C&C please. Portrait photography

[aimlyss]

Hi all,
I have taken photographs as an amateur for a long time now. I normally like to photograph flowers, landscapes, etc. I lately have become interested in portrait photography and was wondering if you could critique some recent shots of mine. I shot these with my Canon 40D
Thank you very much.

 

[SabrinaO]

Your focus, some of the lighting and the dof look perfect to me... you just need to work on composition. The ones where you ate looking down on her and she is leaning forward is not a good angle at all. Makes her forehead look ultra grand... and it's just not a good pose. She is hunched over and her shoulders are square into the frame. #4 is my fav... just warm it up a bit.

 

[KevinPutman]

Her expression is also the same in all of the pictures,
Try mixing it up a bit, it adds interest =p

 

[aimlyss]

Thank you for the responses! What I struggle with is posing, so I will spend more time working with that.

 

[KmH]

Most of your poses have the shoulders perpendicular to the image sensor or parallel to the image sensor. Put them in between so they are at an angle to the image sensor, around 45°.

Posing is most effectively done by considering the body in 3 parts. Each part is then assigned a number position so a pose can be described somewaht accurately as say a 1-3-2 pose or a 1-2-2 pose and people familar withthe sytem can know what you mean.

You did good having her keep her chin down. Your lighting is inconsistant and her skin tone is all all over the place in the various shots, one of the issues if you use TTL flash control. (tip: the facial highlights should be between 235 and 240 in the red channel.)

Your light needs to be apparently much larger so the shadow edges are not so sharp and the light not so harsh.

You might like to look at: The Rules Of Good Portraiture

 

[Samerr9]

I am an amature also, but I learned that you shouldn't crop fingers from the hand and don't crop in the joints like the elbow. In many photos the crop is on the elbow and some fingers are not showing.

 

[aimlyss]

Most of your poses have the shoulders perpendicular to the image sensor or parallel to the image sensor. Put them in between so they are at an angle to the image sensor, around 45°.

Posing is most effectively done by considering the body in 3 parts. Each part is then assigned a number position so a pose can be described somewaht accurately as say a 1-3-2 pose or a 1-2-2 pose and people familar withthe sytem can know what you mean.

You did good having her keep her chin down. Your lighting is inconsistant and her skin tone is all all over the place in the various shots, one of the issues if you use TTL flash control. (tip: the facial highlights should be between 235 and 240 in the red channel.)

Your light needs to be apparently much larger so the shadow edges are not so sharp and the light not so harsh.

You might like to look at: The Rules Of Good Portraiture

Thank you for the link. I will check that out. As for the problem with inconsistent skin tones, I used natural light and no flash. Do you think that was the problem? Thanks.

 

[Tinstafl143 139]

The light looks a bit harsh to me. I am on my iPad though so my monitor may show it different but the one with her turned with her hands on her hip is especially harsh and a bit blown out too. Look to either fill with a flash or use a relector to fill in more and if you have a big one, or even a shower curtain, the silky white kind, you can set that up to diffuse the light a bit.

Another thing on posing, try to keep her eyes and nose in the same plane. Rules are made to be broken but know you ar doing it and the effects. You can change the look of a face this way.