meter off of the person. Hopefully I can get my hands on an off-camera flash. The sky was def. blown out but when I tried to even halfway expose it correctly the subject was ridiculously dark.

CJK I like this edit. What did you do to smooth the face?

Pb..I swear everytime I think I pay attention to every small detail ya'll experienced folks end up showing me something I never saw before! Now it is distracting lol...(another note added to my important list). I am also def. in the hunt for a faster lens. I'm thinking about going for the 70-200L 2.8 but I just wanna do some more studying before I jump in over my head. I don't want to be the goon newb walking around with the high dollar lens thinking thats going to make me a better photographer.

Is the 70 - 200mm kind of what type of lens I need to be going for?

cjkriebel · Sep 17, 2010

vansnxtweek said:
Thank you all for taking the time to give me advice..its much appreciated.

Blake:
This is one of the things I noticed like crazy! It was even worse before I made some adjustments in RAW. All I really did was change the white balance and some I adjusted some contrast and brightness. Should I meter in a different spot? Maybe Spot meter on him?

BabySean..I think you are def. right. Next time I will be sure to spot meter off of the person. Hopefully I can get my hands on an off-camera flash. The sky was def. blown out but when I tried to even halfway expose it correctly the subject was ridiculously dark.

CJK I like this edit. What did you do to smooth the face?

Pb..I swear everytime I think I pay attention to every small detail ya'll experienced folks end up showing me something I never saw before! Now it is distracting lol...(another note added to my important list). I am also def. in the hunt for a faster lens. I'm thinking about going for the 70-200L 2.8 but I just wanna do some more studying before I jump in over my head. I don't want to be the goon newb walking around with the high dollar lens thinking thats going to make me a better photographer.

Is the 70 - 200mm kind of what type of lens I need to be going for?

To smooth the face I went to picnik.com and use the airbrush tool and the wrinkle tool.

AgentDrex · Sep 17, 2010

#3 - The subject is OOF and #4 seems to be as well though not as much...

misstwinklytoes · Sep 17, 2010

I would try an inexpensive 50mm lens before you jump to the big money. Just a thought though.

vansnxtweek · Sep 17, 2010

Doesn't sound like a bad idea at all twinkletoes..I guess Id just reallly like to have that zoom for all the motosport stuff I like to do. Its big money though!

DanFinePhotography · Sep 17, 2010

vansnxtweek said:
Doesn't sound like a bad idea at all twinkletoes..I guess Id just reallly like to have that zoom for all the motosport stuff I like to do. Its big money though!

The prime lenses (50MM, etc... ) are great for portraits and a great lens to learn with. Zoom lenses are great for portraits as well and can produce great results but usually require a tripod for best results. Your photos are good, have to agree would like to see a shallower depth of field to reduce background distractions. Maybe boost the saturation a *tad :thumbup:

Yownhouse · Sep 17, 2010

Now that you have a starter I think you need to go step up to a really nice course with a little better scenery. Try shooting at different angles instead of straight on, I would definitely try this to hide his bad posture.

If I were you I would also check out professional pictures of Tiger or any formidable pro to maybe get some ideas and get the gears goin in the mind?

Lastly, I think you need to bring out colors like people pointed out. It makes the course look a little lower quality when is has warm colors instead of bright vibrant colors. Hope that helps!