first time c&c please... looking to make casual photos of kids more professional

allen15

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Hello everyone,

As the title says, right now I'm mainly looking to make the quick pictures I take of my kids a little more professional looking. I'm using a canon t2i with an 85mm f/1.8 lens. My technique is probably totally off, so I'll provide all the info I can... this was taken on aperture priority mode at f/1.8, ISO 100, spot metering taken off the face, with a portrait picture style. Any suggestions for how I can obtain sharper more vibrant images?

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C&C per req: Just because your lens will open up to f1.8 doesn't mean that you should shoot there. In fact, I would probably not go any wider than f2.8, and ideally f4. No lens is ever as sharp as it can be wide open. Aside from that, there are two main issues I see here. One is your composition/crop. When shooting a single-person portrait, it's generally better to orient the camera vertically ('portrait' aspect). That would have eliminated all of the empty space image right which contributes nothing. The rule of thirds doesn't always apply!

The other, and more impactful issue is lighting. You've got blown/nearly blown whites, deep shadow, and dark eyes. A single OCF, camera right with a diffuser of some sort would have taken this image from snapshot to portrait in one step. It's not a bad shot, but there is definitely room for improvement.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John
 
Backgrounds and background control are two of the main things that "professional" photographers pay a great deal of attention to. If one looks back through professional photos made over the last 75 years, there's a constant, and that is that the backgrounds are usually complimentary to the subject. The rose in this case matches the little girl's blouse, and that alone is a simple color-matching device. it works well. The background is SIMPLE, and uncluttered. UNfortunately, the image is over-saturated and the exposure appears too "hot" on her face and undershirt...it is over-exposed.

I would agree with tirediron: f/4 is a good aperture for portraiture with an 85mm lens. MY suggestion is to keep the backgrounds simple and uncluttered. Look for decent lighting. WOrk at it. Actually "look", and look hard, at the photos as are creating them. Ask yourself how the background might be made to further the photo, how might it be used to advance the photo. Think in terms of moving the subject, and of moving your camera's position in small increments, in order to achieve a pleasing, simple background that will NOT distract from the foreground subject.
 
Thanks for the tips, tirediron and Derrel. Obviously I'm still learning, and while I've studied the relationships between all the variables, I didn't know that sharpness related to aperture size, so thanks!

The crop is an easy fix, I'll change it to portrait and see how it changes the image. Lastly, do you have any good rules of thumb I should know for using an OCF? In this case, the rose bush essentially created a wall to the right of the photo, so I'm not sure how I could have placed a flash there..

Sorry for my ignorance! :)

And thanks for complimenting the aspects of the photo you do like... I was very happy with the photo when I saw the preview on my camera, as I tried to get the lighting right (which is hard to do with little kids) and it looked good at first glance, but I wasn't pleased when I saw it on the computer later. So it's encouraging to know I got some things right. Cheers!
 
There aren't a lot of 'rules of thumb' for OCF; it's a matter of understanding lighting and setting up accordingly. What you might want to do is spend a little time over at the Strobist Blog and read through Lighting 101.
 

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