First Portraits

manaheim

Jedi Bunnywabbit
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First time I've taken formal portraits of anyone. How did I do?

==1==
Rick and Teresa Portraits - 007.jpg


==2==
Rick and Teresa Portraits - 014.jpg
 
*minor bump* :)
 
Lighting and exposure and everything is all great, but the poses are a little bland. Especially in #1 where she looks like she's going to kill you if you actually push that button....lol. As said above though....not bad for your first ones.
 
Nice exposure, nice sharpness, but as others have said, the poses need to be worked on. His expression is not too bad, very corporate. Hers is a mugshot picture.

Watch the backgrounds as well, behind her, there is a sign for something leaning on the wall.
 
not too bad for your first time...
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Thanks! :)

Lighting and exposure and everything is all great, but the poses are a little bland. Especially in #1 where she looks like she's going to kill you if you actually push that button....lol. As said above though....not bad for your first ones.

:lol: Yeah. I actually do have some with her smiling, but as I now see, the key appears to be a small smile. She has a pretty big smile in the other ones and it makes her look pretty dorky, and in truth... she is a more severe/serious kind of person.

Thanks for the comments!

Nice exposure, nice sharpness, but as others have said, the poses need to be worked on. His expression is not too bad, very corporate. Hers is a mugshot picture.

Watch the backgrounds as well, behind her, there is a sign for something leaning on the wall.

mugshot... :lol: heheh... I may have to redo hers. Good thing she's family, eh? :)

The sign was actually a book on wyoming... an artifact of my inexperience. The way we setup the shot initially there is a nice bookshelf with some legal books (these two are attourneys and this is intended for their website). The Wyoming book is related to her as that's where she grew up, so in a wider shot it worked, but I quickly realized the wide shot were not appropriate for this kind of shot. I should have taken the book down. Good call, and I was curious if anyone would comment on it.

What I'm surprised about is that no one complained about the brick wall... are you guys just trying to be nice, or did you think it's actually ok?

I'm also very happy to hear people were pleased with the exposure and the sharpness. I was using a dual-strobe setup with an SB-600 off-camera on a shelf to my left and an SB-800 on the camera. The lens was actually just my 18-200 VR. I wanted to use my 50mm 1.8 but this room was REALLY small, so I couldn't pull it off.

Thanks everyone for your great comments!
 
I have no real issues with the brick wall. Although now knowing they are lawyers, I would suggest an in-office, at a desk style shoot to make it even more formal
 
In addition to everything mentioned, portraiture requires a lot of postprocessing until you become more aware of how to minimize some of the problems during shooting.

In the first one, the skin needs work to smooth it out and improve the colour a little without going too far and making it look unnatural. Her hair needs more light and detail as well. The eyes also should be brightened a little particularly the darker one on the right.

With the fellow, the double chin is not flattering. The usual approach when shooting is to have them jut their chin out a little and tighten their neck and muscles for a few seconds before shooting. The angle of posing and shooting can also reduce it as well. In post you can de-emphasize it through dodging and selective softening of focus. Some minor warping if done carefully also works. His red skin is natural of course, but I would experiment with reducing it just a little to see if it improves the overall image.

Needless to say in post, you need a fine touch, not too much, but enough to improve the overall image and make it more flattering for your clients.

skieur
 
In addition to everything mentioned, portraiture requires a lot of postprocessing until you become more aware of how to minimize some of the problems during shooting.

In the first one, the skin needs work to smooth it out and improve the colour a little without going too far and making it look unnatural. Her hair needs more light and detail as well. The eyes also should be brightened a little particularly the darker one on the right.

With the fellow, the double chin is not flattering. The usual approach when shooting is to have them jut their chin out a little and tighten their neck and muscles for a few seconds before shooting. The angle of posing and shooting can also reduce it as well. In post you can de-emphasize it through dodging and selective softening of focus. Some minor warping if done carefully also works. His red skin is natural of course, but I would experiment with reducing it just a little to see if it improves the overall image.

Needless to say in post, you need a fine touch, not too much, but enough to improve the overall image and make it more flattering for your clients.

ooo, nice feedback and great information. Thanks. I actually tried having him jut his chin out, but it wound up looking odd. I wonder if I should have stood on a chair. I'm shorter than he is by a LOT and he was standing. (actually I'm shorter than both of them) :lol:

I did do some touch up on some other blemishes on the skin and whatnot, and wondered if I should try to fix the chin, but in the end decided to stay with it, but now I think I'll take another crack at it.

I was considering doing a light airbrush pass on the woman, but wasn't sure if she would be offended. :) I let them know I could do it if they so desired.

On their color... they're definitely red. I did play with it a bit, but it wound up looking wonky. I think the color is pretty well dead on. Their kids are red, too. It's a big family of redheads. Pretty amusing since that coloration is generally so uncommon.

Again, thanks for this. I appreciate you taking the time. I'm going to play a bit in PP and see about setting up a second shoot with them.
 
Good thing you watermarked these, cause I was gonna take 'em!!!
 
Good thing you watermarked these, cause I was gonna take 'em!!!

:lol:

You trolling the 'net looking for pictures of my brother and sister in law? :lol:
 
Save the brick walls for bands, like was suggested above, shoot in their workplace, in their environment, where they are comfortable, and you can use the environment for context. Or at least use a setting where the background is more organic.

The lighting looks fine, as long as it's even, nobody really cares anyway, it's not like it's rocket science.

Just stay away from the brick walls, and if you're going to use it, make sure it's round or organic, or it's really out of focus, or so dark to where it's not really recognizable, or at least where it's obviously not important.

Another thing about formals, I HIGHLY suggest the use of prime lenses. They offer consistency, better DOF control, smaller and less intimidating for the subject, and are generally sharper. Not to mention, generally cheap for your wallet too.
 
Save the brick walls for bands, like was suggested above, shoot in their workplace, in their environment, where they are comfortable, and you can use the environment for context. Or at least use a setting where the background is more organic.

The lighting looks fine, as long as it's even, nobody really cares anyway, it's not like it's rocket science.

Just stay away from the brick walls, and if you're going to use it, make sure it's round or organic, or it's really out of focus, or so dark to where it's not really recognizable, or at least where it's obviously not important.

Another thing about formals, I HIGHLY suggest the use of prime lenses. They offer consistency, better DOF control, smaller and less intimidating for the subject, and are generally sharper. Not to mention, generally cheap for your wallet too.

All really excellent advice, thanks so much.

I actually really wanted to use my 50mm prime for this but the 'best' place for the shot was in this teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeny little room, so there was no way to pull it off.

Still, all great advice and will take very much to heart.

Thanks!
 
I was considering doing a light airbrush pass on the woman, but wasn't sure if she would be offended. :) I let them know I could do it if they so desired..

If you do a great job in post, no woman will be offended, because she will not even notice the work. That is my experience.

skieur
 

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