First Real Portrait Attempt (Photo heavy)

[jdsfighter]

A good friend asked me to take some pictures of her and her horse, nervously I complied. As this was really my first serious attempt at photographing people, I'm curious of how everyone thinks I did.

Her friends and family swarmed to the pictures absolutely in love with them. Myself, I'm not entirely satisfied. I feel I was ill prepared, and wish I had another chance.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

 

[tirediron]

Not a bad first attempt at all; hard to go wrong with an attractive girl and a horse. The main issue I see is lack of light; the faces (both the girl's and the horse's) are in shadow due to strong back-lighting. A reflector and/or off-camera fill-flash would have taken these from 'Okay' to 'Wow!'.

 

[jdsfighter]

Not a bad first attempt at all; hard to go wrong with an attractive girl and a horse. The main issue I see is lack of light; the faces (both the girl's and the horse's) are in shadow due to strong back-lighting. A reflector and/or off-camera fill-flash would have taken these from 'Okay' to 'Wow!'.

I was trying to do my best to work with the shadows, unfortunately, I don't have a speedlite yet, and I'm still saving for my own set of strobes.

 

[slackercruster]

Glad you took a few pix to show. Good job for a first time!

 

[PinkDoor]

I can add. . . you may want to consider the background as well for shots like this. The bars and gates don't really help to create a picture perfect shot. As a fix, you may consider a lens with a shorter DOP, or pull your subjects further from the bars.

 

[jdsfighter]

I can add. . . you may want to consider the background as well for shots like this. The bars and gates don't really help to create a picture perfect shot. As a fix, you may consider a lens with a shorter DOP, or pull your subjects further from the bars.

Really, a lot of this wasn't me positioning her, and I was shooting fairly wide open at f/2.2 on my 50mm. I pretty much went out when she was riding, and I wanted her to act as natural as possible, so every so often, I'd snap a few pictures.

 

[Sidro62]

Number 2 is number 1 in my book.

Sid

 

[tirediron]

I can add. . . you may want to consider the background as well for shots like this. The bars and gates don't really help to create a picture perfect shot. As a fix, you may consider a lens with a shorter DOP, or pull your subjects further from the bars.

Really, a lot of this wasn't me positioning her, and I was shooting fairly wide open at f/2.2 on my 50mm. I pretty much went out when she was riding, and I wanted her to act as natural as possible, so every so often, I'd snap a few pictures.

As most who hang around here know, I tend to harp on backgrounds, HOWEVER, in this case, even though they are busy, I don't think they're as detracting as Pink is indicating because they are part of the environment. That said, if you let the subject do whatever she wants without direction, than you're really just snap-shooting. It takes practice, but as the photographer, it's essential that you learn how to direct.

As for the lighting, don't forget that a large piece of white Coroplast or poster-board makes a great reflector!

 

[jdsfighter]

I can add. . . you may want to consider the background as well for shots like this. The bars and gates don't really help to create a picture perfect shot. As a fix, you may consider a lens with a shorter DOP, or pull your subjects further from the bars.

Really, a lot of this wasn't me positioning her, and I was shooting fairly wide open at f/2.2 on my 50mm. I pretty much went out when she was riding, and I wanted her to act as natural as possible, so every so often, I'd snap a few pictures.

As most who hang around here know, I tend to harp on backgrounds, HOWEVER, in this case, even though they are busy, I don't think they're as detracting as Pink is indicating because they are part of the environment. That said, if you let the subject do whatever she wants without direction, than you're really just snap-shooting. It takes practice, but as the photographer, it's essential that you learn how to direct.

As for the lighting, don't forget that a large piece of white Coroplast or poster-board makes a great reflector!

I should say, there was some direction, but mostly just general things "can you move closer to him", "can you straighten your head a bit", "look at him"

 

[PinkDoor]

I can add. . . you may want to consider the background as well for shots like this. The bars and gates don't really help to create a picture perfect shot. As a fix, you may consider a lens with a shorter DOP, or pull your subjects further from the bars.

Really, a lot of this wasn't me positioning her, and I was shooting fairly wide open at f/2.2 on my 50mm. I pretty much went out when she was riding, and I wanted her to act as natural as possible, so every so often, I'd snap a few pictures.

As most who hang around here know, I tend to harp on backgrounds, HOWEVER, in this case, even though they are busy, I don't think they're as detracting as Pink is indicating because they are part of the environment. That said, if you let the subject do whatever she wants without direction, than you're really just snap-shooting. It takes practice, but as the photographer, it's essential that you learn how to direct.

As for the lighting, don't forget that a large piece of white Coroplast or poster-board makes a great reflector!

I agree about the reflector, but disagree on the background. If your title was "Some Snaps at the farm", maybe I would feel differently. . .but your title is "My first Real Portrait session".

A more natural background or not in focus background would be so much more pleasing. It takes these photos from "I just snapped them" to "I captured amazing shots".

As the photographer, you need to take the opportunity that you have to look at all aspects of your shoot (subjects, lightening, background, etc), and be prepared to ask them to move, turn, or reposition as much as needed. This happens all the time with Boudoir. . . you think a shot might work, but it does not. . . a slight change, can make the shot.

If you were in the area (bars all around), the way to get the shot (IMO) would be to have her and the horse as close to one end as possible (with the longest portion behind her), and YOU positioned on the outside of the arena either shooting above or between the bars. You would get the impression of the barn atmosphere, without having the distraction of the bars in your shot.

 

[MK3Brent]

Good work!
Horses are tricky.

When I shoot people with them, I typically use a wide angle and get low.
Depending on the color of the horse, an OCF will help pull the detail in the horses hair and eyes. (usually very dark.)

Here's a couple examples of what I mean:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7250/7482261476_a36f6bf86c_z.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7138/7477077240_585ea54f1d.jpg

 

[RedStickChick]

I agree that lighting seems to be your biggest concern, everything else looks great. You can see in #2 and #5 that the back lighting is harsh, in my opinion it seems to take away from the girl and her horse. Maybe if there was a background, like greenery, behind her it wouldn't be as harsh.

 

[Netskimmer]

Most of them aren't too bad. The horses ears are back in most of them, the only one I would have written off would be the one where the horse has his head down eating grass and you cut off his nose. The backgrounds seem ok in most of them as they depict a setting one would expect to see a horse in. I have a person & horse shoot coming up. I've never liked the idea of using a flash around a horse and when I asked for advice here several people warned against using reflectors as well. I'm going to try a piece of poster board and see how that works.

 

[janineh]

# 8 is great!

 

[Netskimmer]

# 8 is great!

:scratch:

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