Some portrait practice

[mmeyer]

Well, I've been trying to work on portrait lighting. I have 1 SB800 with an umbrella and a silver reflector. In these shots the SB800 is camera right at about a 45 deg angle in front and the reflector is directly on the left.

All shots were taken at f11 1/350 ISO 200 with the flash on manual power at 1/16.

I would appreciate any C&C you guys can provide. There is a big learning curve with this stuff. I am working on getting another flash but haven't found the right one at the right price yet.

Thanks for any help you could give.

Mike

[Steve Foss]

Mike, these are very nice. I'm no studio portrait expert, but I like how you've got the eyes nicely lit in those final two images. They are tough to see in the first two.

I very much like the use of shadow in portraiture. I think you've done a very good job with that here.

I also notice the eye on camera left is partially in the shadow cast by her hair, so a slight repositioning of the reflector or angle of the head would fix that. Also, lowering the flash and reflector a bit and angling them upward would allow more light to be gathered by her eyes when she's got a downcast look.

And of course it's a very simple matter to lasso the eyes in pp and use shadows/highlights or levels on them to brighten those areas.

[Dbl]

Mike I will give you a bit of C&C but keep in mind I am not even close to being an expert at this type of work.

#1 Unbalanced shot due to the pose. Lighting is not bad but you have a nose shadow that stands out to me. Might be just a bit hot on lighting, look at the upper right forehead with the shiney hair.

#2 I like this shot. Lighting looks good, no distracting shadows the only thing missing are catch lights in the eyes. Not possible without reposistioning the light when looking down like this.

#3 Pose again throws it off for me, seems unbalanced. Lighting is a bit hot on this one as well, the skin tones are a bit washed out. Nice catch light.

#4 The best of group, I like the pose, the lighting, the fill from the reflector.

One thing to consider is to match your background and clothing. you are trying to draw attention to the face so blue clothing will really draw the attention to the face. The distance between the light and the subject will affect how much light reaches the background as well. If you want a darker background, you’ll want to keep the light close to the subject. If you want to lighten the background, you’ll need to move the light further from the subject.

All in all you have done a great job here. That last shot is really just a beautiful photo. Keep playing around and see what types of results you get. Almost all of my portrait work is one light as well but I generally am looking for a harsh look with sports portraits. Again I'm no expert on this I am constantly learning as well.

If you are interested I can post a couple of examples of the harsh technique I use a lot, it really is not all that applicable to what you are doing here but just another idea you can experiment with.

[mmeyer]

Dan and Steve, thanks a lot for the help.

Dan, With the unbalanced shots, how would you make them more balanced? Should I have the chair centered?

Do you think they would look better with the background lighter. I stopped down aperature to keep it darker and to keep out some of the ambient light so it wouldn't contaminate. Is that the right thing to do?

Thanks again

Mike

[MN Shutterbug]

Mike, who is the cute little model? It certainly can't be your daughter, because I've met you. Seriously, she is a little cutey. She looks like she enjoys her modeling job, too.

Sorry, no help. I used to do some portraiture, in my 35mm days. However, I always used 2 umbrellas and strobes, with a slave. I'd always position one strobe closer than the other, to allow for 1 side of the face to be a little darker than the other. It looks much better than consistent lighting. Yours look good.

[WifeKidsandDog]

What a cutie! These are lovely.

But, from being crucified myself in various lighting forums, I would say:

-- Move the reflector closer so the shadow is a bit lighter. I think the lighting is a bit too contrasty for a child. A silver reflector makes things a little harsher, too. A white piece of foamcore works great in these type of portraits.

-- I'd also move the light down a little so the catchlight is a bit lower in the eye, just a fraction though. If the umbrella is white, you can shoot through it -- that gives more of softbox effect, which is always beautiful on a child. You lose about 1 stop of light shooting through the umbrella but at f/11 you can open up the lens and still have enough depth of field.

-- I'd also smooth out the wrinkles in the backdrop.

[WifeKidsandDog]

One other thing, the pupils are probably a little too dilated, so you don't see enough of her beautiful blue eyes. It's hard to overcome this with a speedlight as there's no modeling light, but if you can have a light behind the camera that won't affect the reading, you can sometimes get around it.

I'm probably more aware of the pupil size because it's something I struggle with my own blue-eyed daughter and someone pointed it out to me.

Cheryl

[MN Shutterbug]

 Originally Posted By: WifeKidsandDog

-- I'd also smooth out the wrinkles in the backdrop.

Actually, you may need an iron for these wrinkles. They look pretty creased. Come to think of it, that's the only times I've ever used an iron.

[WifeKidsandDog]

 Originally Posted By: X-tackleman

Actually, you may need an iron for these wrinkles. They look pretty creased. Come to think of it, that's the only times I've ever used an iron.

I hate ironing so much, I'd rather spend time in PS with the clone tool. Or, I use a spray bottle with water and a handful of spring clamps to hold the background taut.

Or shoot fast lenses to blur the background.

Anything but iron ...

[yakfisher]

I don't know sometimes I think the clone tool can be a lot like ironing. Iron once or clone every time. I think I'd steam it out

[WifeKidsandDog]

I bought a couple of Botero collapsible backgrounds, they smooth out pretty nicely and I favor those over anything else these days -- especially as I've mastered how to fold them -- there's definitely a knack to that.

[mmeyer]

Thanks Everyone. I made that muslin background and I thought it would look good with wrinkles but it doesn't. Maybe if I intentionally drape it more to create waves in it? After I read your replies, I did go into PS and blurred it and that looked better.

