First Portrait Shoot, let me know how I did

[Raven18]

Did some photos for a friend. I put 9 in an album that he liked, and I would like to know what everyone here thinks.
[One is quite clearly photoshopped, worked on it at 4am. just a heads up, since it looks obvious.]

Cory s Photos Flickr - Photo Sharing



I have only had my camera since april and bought my i40 flash a month ago. I am really interested in hearing from the wealth of knowledge on this forum.

So please give me a few minutes of time and critique what I have done. thank you!



I also shot a charity run (Elephant Run 2015, album), and if anyone wants to peruse that album and "the help" album and let me know if I did alright or what I can do better, that would be awesome.

Thank you!

 

[Designer]

The light is kind of harsh and direct, but for a man's portrait and in this venue, I think it's o.k.

 

[Didereaux]

In general not bad. However do some study on lighting to learn how to eliminate the harsh shadows...they are deal killers in some of your pics(think second flash and/or reflector). Some good references are Roberto Valenzuela, Syl Arenas just to name two.

 

[ronlane]

I would agree with the comments above. It looks to me that the flash was on the camera. If so, I would urge you to get it off the camera to help you out. Then you can move it closer and add a diffuser to the mix for some softer light with less harsh shadows.

 

[Raven18]

Thank you guys.
I only have one flash, plan on buying two more flashes, stands, umbrellas and a soft box.
I used the i40 on a tripod in an equilateral triangle setup (me/subject/flash) with the little softbox it came with.
I figured either go harsh and dress athletically, or wait to get a softbox and have him dress up and do his hair (for this specific location).
I did use a reflective silver umbrella to bounce the on camera flash and trigger the off camera flash, but only did it with a few photos and he did not like those ones.

I will definitely look to get the lighting softer and improved for the next person i do a portrait of.

 

[Raven18]

Here is one with the umbrella used.

Cory05312015008 by Michael Barry, on Flickr

 

[DevC]

Nice for a first one! Definetly excellent first try with light. I recommend getting/ making a diffuser and working from there.

 

[Braineack]

Maybe get your subject a bit further from the wall.

and the light MUCH closer to the subject.

 

[Derrel]

The light coming from below, with the nose shadow landing ABOVE the level of the bottom of the nose makes these look pretty theatrical. Light from below is often called horror lighting, and it's used to symbolize villainous nature, or scariness...and I'm not sure that he is projecting a villainous nature or attitude in these poses, and the setting doesn't seem frightening to me either.

I do not mind the hard-edged shadows, especially since the walls are hard and tiled, and the lighting is low and dramatic: I think that hard lighting makes the most sense for this setting, but the lighting position is pretty low, which affects the way we see the person to a pretty high degree.

 

[chuasam]

It's ok.
Try to get him to have some lively expressions. Squint his eyes a little.

 

[angelo_lightning]

I like the one where he is yawning and shooting himself in the head. I don't see these as being like... glamour shots, so an interesting pose works well with it. And those are interesting.

posing - so far, I've found that i get all my best pictures when people are resting their body weight on something. lean against rail/wall. If nothing to lean on, put one foot back and they rest their weight on that back foot, hands in pockets.

lighting - derrel said it. Having your strongest light/hard light low or directly overhead is bad lighting. Avoid both of those. Have your strongest light a bit above the head level of the person. A fill light coming in from below does wonders, but it shouldnt be the strongest light. In this case it looks like you wanted these portraits to be dramatic and interesting. A hard split light or rembrandt is usually used for those. It looks like on most of em you used 'short' lighting, but it was angled up just a tad. Your models face is kind of narrow, I would have liked to see some more 'broad' lighting. Plus a rim light might have looked cool with his hair. On one shot, he is looking down and he has some nice rim lighting on his left arm. Really outlines him from the background.

composition - you basically just have him in the middle of every shot. that works sometimes, but you might want to mix it up with the rule of thirds. Plus when people are looking off into the distance its nice to put some space in front of them. The yawn shot, once again is off center and just works. The shot where he is standing in the corner is pretty cool in this regard, cause the diagonals of the floor and walls pull it all right into the center on the model. And the one where he is looking into the camera arms folded has some nice diagonals breaking it up making it look interesting. Putting a little space to the left of him in that one might have been better. By the way, the styling of the model and the environment seemed to work together really well for me. And I wonder what these would look like with a little tweak to exposures and in black and white.

best to worst imo...

best...
yawn shot - composition, pose, focal length, lighting all works together in this one for me. I could see this on the cover of something and I would find it interesting.
gun to head shot - pose is really interesting. needs photoshop though to fix exposures n take away suuuuuuper distracting underarm hair.
looking down - good pose. you can tell its candid in mid motion. good angle for the model. the rim lighting on the arm helps. the angle of the model's face turns the lighting into a dramatic rembrandt type look with that little triangle on his cheek. I would like to see what this looks like with that shiny door handle cropped out, and some more space on the left, putting the model in the right third. might not work though because it would cut off a bit of the model or put him right up against that right edge. maybe instead photoshop that doorhandle out.
arms folded, looking into camera - looks like an actual portrait portrait. i would like to have seen a smile in this one, maybe head tilted toward camera, head forward a bit to stretch out the neck, eyes squintier. model a little more off center in the crop.
arms folded standing in corner - so id like to see a smile in the last one, but in this one, i think it would be better if he WASNT smiling. lol. the lighting and field of view is pretty dramatic. feels like he should have a dramatic pose. a grin or smirk, head tilted way down, cocked to the side maybe.

