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Portraits by the canal
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My 1st attempt at any kind of portrait work, would love some advise on any ways I could have improved these shots
Thanks, Mark1.
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Pretty girl and well exposed images. I guess the first thing that jumps out at me are that the shots are soft. It’s really important for portraits to be critically sharp, particularly the eyes. You’re also taking these from a little bit too high a perspective. The model is looking up, which gives a submissive feel. It’s always ideal to be at eye level with the subject. The landscape crop is an interesting one for portraits. I use this quite a bit in my work, but I’d never go landscape and then stick the subject straight in the middle. Centering the subject gives a very static feel to the composition.
For your first attempt these are damn good. Your exposures are spot on and you picked a gorgeous subject to work with. Invite her back for a reshoot :)
These are very nice portraits the subject is lovely and the backfround is not distracting.
Its interesting if you try taking a few shots of someone who is say sitting and your standing gives as ciaran says a submissive look then take a few at eye level which seems to work best and then try a few with the subject higher this can make them look dominant or just taller :)
As suggested get her back and shoot some more your on the right track :).
These look like studio portraits to me,
lit by a softbox-
the background could easily be a picture on a wall-Odd that the focus is so off too-
it almost looks like a softening filter has been used.Nice flattering lighting on a nice looking subject,
though her position in the frame, the composition, seems a little bit random.I suppose the first one would be the most successful,
all down to her expression-joseph
Thanks for the advice guys, i appreciate it :D
I see what your saying about shooting from above and not at eye level, I’ll know that for next time!
The pictures were shot at about 6pm on a cloudy afternoon using a Nikon D60, 18-55mm lens at 55mm, the flash on 1/8 and 1/16 power, and no filters were used. At the time the only lens I had was the 18-55, should i be expecting sharper photo’s from this lens? any advice on how to get them sharper?
And i now have a 55-200 lens, would this lens be better than the 18-55 for future portrait work?Thanks for the help :)
MarkA lot of the softness is probably down to the fact you’re shooting at too slow a shutter speed, so you’re getting camera shake.
Hand holding 1/50 at 55mm focal length (in reality that’s 80mm because of the crop) you’re in the danger region. As a guideline your shutter speed should always be at least 1/focal length to avoid camera shake. Obviously this is a guideline.. someone people have steadier and indeed shakier hands than others.
Thanks Ciaran, the shots were indeed at 1/50, I had heard this rule before but forgot about it at the time :oops:
My main focus was on the aperture and the exposure, I’ll focus on these other pointers that you guys have given me next time 8)I think the second shot in this set has the greatest appeal to me..it grabs my attention more than the others, probably because it seems better composed for the landscape format.
As the guys said, they are soft, but that’s not a biggie as next time you can compensate and get it spot on. Lovely model and great eye contact.
Look forward to seeing more :-)
Robbie
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