My first attempt at portraits - Senior Portraits.

pyropenguin · Mar 31, 2007

My girlfriend and her friend wanted me to take their senior portraits, I explained to them I'd never done portrait photography before, but they wanted me to do them anyways.

So, here's my first attempt at portraits!

#1 - Marina (girlfriend)

#2

#3

#4 - a bit different

#5 - her friend

What's good? What's bad? How can I make them better?

Any post processing tips to help with the skin tones? (I can never get them right)

Any portrait-specific help?

Thanks!
Kyle

JimmyJaceyMom · Mar 31, 2007

Hey funny! I did my first outdoor portaits today too! Mine aren't as nice as yours! Great job!

pyropenguin · Mar 31, 2007

haha, thanks! Have you posted yours up?

JimmyJaceyMom · Mar 31, 2007

I did. They are here in people and pets titled, Michelle and Michelle2. But I take that back - I took some photos outside a week ago so I guess technically those are my first outdoor portraits, but I can't think of them that way since they all sorta ended up looking snapshot-ish.

By the way - I love these pictures - I really like the composition, your subjects are very pretty. But something I learned here it to play with the levels a little and you can make them brighter and they look even nicer sometimes.
I see yours are ok to edit so i played with a couple - hope you don't mind. But when someone showed me this it was like oh, neat! I didnt realize there was a whole other way to look at this! you know what I mean?
Anyhow I did these super fast so you could do a lot better if you like. And they are so small for me since I got them from here so the sharpening is too rough when I do it to small pics. Someone others on this forum can do a lot better. Brighter and stuff than what I did and like I said - I can't get my sharpening tool to be small enough to play with your pics without looking oversharpened. I need a neew program!

Cheesewheel · Mar 31, 2007

#4 is great!!

brighteyesphotos · Mar 31, 2007

#3 and 5 are my favorites. They're playful and casual, not posed-looking.

#2 is an awkward looking pose. If she was going to sit like that, I doubt she would place her arm on her leg like that. I always tell people to sit and relax how they normally would first.

Depending on your photo editing software, if you have photoshop (either cs2 or elements) play with your levels. You can brighten them up for a more vivid picture.

Efergoh · Mar 31, 2007

in #5, her feet are dirty, and so are her shoes. Can't do much about the shoes,
but you can clean up her foot...

Brokepilot · Apr 1, 2007

I really like #3 and #4 the best. They look the most natural and I like the dandelion idea. Good job.

Efergoh, that is funny because I saw the same thing and thought "why didn't she wash her feet off for the picture? She must have known they were dirty." I also found the shoes to be a little distracting. I think it would have been better without them in the shot.

Overall they are great shots. Looks like you may have a future in portrait photography. Keep up the good work.