worst...
staring at the camera, standing against the wall - looks overexposed. his shoulders and body are square and dead center with the camera. no depth to the picture as far as diagonals or leading lines. no movement. expression looks kind of deer in the headlights.
considering man pose leaning against the wall - actually the more i look at this... its not that bad. but super dramatic lighting plus his awkward pose killed it for me. for one thing it looks like he is about to fall over. another thing, his 'considering something while possibly stroking beard' pose. His eyes arent narrowed and his eyebrows aren't furrowed in thought. So his body language and facial expression are in conflict. He might be daydreaming, but in that case he would be looking up.
considering man pose standing in the corner - expression looks a little more natural, but still not natural enough. pose just is too unnatural. kills it for me.
standing with thumbs in pockets - pose is just super awkward

after having said all that... i'm just a beginner who just drank a starbucks doubleshot energy. lol. so nothing i said really holds any weight. but thats what my opinion is... at this stage.

 

[angelo_lightning]

I like the one where he is yawning and shooting himself in the head. I don't see these as being like... glamour shots, so an interesting pose works well with it. And those are interesting.

posing - so far, I've found that i get all my best pictures when people are resting their body weight on something. lean against rail/wall. If nothing to lean on, put one foot back and they rest their weight on that back foot, hands in pockets.

lighting - derrel said it. Having your strongest light/hard light low or directly overhead is bad lighting. Avoid both of those. Have your strongest light a bit above the head level of the person. A fill light coming in from below does wonders, but it shouldnt be the strongest light. In this case it looks like you wanted these portraits to be dramatic and interesting. A hard split light or rembrandt is usually used for those. It looks like on most of em you used 'short' lighting, but it was angled up just a tad. Your models face is kind of narrow, I would have liked to see some more 'broad' lighting. Plus a rim light might have looked cool with his hair. On one shot, he is looking down and he has some nice rim lighting on his left arm. Really outlines him from the background.

composition - you basically just have him in the middle of every shot. that works sometimes, but you might want to mix it up with the rule of thirds. Plus when people are looking off into the distance its nice to put some space in front of them. The yawn shot, once again is off center and just works. The shot where he is standing in the corner is pretty cool in this regard, cause the diagonals of the floor and walls pull it all right into the center on the model. And the one where he is looking into the camera arms folded has some nice diagonals breaking it up making it look interesting. Putting a little space to the left of him in that one might have been better. By the way, the styling of the model and the environment seemed to work together really well for me. And I wonder what these would look like with a little tweak to exposures and in black and white.

best to worst imo...

best...
yawn shot - composition, pose, focal length, lighting all works together in this one for me. I could see this on the cover of something and I would find it interesting.
gun to head shot - pose is really interesting. needs photoshop though to fix exposures n take away suuuuuuper distracting underarm hair.
looking down - good pose. you can tell its candid in mid motion. good angle for the model. the rim lighting on the arm helps. the angle of the model's face turns the lighting into a dramatic rembrandt type look with that little triangle on his cheek. I would like to see what this looks like with that shiny door handle cropped out, and some more space on the left, putting the model in the right third. might not work though because it would cut off a bit of the model or put him right up against that right edge. maybe instead photoshop that doorhandle out.
arms folded, looking into camera - looks like an actual portrait portrait. i would like to have seen a smile in this one, maybe head tilted toward camera, head forward a bit to stretch out the neck, eyes squintier. model a little more off center in the crop.
arms folded standing in corner - so id like to see a smile in the last one, but in this one, i think it would be better if he WASNT smiling. lol. the lighting and field of view is pretty dramatic. feels like he should have a dramatic pose. a grin or smirk, head tilted way down, cocked to the side maybe.

worst...
staring at the camera, standing against the wall - looks overexposed. his shoulders and body are square and dead center with the camera. no depth to the picture as far as diagonals or leading lines. no movement. expression looks kind of deer in the headlights.
considering man pose leaning against the wall - actually the more i look at this... its not that bad. but super dramatic lighting plus his awkward pose killed it for me. for one thing it looks like he is about to fall over. another thing, his 'considering something while possibly stroking beard' pose. His eyes arent narrowed and his eyebrows aren't furrowed in thought. So his body language and facial expression are in conflict. He might be daydreaming, but in that case he would be looking up.
considering man pose standing in the corner - expression looks a little more natural, but still not natural enough. pose just is too unnatural. kills it for me.
standing with thumbs in pockets - pose is just super awkward

after having said all that... i'm just a beginner who just drank a starbucks doubleshot energy. lol. so nothing i said really holds any weight. but thats what my opinion is... at this stage.

I said yawning, but i guess hes probably yelling, huh? I guess i thought he was yawning due to his posture.