Portrait Session with a friend - C&C please?

[iolair]

This was the first time I've inflicted my home studio on anyone outside my direct family. I'd love C&C on the results - I feel I'm still very early on the learning curve for this!

1.

2.

3.

4.

 

[NiKOnSLR]

IMO, 2 and 3 are the best ones. #4 has too much redness.

 

[iolair]

IMO, 2 and 3 are the best ones. #4 has too much redness.

Thanks ... 2 was my favourite from the session.
I might go back and edit out the catch from the necklace though - something I must watch out for on future sessions.

I pushed up the saturation on 4 because I wanted to make the colours as "in your face" as the pose, though I did wonder if I'd overdone it.

 

[SrBiscuit]

2 is my favorite as well but you blew out her hand pretty badly.

 

[CCarsonPhoto]

#1 She needs to drop her shoulders, particularly the one in the back. Also, for women, its more feminine to have them tilt their heads towards the camera, instead of keeping it horizontally level with their shoulders.
#2 is good, but just enough off center to look odd. Again, have her drop her shoulder some. It looks odd sticking out so high and being chopped off so much. Also, you may find it helpful to position your subjects several feet away from the background; this will help blur it out and make it less distracting. I think this one has the best lighting/edit, except, as previously mentioned, it is blown out.
#3 She needs a rim light to provide definition between her and the background, her head should be tilted up more, and her shoulder/back looks disproportionally large. Solve this issue by having her face directly towards your light, then have her turn her head ever so much towards you. She should be sitting at a 3/4 angle.
#4 The edit is way to much, and her fingers and chin are being cut off. Nothing about this shot appeals to me, personally.

Be sure to watch how you crop on people. The last two, I would say, the framing is just too tight to be flattering.
Hope this helps.
Ciao~

 

[iolair]

Thank you, Caitlin. That was really helpful. I'm still not confident in poses/giving posing instructions. I think I need to find a sheet with a dozen or so good "standard" poses on and stick it to my tripod while I'm practising! Most of the poses were my friend self-posing, I didn't intervene too much - mostly because of my lack of knowledge/confidence so far.

I've recropped etc three of the images - hopefully these are improvements. Re: 4 - I don't like the pose much anyway, but my friend liked that picture (from seeing the fresh-from-camera version) so I worked with it.

I guess I was a bit naive to work with the black-shirt on black-background! I did put in a rim light, but it didn't really show up on the cloth.

2a.

3a.

4a.

 

[NiKOnSLR]

Thank you, Caitlin. That was really helpful. I'm still not confident in poses/giving posing instructions. I think I need to find a sheet with a dozen or so good "standard" poses on and stick it to my tripod while I'm practising! Most of the poses were my friend self-posing, I didn't intervene too much - mostly because of my lack of knowledge/confidence so far.

I've recropped etc three of the images - hopefully these are improvements. Re: 4 - I don't like the pose much anyway, but my friend liked that picture (from seeing the fresh-from-camera version) so I worked with it.

I guess I was a bit naive to work with the black-shirt on black-background! I did put in a rim light, but it didn't really show up on the cloth.
4a.

Much better.

The original was hurting my eyes.

 

[CCarsonPhoto]

Were you aiming the rim light at your background or shining on the back of your subject?
A good book I'd recommend for posing is "Monte Zucker's Portrait Photography Handbook" has some great examples of posing and lighting in it, which has helped me greatly. You can find it online for about $20+.

 

[iolair]

Were you aiming the rim light at your background or shining on the back of your subject?

On 3, it was behind the subject, at an angle of 45 degrees to the camera shining toward her back/right-side. (On 1 and 2, the same light was pointed at the background).

A good book I'd recommend for posing is "Monte Zucker's Portrait Photography Handbook" has some great examples of posing and lighting in it, which has helped me greatly. You can find it online for about $20+.

Thanks - I've added it to my amazon wish list - maybe for Christmas.

 

[JOSHardson]

The color shots save the one you re-edited feel a little too yellow to me... Nothing a little color correction couldn't fix...

 

[iolair]

The color shots save the one you re-edited feel a little too yellow to me... Nothing a little color correction couldn't fix...

Hmm, not sure I agree, although I just tried reducing the saturation on a couple of the originals a tiny bit, and it does seem to improve them - they seem a bit oversaturated from the camera.

I did of course set white balance before I shot - though just using a sheet of paper, I don't have an 18% card yet. I've heard that "normal" white paper and card is in fact slightly blueish, could be part of my problem. Easy to fix in post though.