What are your thoughts on this picture?

[John27]

You ought to consider getting a tool down the road to calibrate your monitor. It's not terribly expensive, and it can really make post processing easier.

In the mean-time, you can 'adjust' your monitor (not quite the same as calibrating, which uses software to manipulate the output) using a tool like this:

LCD monitor test images

-John

 

[TonysTouch]

The pose would be fine if he had good posture. You should have him roll his shoulders back instead of letting them hang.

If this is already cropped for photo dimensions, I would crop tighter to get rid of the landing. The stairs lead my eye upward and there really isn't anything there to look at. If it isn't, then a 5x7 or 8x10 crop should take care of that for you.

 

[TATTRAT]

The pose would be fine if he had good posture. You should have him roll his shoulders back instead of letting them hang.

YES. As well as shot from an angle, maybe the same height as the original, or a little higher, it wouldn't look as though there are no shoulders.

 

[clipse]

I will attempt to adjust the monitor the edit the raw image and upload what come up with.

 

[clipse]

Edited this one on the tablet in Photoshop. Hard to tell if the exposure is right but I thought you guys might like the pose better.


1354428232850 by clipse94, on Flickr

 

[TonysTouch]

When you are shooting photos, especially for portraits and weddings, make sure you leave room for print cropping. The second pose looks more natural, but it could still use better posture. I find the that the darkest part of people photography is getting people to pose with correct posture and getting them to maintain that posture.

The only other thing I am not a fan of is how your brother is completely centered. For these photos, the stairs help and I find it acceptable, but I don't think you would be ok with acceptable. The edge of the stairs make for great leading lines, but you aren't using them to their full potential.

 

[clipse]

Here is newly adjusted uncropped pic.

IMG_4313-2 by clipse94, on Flickr

And a few more from the same shoot. (note, the kid is all muscle. His posture never looks natural.)

1.
IMG_4305-2 by clipse94, on Flickr

2.
IMG_4307-2 by clipse94, on Flickr

3.
IMG_4289-2 by clipse94, on Flickr

4.
IMG_4320-2 by clipse94, on Flickr

5.
IMG_4312-3 by clipse94, on Flickr

 

[clipse]

Bottle cap in 1 will be removed in post. I just haven't done it yet.

 

[AgentDrex]

DUDE!!! Nice! I like these latest ones a lot. I'm not good at portraits but if I were, I'd hope to be able to have half as good of photos as these are. Thank you so much for sharing these. I'm not into sugar-coating anything and am blunt when need-be so believe when I say, I think these are incredible.

 

[KmH]

Edited this one on the tablet in Photoshop. Hard to tell if the exposure is right.......

Photoshop has tools that let you measure the exposure. You don't say which version/release of Photoshop you have.

Your camera can likely display a histogram on the back LCD, which can also be used to guage exposure on location.

 

[ManualMode]

If you can't afford to get your monitor calibrated, send a copy of your image to a print shop. Take the print home and try to match the printout with your monitor as best you can.
If you do a couple of prints of varying light, contrast, color, etc you can get a pretty decent calibration.