First Portrait Shot (C&C Welcome)

[Steve56]

Afternoon All,

Please comment and critique my first portrait shots. Bear in mind, this particular individual wasn't posing and had no idea I was about to take her picture. (As she's camera shy) So I didn't really have time to compose my shot.

This was taken with a Canon E-F 50mm. I'm also learning Photoshop Elements, so I had a play with it and dabbled at cropping etc. The edited version was saved as a JPEG because I didn't realise that Facebook won't upload PSD format. So I realise some quality will have been lost.

Original

Edited Version

 

[kundalini]

By your own admission, this is not considered a portrait IMO, but just a happy-snap. Nothing wrong with that, but a (proper) portrait is going to have thought and consideration put into it prior to releasing the shutter.

Bear in mind, this particular individual wasn't posing and had no idea I was about to take her picture. (As she's camera shy) So I didn't really have time to compose my shot.

Keep shooting and posting.

 

[Steve56]

By your own admission, this is not considered a portrait IMO, but just a happy-snap. Nothing wrong with that, but a (proper) portrait is going to have thought and consideration put into it prior to releasing the shutter.

Bear in mind, this particular individual wasn't posing and had no idea I was about to take her picture. (As she's camera shy) So I didn't really have time to compose my shot.

Keep shooting and posting.

Indeed, not a portrait but used more of a descriptive term for the type of shot taken.

Also, I have just read that my Contrast levels are too high on my edited version, hence the curved line in the bottom left hand corner.

 

[kundalini]

Candid, Street? A couple of other terms that may apply.

A couple of more observations and I may be totally off base, but looking at the top of her head, the brightness of the background and the lip of the ice cream cone, I would guess this photo was taken at a time of day when the sun was rather high in the sky. This usually does not produce the best results unless additional measures are put into place. In a portrait, the face is paramount and should be the brightest element of the image or at least portions of it, depending on your creative ideas. Meaning, the viewer should be immediately drawn to the face and then explore the remaining parts. So on your image, it appears the subject is underexposed. One way to combat this is to use fill flash. Although it is not the best tool, the built-in flash on your camera can be used for this if the subject is within range of the flash output (refer to your user manual).

Additionally, I believe the DoF is too shallow here. The focal point appears to be the closest edge of her sunglasses and then falls off rather quickly so that even her lips are blurred. You mentioned using the Canon 50mm, but not the aperture used. Let's say that it's the f/1.8 and you shot it at f/1.8. This is a extremely narrow DoF and the result is what you got. I feel that if you had stopped down the lens to f/4 to f/5.6, you would still get the blurred background yet retained much of your subject still in focus.

Only my 2¢....... pence in your case.

 

[gsgary]

Shooting that close you could have used F8 and the background would still be blurred but she would have been sharp

 

[Steve56]

Candid, Street? A couple of other terms that may apply.

A couple of more observations and I may be totally off base, but looking at the top of her head, the brightness of the background and the lip of the ice cream cone, I would guess this photo was taken at a time of day when the sun was rather high in the sky. This usually does not produce the best results unless additional measures are put into place. In a portrait, the face is paramount and should be the brightest element of the image or at least portions of it, depending on your creative ideas. Meaning, the viewer should be immediately drawn to the face and then explore the remaining parts. So on your image, it appears the subject is underexposed. One way to combat this is to use fill flash. Although it is not the best tool, the built-in flash on your camera can be used for this if the subject is within range of the flash output (refer to your user manual).

Additionally, I believe the DoF is too shallow here. The focal point appears to be the closest edge of her sunglasses and then falls off rather quickly so that even her lips are blurred. You mentioned using the Canon 50mm, but not the aperture used. Let's say that it's the f/1.8 and you shot it at f/1.8. This is a extremely narrow DoF and the result is what you got. I feel that if you had stopped down the lens to f/4 to f/5.6, you would still get the blurred background yet retained much of your subject still in focus.

Only my 2¢....... pence in your case.

Your indeed correct, I did use F1.8, which was what I set it to before I met up with her. I think the sun wasn't directly behind her but definitely to the the left of the shot. It was taken about 2.00pm, so the sun was still pretty high in the sky.

Very informative though....thanks for your input. The ironic thing is, I had purchased a UV Filter at the same time as my 50 mm lens but I didn't put it on properly without realising. So that shot may have been better had the UV filter been put on correctly.

 

[kundalini]

So that shot may have been better had the UV filter been put on correctly.

Highly unlikely. A UV filter will be most effective for landscapes/cityscapes where UV haze is polluting the atmosphere. A circular polarizing filter (CPL), on the other hand, is a very useful filter to have. It will reduce light by ~1-1/2 stops, it also increases saturation of blues and greens (sky/trees), reduces glare from reflective surfaces (windows/water) and will add contrast to clouds to increase their definition in the scene.

You can do a search on TPF for the usefulness of UV filters because it has been exhaustively discussed.