First proper bash at portraits

Thought i'd see what you guys thought of my first serious bash at portraits; and hopefully learn how my technique needs improving.

These were taken with the 18-55mkII and softened. In time I do plan on getting a da*50-135 for portraits; but that is months away...(wish it was'nt!!)

I like number 2 although I think there is a bit of her bra showing on the right, and maybe on the left as well which detracts from it a bit. If it was intentional, it hasn't worked, not for me anyway.

Number one has your model squinting and her hair cuts right across her right eye.

A criticism of both images is that there is no detail in her clothing and it looks very flat (in a photographic sense).

She looks a curvy girl, but you haven't shown it apart from the cleavage in #2. If you look at the her right side of her body (left side of the image) in 2, her curved lines are almost hidden and blending into her arm.

Good first effort though, well done.

Cheers Peter.

This is certainly what I need - to help get the right mindset on how to properly approach portraits; and you've certainly allowed me to see these shots from a different perspective; and I am grateful for that.

You're welcome. I do really like the facial expression you've captured in #2. Having had a longer look at #1, there is a quite harsh shadow, right side of her neck. That's easily fixed in PP but you'll spend less time on your pc if you get it right in-camera.

There are others on here far more qualified than I to critique your work, I just say what I see.

Hi there,

In order to try and give some advice, I have a couple of questions.

-What was the intention of the shoot, for you and for the model

-What lighting have you used

- What focal lenghts have you used -

- What aperture and time have you used.

If you can answer these questions, then probably we'll be able to help understanding what went right, and what didn't.

Looking forward to your response!

Nathan

Ditto the above.

You must have a plan or some idea on how you want the model to pose and sit for you. Never let the model jus' sit there and let her think what is right for you.

Before I would venture into this type of photography, I would read a few books and look at some images by the masters of this type of imagery. You can really learn and gain a lot that way, and then develop your own style.

Poses are so important in studio portraiture and there is a lot to get right.

Alrighty then - some very interesting questions....which I will try to answer.

The intention of the shoot:

To be completely honest, a bit of an experiment. I'm not really comfortable doing portraits, however this is something that with practice I would like to be more confident with. I guess I needed to start from somewhere and I began in earnest with this session.

The model in question is my wife, Em (makes arranging such a session rather easy).

The lighting:

A rather dissapointing internal flash, coupled with ramping up the ISO a tad and upping the room lighting. A Flashgun is going to be my next purchase!!!

I also kept the aperture as wide as possible.

The focal length was kept to 18mm to keep with the widest aperture possible with that lens.

I just wanted to begin from somewhere really - to get feedback on something tangiable that I had done, as I learn better this way - though I certainly will draw inspiration from books and the WWW.

I have tended to take landscape or macro; or more repotage shots of my famly. Essentially I feel at home reacting to what life throws at me. When you turn the tables and have an internal enviroment which you can control I feel out of place somehow and ironically not in control. This is what I need to change.

I hope this all made sense!

bonus points for creatively using whatcha got handy!
first tip...
in both shots, try to pose your female subjects so that the body isn't straight on towards the camera.
in fact try some more shots with niether body nor face straight on towards the camera....
try turning the body and head in opposite directions ( no I'm suggesting you kill her, just if the body is facing a little to the right, then turn the head a litlle to the left, just looking over the shoulder. or vice versa).

weight on the back leg (furthest from the camera) and kick out the front/leading leg to lengthen... (even on head and half length portraits, this will help gaining elegant poses).

Thanks Don - this is really interesting stuff; I can appreciate how important posture is. I also appreciate that you've given me some very useful tips there, I will put them to practice I promise!

If you want to get a cheap way into flash I'd suggest you get an older powerful gun like the Vivitar 283/5 and try and get the plug in module that lets you adjust it from full power to 1/64th power. Or, even cheaper I picked up a Hanimex TZ something or other for 4 quid and it's powerful, a bit adjustable and gives lots of scope for experimentation. This site sells a radio controlled trigger to get the flash off camera and then I got an optical trigger too so I can have two flashes both off camera for around 50 quid.

That said never done a single portrait! Still life only.

Mike

PS Bear in mind you do NOT use older guns like these on the camera as their trigger voltage can be too high and fry the camera's circuits which would be a pity.

It certainly seems like you need a more sophisticated lighting setup, but it needn't be expensive.

A very versatile Pentax flash for manual operation is the AF500FTZ. It's powerful with a GN of 50 and the output power is adjustable in the range from full to 1/32.

Any flash for studio type portraits is going to need softening a bit. Softboxes and umbrellas are typically used for this but with a bit of imagination you could make your own.

You have a PM.

50! small boy stuff, the 283 is 120 according to this not terribly dull thread.

link

Then again they are totally manual in relation to the camera so you have to get thee exposure right by trial and error.

Whatever you do I think you'll need to get the flash off camera and read link

Mike

Agreed, but the output of the AF500FTZ is about equivelant to hobbyist mains powered flash heads of around 200/300w, which I think is probably all that's needed for a home setup.

Stands etc will also be needed of course but they are relatively cheap.

I'm absolutely not sure about the fact that Snootchies needs another flash. AT ALL.

Flash is a very VERY complicated thing to work out, and in portraiture, one wouldn't want to start experimenting with flash until long after having mastered natural light.

therefore, here are my suggestions.

- Its great to experiment, and your wife is very kind in helping you out. I do this as well with my wife-to-be, and sometimes I ask her for 10 minutes of her time to pose for me. I will ask her in advance what type of shot i want to do, so that she (who's not a model) is prepared to assume a certain pose, or facial expression. examples might be - Sexy look, fashion look, innocent look, girl power, provocative, or anything else that comes to your mind. She also helps me out by wearing clothes that more or less represent the need of the shoot. (A black shirt is not always the best option for the type of portraiture you are doing.)

- Ok PUT DOWN THE FLASH! immediately!!!
THe flash on the camera is completely pointless, it will give only harsh lighting, very harsh shadows, and no flattering images at all.
- In your situation I would strongly suggest to use ONLY natural window light, and learn how to master that. So place your model next to a window, and (if you want to experiment) get a sheet of kitchen foil, and use it as a reflector on the shadowed side of the face.

- Camera settings.
Anything below 30mm (+/-) will deform to some extent, due to the wide angle. I think you should definitely use 35mm and above for any portrait work you do. Ideally you should use much longer focal lenghts, to allow for a more flattering perspective of the model's face (50-100mm).
ISO should be kept low. Although I don't know what camera you're using, to retain image quality so necessary for portrait work, you want to use ISO below 400.
Aperture can be wide open if the lens is sharp- or even if its a bit soft. DO consider that you might not have the whole face in focus though, and perhaps you might want to stop the lens down by 1-2 stops to provide enough depht of field to have the whole body in focus.

- IF these parameters give you a long exposure time, I would strongly suggest you get a tripod. Or, to make it cheaper, a beanbag, or anything you can rest your arms, or the camera on, whilst shooting.

- One more suggestions would be to place the model some distance away from the background, so that she doesn't look squished into it, flattening the image.


I think the starting point is great, and I've seen your work on flickr and some images are really gorgeous. Now you only need to go slowly, and not rush into lighting and complicated setups that will only distract you from the task of taking a good portrait.

Good luck, and hope this helps.