early portraits

[boris152]

I've recently started trying my hand at some real portraits. My results to this point have been maddeningly dismal, but I think I may have at least figured out the basics for lighting. This example is one of the better recent tries. It's been gone over kind of quickly in photoshop cs3 (gotta love trial periods).

My lighting is the fun part. It's just two work lights from a local hardware store with wax paper to soften the light. The gray background is an unlit white bed sheet.

Let me know what you think. These are early attempts for me.

 

[The Phototron]

The shadows are too harsh on the hair. Move light farther from the subject, or use white reflector on the left side.

And there's red-cast all over the place.

Here's what I would do with Photoshop:

Although at this point all talk of Photoshop is really wasteful, what you need is to get the lighting right when you're taking the picture.

 

[Splouff]

Hello,

To me is very blur. Too blur to be nice.
Your EXIF show the follwing info:
# Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 1/10 second = 0.10000 second
# Lens F-Number/F-Stop = 4/1 = F4.00
# Exposure Program = manual control (1)
# ISO Speed Ratings = 200
# Exif Version = 0221

1/10 is very slow... I would have opened more (if possible), used 400 ISO, and get a faster shutter speed.

There are a lot of not so nice shadows. And she looks very red.

I agree with the previous post. You should work on your lighting first.
I don't like playing too much ni photoshop when it comes to portrait, if the light and composition are good, you shouldn't have to do more than adjusting curves and stuff like that.

Delphine

 

[boris152]

The only thing done in photoshop is the blur layer. F/4 was the max for that lens. On a tripod, of course. I'll work on the lighting and the shadows, though the red isn't the lighting, it's her skin. The light is balanced off a gray card.

 

[boris152]

Oh, and there IS a fill light in the shadows. They would have been much worse.