Close up portraits

in2thewild · Mar 22, 2016

Just wondering what you think of these portraits? Do any of them appeal to you? Thanks for the cc.

tirediron · Mar 22, 2016

Yes and no. I like the direction you're going, but I'm not 100% sure you're there yet. In the first, I'd prefer to see either all of her hands & arms or none. The horizontal crop through the arms doesn't work IMO. Additionally, I would prefer to see her moved off to the side. You have a lot of empty space on both sides which is adding little to the composition. Shifting her to one side or the other might have given it some balance (and speaking of 'balance', your WB looks a tad off).
Her positioning in the second image is much better IMO, 'though the dark background and bright area above serve to pull the viewer's eye away from the subject.
Again, in the last one, I'd like to see her moved to one side or the other. That said, all of these are nice ambient light images.

in2thewild · Mar 22, 2016

tirediron said:
Yes and no. I like the direction you're going, but I'm not 100% sure you're there yet. In the first, I'd prefer to see either all of her hands & arms or none. The horizontal crop through the arms doesn't work IMO. Additionally, I would prefer to see her moved off to the side. You have a lot of empty space on both sides which is adding little to the composition. Shifting her to one side or the other might have given it some balance (and speaking of 'balance', your WB looks a tad off).
Her positioning in the second image is much better IMO, 'though the dark background and bright area above serve to pull the viewer's eye away from the subject.
Again, in the last one, I'd like to see her moved to one side or the other. That said, all of these are nice ambient light images.

Thanks. Well as long as the direction I'm going in is OK, I won't expect to be at my destination just yet!

Just trying to figure out what works / doesn't at the moment. Then I'll start taking photos with different advice in mind. Thanks

pixmedic · Mar 22, 2016

way cool (blue) in #1. need to fix the white balance on that one. also, I would have shot or cropped that one to portrait orientation.
#2 seems a tad underexposed, and the background is so OOF it doesn't really lend enough interest to warrant a horizontal crop.
not a fan of the head chop in #3, but the exposure is a little better, and the horizontal crop works better here.

whats lacking here more than anything else is consistency in editing.
the white balance and exposure is different in all of them.

overall, I think your off to a decent start. certainly headed in the right direction.

Derrel · Mar 22, 2016

The second one has a major flaw: her chin is "dragging the bottom" of the frame. Her eyes are roughly 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the frame, so there's a huge 2/3 of the frame above the eye height, which just looks very unsettling. This leaves a tremendous swath of top space, which is the area above the head's crown. That just does not work.

I like #3 the most, but the bright, featureless area to the left is a bit distracting to my eye. I do like the direct eye contact with the lens in #3.

In shot #1, I'd try cloning out that orange object in the lower right. I'm not sure about the very blue color balance in the non-sunlight parts of #1.

in2thewild · Mar 22, 2016

Thanks guys. Actually, I didn't edit these photos. I'm working on composition at the moment and analysing some photos I took recently to see how I can do a better job in camera before editing. I'm still getting to know my equipment. Thanks for your feedback!

Neililina · Apr 15, 2016

I like the third one more. The composition and the way she looks into the camera, you captured some special look in her eyes!

sashbar · Apr 16, 2016

All these shots were taken in difficult light conditions that were not really suited for the portraiture - bright backgrounds, harsh snow reflections, dull dispersed light with no direction, lots of stuff that skew you exposure and white balance unless you know what you are doing. It is not easy to pull a decent portrait in that environment.

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Chasing the Light: Improving Your Photography with Available Light (Voices That Matter): Ibarionex Perello: 9780321752505: Amazon.com: Books