Portrait

[jcharris]

I love to take " portrait " and " closeup" pics.
Could you give me some advice on portrait and close-up photos please ?
Here is one i have taken with a bit of a green background.
The other 2 is a close-up of a cosmos flower , and just a flower growing on a tree.
Thanks a lot !!

[gahspidy]

Hey, not bad. I think your portrait shot is ok. It could use a bit of fill flash. Since I don't know what camera and gear your shooting with, I will assume it is a point and shoot digicam. You could set your camera to "force flash" in which it will always pop the flash even in daylight like this. It will fill in the shadows and helps alot with daylight shots.
The second one of the flower is pretty good but could have used some better lighting as it seems somewhat flat. You could wait for a different time of day to catch it when the sun might be illuminating it in a more dramatic way. The background could use to be blurred out more but you would not have much to do about that with a p&s camera.
The last pic or bottom pic is just to "busy". Too much in the shot. try getting closer to the red petals to focus the attention to them and leave out all the other stuff there. If you get your camera as close as it can focus to the flower then it will probably blur out all of the unwanted things around it. If you really want to capture the flower on the tree and all there is around it, then try waiting for a time in the day when there is not much light behind the flower. If the background were darker it would help make the subject stand out more.
Good work. you seem to have a knack for taking photos. Keep at it.

[Sean Dempsey]

Go read up on the golden thirds. IMO nothing should ever be centered unless you've got a really good reason. The pictures are fine, but the composition isn't.

http://www.bonsai4me.com/AdvTech/ATG...20Section.html

[PuckJunkey]

What Sean said. I think the main detractor from these images is that they're all somewhat flat composition wise, mostly because they are head-on, dead centered images. The Rule of Thirds is a good guideline for many people, but just understand it's not really a "rule" per se; that's just the name given to the idea.

[jcharris]

Dear Sean

I have so much to learn about portrait photos and taking photos in general as well .
Thank you for the link on the golden thirds rule . It is a very helpfull site ! I went through it , and will go back there a few more times .I will keep on paractising !

Kind regards

[zabyss]

Rule of thirds is always important, you seem to bullseye everything. More interesting lighting situations would also help, as would a better looking subject.

[Wings]

In the old days we used the darkroom to make some minor corrections. This is the digital age and there is nothing wrong with it to make corrections using a program like Photoshop. But do understand, it's the photographer/camera combination that makes a great shot and a program like this can only be used to fine tune the photograph.

In my example I focused on lighting and sharpness (I considered both images 'flat').
I also retouched a few minor areas using the dodge tool in the photograph of the boy.

[Wings]

Oops, my post count was reset. I've been away just way too long! ha!