first senior portrait

[afdlips]

and first shot with my new D80. (i love it!)

[starriderrick]

Cool shot 0001. Could it be you shot this with the 18-135mm lense Am I correct? The dark edges(I forget what that is called) It does frame this shot nicely.So It works.
Great vivid color.WB looks perfect.What mode was this shot in? Curious.
Congratulations on your new D80

[afdlips]

Cool shot 0001. Could it be you shot this with the 18-135mm lense Am I correct? The dark edges(I forget what that is called)
Great vivid color.WB looks perfect.What mode was this shot in? Curious.
Congratulations on your new D80

thanks
I actually bought it body only and i hadnt sold my D50 yet, so i still had the 18-55mm lens. I added the vignetting in photoshop.
I believe i shot it in Av mode or manual mode.

[Tyson L. Sparks]

These types of portraits are meant to flatter and POP. I don't think you did that here, you could have done this with a PS camera. If you are trying to spotlight a person you need to get in tighter, the type of frame you did here is meant to show a person in a room. You want to show a room with a person in it. The location of this shot is not important, the person is, lose the extra room. A person standing straight up staring into the camera is just "flat" no pop. Pose him in a widow sill, or down on one knee looking to the side at you. Leaning on his car, sitting on a rock. Just standing in front of a camera is a mug shot. Don't forget to take your pill for the 5'10 disorder (get lower or higher than your subject).

[MonkeyWrench]

Looks like you’ve got color etc. well in hand, but like Tyson said it could use a little more pizzazz. Keep trying your off to a good start. I am just learning portraits so that’s all I can add.

[livin4lax09]

you need catchlights in the eyes!

[afdlips]

ahhh!! lol. so much to remember!! lol. this was more or less a test shot for the new D80 and a practice round for the senior portraits i have lined up this summer. thanks for the tips tyson, MW, L4Lax.

[Lava Lamp]

These types of portraits are meant to flatter and POP. I don't think you did that here, you could have done this with a PS camera. If you are trying to spotlight a person you need to get in tighter, the type of frame you did here is meant to show a person in a room. You want to show a room with a person in it. The location of this shot is not important, the person is, lose the extra room. A person standing straight up staring into the camera is just "flat" no pop. Pose him in a widow sill, or down on one knee looking to the side at you. Leaning on his car, sitting on a rock. Just standing in front of a camera is a mug shot. Don't forget to take your pill for the 5'10 disorder (get lower or higher than your subject).

I totally disagree. This is a great environmental portrait - the kind of thing senior portraits are all about now, not a glamour shot. The negative space on the right is good. It adds mood and character. It's a little dark, but leads somewhere. The concrete works.

Taken out of context everything written above is more or less true, but when you look at the picture it works. I'd hire you based on this shot. The other approach is what you'd get at the Walmart portrait studio.

Not to hijack this thread, but I'm posting two examples of mine. #1 is a studio shot for a corporate bio. #2 is more like the shot under critique, but cropped more. They both have their place, but which do you like more? Which would a senior like more?

[afdlips]

haha lava lamp. thank you! i for some reason had faith in my photo, and now its reborn.

lol. the kid likes it too. everyone else had some good advice though.

[Tyson L. Sparks]

Just for the sake of argument, your pictures are very different. The background, the girl in a swim suit. It all fits. How does a concrete wall fit in with a senior portrait? It's dead space that makes you look around and takes away from the subject. There is nothing intimate about a studio portrait, lets face it. Studio portraits are just HQ snapshots. Sure you play with the lights and all but there are people at WalMart that can't use a PS camera but they are trained to do studio portraits. That first picture could very well be a WalMart job. I do like the original post much better that these two, these two have some lighting issues.

[Tyson L. Sparks]

Remember This is just my OPINION. So don't take it personal.

[Frog]

Hope you'll love your d80 as much as I do.
I won't comment on the bg or anything as you said it was a test shot.
I think if you'd used the spot metering you could have got better focus/pop on the eyes.

[livin4lax09]

oh and i forgot to say, for the most part I love the image. It's a FANTASTIC shot, the colors really pop, and if there were some light in those eyes it would be perfect. It isn't your typical senior shot though, as most portraits of these type don't really experiment with interesting compositions, they are pretty straight forward, dead on. but the most important thing is just getting one the senior likes, as that's how they will be remembered by many of their classmates.

the shirt looks comfortable too....

and tyson, rarely do you want to shoot from under the subject. It gives an up the nose shot which isn't flattering to about 90% of the people in this world. High shooting can work well sometimes, but actually the best height to shoot the face from (that i've found) is the same height that the face is, give or take a couple inches.

[Tyson L. Sparks]

Think about what this would look like hanging on the wall, 50% of the subject on the left and 50% of nothing on the right. It is almost a 50-50 split to the T. I am not picking but just looking and learning along with the rest.

Do you have any other pictures from this set. I would love to dee them.

A 5x7---subject to small, vertical would look beter in my eyes, again just my OPINION.