Hannah

This is my Niece Hannah.
My sister, wanted some basic posed portraits of her children. So I offered to do their portraits one at a time.
This is one of my favourite images from today.

I feel I am finally getting somewhere with my lighting, exposure, colours and clarity.

Window light only, no flash, no reflectors, 60mm 1.8 lens, Manual Mode, F2.8, SS 1/100, ISO 200

As always, your thoughts please. (Good or bad).
TIA

Alison....lighting is fine as is the exposure and it is sharp...The only problem I have is Hannah's posture,,,she is slouching badly..Her smile looks a tad contrived which could be due to self confidence..All very common when photographing girls of this age...I bet her mum made her sit for these portraits..

Jurgen
Australia

Hannah wanted them done too.

I noticed her posture after I took the shot and got her to sit upright more. Unfortunately she then looked too tense.
And yes, it's a self confidence thing. She hates showing her teeth.

Heres another I worked on earlier. She looks much happier with this pose. I always try to get them to pose how they feel comfortable. I feel their personality then shows in the shot.

I was just happier with the lighting in the first shot. I'm getting there SLOWLY! lol

And here's one of April, my sister's other daughter. I took April's pictures yesterday.

It's so much more relaxing doing their pictures one at a time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alison

This is my Niece Hannah.
My sister, wanted some basic posed portraits of her children. So I offered to do their portraits one at a time.
This is one of my favourite images from today.

I feel I am finally getting somewhere with my lighting, exposure, colours and clarity.

Window light only, no flash, no reflectors, 60mm 1.8 lens, Manual Mode, F2.8, SS 1/100, ISO 200

As always, your thoughts please. (Good or bad).
TIA

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Good shot. You might have her sit up straigheter next time. The problem that you might lose that nice relaxed expression. Maybe you could crop it to mask the slouch and keep the expression.

Yeah I thought about cropping it. I don't think her Mum will mind the slouch anyway. Maybe that's just Hannah being Hannah :)

Here's a little trick I got from a pro: get them to puff out their cheeks really hard and then release the air. The moment they let the air out, their whole face relaxes and they smile radiantly. Works every time! Just make sure you are ready to push the button the moment they let the air out.

Cheers
Mike

Lol! Cool thank you. I'll try that :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Didache

Here's a little trick I got from a pro: get them to puff out their cheeks really hard and then release the air. The moment they let the air out, their whole face relaxes and they smile radiantly. Works every time! Just make sure you are ready to push the button the moment they let the air out.

Cheers
Mike

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,,and then ask them to stick their left foot in their right pocket!!!Being serious,,photographing people can be daunting if they are self conscious or they just don't want to be there..I like to clown around a bit or crack a few one-liners to put them at ease..

Alison,,the second image of Hannah is much better...More natural...Try one with a light coloured background and give it a high key feel..

Jurgen
Australia

Alison - Not bad. Most of the other critiques have already mentioned her posture. I think that the lighting is 'close', but just a bit hot, esp on the second posting of your neice. I like the angle you shot of the April, but not how her arms are clipped off. You'll also notice what I have already - black backdrops however mystical don't work for brunettes w/o some sort of secondary illumination of their hair, say from behind, to prevent it from fading out.

Thanks for posting. Nice to see portraitures for a change. - GB

Maybe I mess about with my levels too much because the histogram looked ok.
Or maybe move my subjects a little more from the window.
I'll get it right one day :)
I suppose I should really get my monitor calibrated. Would that make a difference do you think?

Yes, if you used natural light here, you will have to adjust the distance or add some sort of diffusing material between the light and subject. It just seems a little bright, esp on the second posting of your neice on her shoulder and face. Remember that post-shoot adjustments in PS or something can only do so much: it's much better to get it right or very close on the shoot. I've personally never learned the theory behind the histograms yet, I just go with what I see. But you're right, monitor settings add another variable :( I've found that out the hard way when I've sent digital files for printing and they seem a little darker than what I saw on my screen. I adjusted my screen down a bit from there....

GB

My comment was going to be posture, but since that was mentioned already....


another thing to keep in mind is clothing. Generally, the less loud, the better. Her flowered shirt is fairly distracting. One other thing to keep in mind, and I'm not saying this is an absolute, is that you have a light, bright shirt with a black background. Generally, but not always, if you have a dark background, a darker shirt is going to give you a more appealing photo. Sames goes for a light background. Especially with actual backdrops. When you are working with your surroundings, it's a little less distracting.

adina

One more thing...

In the second photo of Hannah, if you have her bend her elbow just a bit, she won't get that hamhock thing going on with her upper arm. Not that it's much of an issue with people her age, but if you're ever working with an adult it's something to watch for.

It seems like everything that could be said has been said so I'll just put in my two cents here and say I think the second pose of Hannah is my favorite.

Cheers!

Hi adina,,,clothing says as much about the person as does his/her face..One wouldn't shoot a corporate portrait with a guy in jeans and t shirt or the drummer in a rock band in a tux...

Jurgen
Australia

Quote:

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Originally Posted by yogestee

Hi adina,,,clothing says as much about the person as does his/her face..One wouldn't shoot a corporate portrait with a guy in jeans and t shirt or the drummer in a rock band in a tux...

Jurgen
Australia

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I agree. However, if you were set on that shirt, you might have chosen a different background.

How many corporate guys in suits do you see photographed in grungy garages? Probably about as many rock stars as you see in traditional studio settings. I'm not saying that doing either of those is wrong, but generally, with portraits along these lines (the photos of Hannah) will flow a little better if you consider how the clothing works with your background.