Portrait C&C

[Bo4key]

I bough a new 50 mm lens on Boxing Day and am still playing around with it. Other than snapshot of my kids, I don't have much experience with portraiture. I've had my DSLR for over a year now and still have a lot to learn.

Any suggestions on how to improve on a photo like this? I like the focus but I find that it is flat, but that could have to do with the lack of color in the setting and their clothing too.


IMG_5055 by Boaketography, on Flickr

 

[BlackSheep]

I'm not a portrait photographer, but here's my 2 cents....I assume that you shot this with natural light and/or your camera flash, if that is true then the "flat" that you see is due to the lack of other lights, there is a really informative thread on here about lighting called "strobist- show your photos and setup" or something like that, if you look at that, you will see the difference.

Other than the lighting, I think you nailed the focus, exposure, all the technical stuff. Composition-wise, I think the shot lacks "oomp", maybe a different background would have worked better.

 

[Bo4key]

I did use the on camera flash as I was charging the batteries for the new speedlite I just picked up. I don't like the background either, but it was spur of the moment and I tried to make the most of it.

I'll definitely check out the stobist thread.

 

[KmH]

Use the bare white wall. The grain in the wood is pretty busy/distracting and it's to close to the color of their skin.

Plus, they are way to close to the background to have had any hope of achieving selective focus (a shallow DoF).

 

[Bo4key]

Thanks, I didn't even think about the distance between the subject and the background when I took the shot.