Friend's Photoshoot

[Mezz]

I have zero experience shooting portraits, but I thought this would be fun, and we did have a blast. Out of the roughly 130 exposures, a few turned out really good. This is one of my favorites. How could I improve on this one concerning aperture and/or shutter speed? How is the composition? What about the "model" herself, how could I 'flatter' her more, as someone else put it?

55mm
No flash used.
1/250
f/5.6
ISO 100
WB: Auto

Thanks for any input and comments!

 

[knjrphoto]

She seems to be standing in an awkward position, and her facial expression reads as uncomfortable to me. I always try to get people [my sisters] to laugh or have a big smile. I guess unless you are trying to do the "fierce" modeling thing.

It might be a little underexposed - but hopefully a more experience eye can confirm that. It could just be that the subject doesn't seem to be jumping out from the background.

If possible I would have used a shallower depth of field. You might have moved her a little further down the road so you could eliminate the bush on right.

I'm not sure about the compositional techniques related to sky lines, hopefully someone else can pick that apart for you. It looks fine to me, but this doesn't look any better or worse than something I would have taken if I were at the same shoot - so hopefully a better eye can give you some more tips.

 

[DragonHeart]

I agree with knjrphoto. She seems to be leaning to picture right (her left) and her facial expression looks like she isnt very happy. And the hair blowing just doesn't work for me in this picture (it just looks sloppy).

 

[knjrphoto]

I agree with knjrphoto. She seems to be leaning to picture right (her left) and her facial expression looks like she isnt very happy. And the hair blowing just doesn't work for me in this picture (it just looks sloppy).

Yep, I was gonna say that, too. Have her smooth her hair before each shot. I spend a lot of time smoothing hair on subjects, wiping drool off babies faces, making sure clothing is laying correctly, etc before taking shots.

 

[belongus3]

A little more centered might of helped...depends on what you wanted to show off

 

[mwcfarms]

I would cut out the tree/bush on right its distracting. In pp maybe get rid of her fly aways on the left side of her head. I would have angled her in towards the road so your eye follows it. This angle leads her out of the shot. Maybe try having her hold a reflector to bounce some light into her face to get rid of the shadows. The lighting/tone is really nice otherwise.

 

[Early]

Maybe I'm a little old school, but I would have composed it so that most of the frame was to her right since that's the way her body is turned. I think it would have been also nice to have had her standing more to the left so that she was framed withing the width of the road.

Odd stance. What was that about?

 

[tirediron]

In addition to the points already raised regarding expression and posture, with which I agree, I will add that your composition is somewhat awkward. You've got a perfect set of leading lines in the form of the sides of the road, but you have her just to the left of centre so that the vanishing point is visibile behind her. This has the effect of taking the eye right past the subject.

My suggestion here would have been to have her in the centre of the road, and position yourself such that she is visually at the vanishing point and then crop the image to place her to the left or right of image centre (rule of thirds, golden mean, etc).

 

[D-B-J]

the picture seems slightly underexposed, and to me, the background is distracting. Maybe try using a flash, with diffuser, to highlight her?

 

[tommetass]

I don't think the picture is that underexposed. If you shoot raw then a little "fill light" will fix that right up.

In terms of what you said about "improving" the picture with aperture and shutter. I don't really understand.

Because it all depends on how you want to take a picture.
How you want it to look.

(Personally, I love the bokeh at f/2.8 on most lenses. It's just so sweet and soft.)


What could improve this picture is how you composited it.

When there's a road going inwards in a scene like this, I would maybe shoot it symmetrical, with the subject in the middle.


But then again, there's a lot you can do..


So, the light is nice and colors are good, but the composition could be better IMO.