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Dun Laoghaire Portrait
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I think you did well with composition and the DOF is pretty nice.. You might have moved in one or two steps to place more of the face in the frame ;) I’m learning the hard way by the way so Imight as well share the love :?
The biggest problem I see is the harsh sunlight, causing shadows accross the face and the resulting squint from your pal .. Maybe if you plan to try again move into an area with less harsh light and get closer … I’m sure some of the portraiture people on the forum will have loads more for you ;)
Lorraine
Nice happy summery shot, great colour.
Only a coupla things: background would been better if it was REALLY out of focus, like Lorraine says, moving in a coupla steps woulda helped narrow the DOF. Her indoors used have a way of popping in a very low bit of flash to help with bringing out shadow detail – think she set it to quarter power or sumfink…must pick her brains again.Thanks for the advice, folks! Will be taken into consideration the next time I’m out and about. I actually took this one in “Portrait” mode on my D50, so it didn’t take full advantage of the 50mm F1.8 (it decided 2.8 was the best option)… The background IS a bit busy. Grrr. :) Next time, aperture priority and a step in… and a different time of day :)
What I like about it is that you seem to have put thought into the composition, placing the person in a very nice spot in the frame. Crop wise, perhaps cutting him off at the shoulder isn’t ideal. Portrait mode was a good choice too because it often chooses to use the widest aperture possible. Ok, in this shot it decided on f2.8 rather than 1.8, but it’s still done a nice job throwing the background out of focus.
However, letting the camera control the exposure has meant that it’s pretty hot on the subjects face. Shooting in this harsh sunlight is a real pig, but if you meter manually you can do a much better job. Put your camera into spot meter mode, point it at the brightly lit side of the persons face and meter off that. As there’s such harsh contrast, the other side of his face would be even more in shadow than it is now, but you could either use fill flash, have an assistance hold up a reflector or just use photoshop to lift it slightly. Personally I’d try and avoid shooting in such harsh light in the first place – move your subject into the shade somewhere.
Also the background is a little too busy. Ok, the shallow DOF has helped, but it’s still a distraction. Always look through your viewfinder before you take a shot and rather than looking at what you want to be shooting, pay attention to the things in the frame that you DONT want to be shooting. If there are too many distractions, simply move the subject. The best tip for composition is to keep it simple and an uncluttered background where the frame is filled by your subject is the easiest way to do this.
Apart from that, nice colours, good and sharp. Well done.
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