Portrait shots with natural light Advice needed please

Hi Pete,

Portraiture isn't really my thing, but I do agree with others comments, the backgrounds are awful (sorry) , could you find a plain wall somewhere and thow it out of focus?

I think the exposures about right, IMHO a slight over exposure is more flattering for the ladies, cant comment on skin tones as I dont know what it looks like on your monitor and mine is suspect at the mo'

Advice on getting the model to look at the camera is spot on, one good tip is to pose the model, preferably with chin slightly up then ask them to remain still while YOU move around with the camera, tell them to follow the lens with their eyes only.

Very nice shots though, she looks a natural born poser, I bet her mum is over the moon with them just as they are, but this is a photography forum and we aint her mum, so get it right next time or we'll slap your wrists

Yes I'm off out this afternoon to try again.

Thanks for the comments
Pete

Hi Chris

Yes I agree I need to pay more care when I compose. I think I was paying more attension to her pose rather than the background itself

Pete

Just another thought folks I don't want to really mention this again as it was a big issue last time but one word "calibration".

It is ok changing settings in on the PC with silkypix or similar software to get the desired result on your own monitor for your eyes but the result may look totally different on another monitor to someone else.

This will obviously lead to a variety of views good and bad. In the end you don’t really know if the image is correct or not. I suppose the printed result will tell but unfortunately we can't all see that unless we are fortunate enough to get a shot published in a magazine.

Pete

Hi Pete,

calibration isn't setting up the monitor so it "looks good".. it's setting up the monitor so that it's accurate. This means that if I look at an image here, and so does one of our members across the world, both with properly calibrated monitors, they should look the same.

There are plenty of threads about monitor calibration here, and you can always ask for specifics as well.

Cheers

Liam

The simplest way to start is to at least use Adobe Gamma, which you will find under Control Panel on your PC.

It works quite well on a CRT, but I understand less well on flat screens.

I am interested in the discussion of the ExpoDisk I have seen these advertised and intrigued......

I have an old Video Camera (shoulder mounted JVC type - remember them!) that came with a large filter that you placed over the lens to set the White Balance. I assume this will also work with a camera lens?

Have to battle the loft and have a try.

Frequent use of a Whibal (white balance reference card) has solved all of the white balance problems I used to have. I can either set the white balance first manually or include the Whibal in one photograph and then use it to apply the correction in Adobe Camera RAW to any photographs taken under the same lighting conditions.