Cheryl, thanks for the great lighting tips. I guess that's why you're the "HotSpot Outdoors Supreme Commander"

Thanks Again

Mike

[finnbay]

Mike,

I really do like your shots, and the small changes suggested by everyone will only take a good start and make it better. To me, the shots do seem just a tad hot. I agree that a modeling light (or something) to contrict the pupils would really make her eyes gorgeous. I agree with Dan as to balance in the first one, but the third one doesn't bother me. I think it gives a little character to the shot. I like her whisical look in that shot as well. Shadows can be distracting but there's a fine line between distracting and giving depth to your subject. I am not bothered by the wrinkles in your backdrop, but that's also a preference thing. I use a spray bottle at times and the clone tool. I tried ironing but by the time I got it back up, it was wrinkled again. Good work!

[WifeKidsandDog]

Yah, Supreme Commander, Rick's idea of being funny.

I bought a very helpful DVD from Calumet called Portraits Unplugged or something like that and it shows how to do a lot of window light / reflector type shots and how to use not a lot of resources to get nice lighting, also the various types of lighting. It cost $40 but I thought it was worth every penny. I'm looking forward to nicer weather and trying a few ideas in it.

[pickinupafew]

Very nice images!!

Especially with the lighting equipment you listed. The back ground is nicely lit for only one light source.

The poses are nice, I gotta say my favorite is the image #1.

The expression is real, the hand positioning is real... I like it.

I can only guess that you suggested a more formal hand position is the rest of the images. For me, the best portraits are relaxed, informal and natural... which the first one is.

I certainly can not claim to be a portrait expert, but a few rules of thumb that I try to follow are...

Natural expressions... When the subject is comfortable he/she will tend to be more relaxed. Giving a more natural pose and a better portrait. Usually the first 10-20 snaps are throw aways. The static expressions seem to disappear.

For me, balance of composition is what makes or breaks a photo. It's a little difficult to explain, but as photographers, you know when an image feels right... most more than likely it is a balanced composition. This is where the rule of thirds and flow of composition comes into play.

Flow of composition... There is a natural movement of the human eye that flows through a contained image. As westerners, we tend to start our eye input from upper left, following through to lower right. It is conditioning from reading. There are other factors that come into play like brightness, color, shapes and edges that may redirect the eye. But, in general, we will input in an image starting from upper left moving toward the right.

A few have commented about some of the images being off center or unbalanced. That is most more than likely (in my opinion) because the direction of your composition tends to lead the eye off the 'page'.

Image #3 seems to be a bit more balanced for me. In my opinion, it is because the tilt of her head and the direction of her eyes lead back to the left... instead of off the right side of the image. The composition anchors your eye back into the frame.

Image #4 feels balanced too. Maybe if the composition was shifted just a tad more to the right, it would compliment an already beautiful image. It would give your eye a third (the most important) shift in direction.

You mentioned 'Portrait Practice' in the subject title, it appears you have some very strong skills photographing people.

Your subject is extremely photogenic for sure... she's adorable.

Again, very nice images. Especially with your lighting set up.

A few thing to try... move your reflector a little closer. Just a tad more fill might help. Light those eyes, I think one of the most important things in portraits. The eyes are the key. Just a little catch light can go a long way.

I am shooting a wedding for a friend this summer. I am seriously thinking about going a lighting route similar to yours. I am thinking two SB800's with soft boxes, completely wireless. Most shots would be with just one light source... as fill light. More of a simple 'run and gun' approach as opposed to being bogged down with Lumedyne equipment. I think the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS) has quite the potential... as you have demonstrated very nicely with your images.

Please keep in mind this is just my opinion. I have been wrong more times in my life than I have been right (my girlfriend points this out almost daily).... so take my opinions with a grain of salt.

Thanks for posting your results, it is very imformative!!

[Dbl]

Mike, looks like you've gotten some great feedback already. First off keep this in mind, these shots work! I am not a portrait photographer but I am impressed. I pointed out a few things that are very minor that most will not care about. Photographers are the harshest critics of our own work.

Balance is a bit of a subjective area though as pickinupafew has commented on. One of the main goals of portrait work is to concentrate your eye on the face, for me anything that doesn't let your eye do that tends to have more of an "unbalanced" feel.

In the case of the first shot my eye first goes to the face and then is drawn off the photo to the lower right. The tilt of the photo to the right makes my eye go off the shot.

The second I go to the face and her eyes point downward which makes me look down and I see her elbow predominate and that leads my eye away from her face and off the photo down and left.

The third shot because it is framed tighter keeps my eye more centered to her face, but again the single elbow draws me down and left off the picture and away from the face.

The fourth shot my eye goes to the face and stays at the face, both elbows are balanced and keep my eye going back to the face, it keeps me where my eyes should be on the subject.

Keep in mind again that this is being very picky, your images stand alone on their own with no problem and your daughter is absolutely a doll, you are lucky to have a photographic subject like this.

You mentioned the ambient light, I really am not seeing that at all with these shots, but I always start out by taking shots with no flash to get my ambient the way I want and then add the flash to get the lighting on the subject. This will show you whether or not you are getting spill from the ambient as well. This my be far from correct but I like to break down the lighting in stages so that my feeble brain only has to digest one thing at a time. It works for me an keeps things simple.

I hope that helps explain what I mentioned earlier. Again these photos stand on their own extremely well, you can really choose to be as picky about these things as you want. I can't wait to see your next "practice". Great work Mike.

[finnbay]

 Quote:

First off keep this in mind, these shots work! I am not a portrait photographer but I am impressed. I pointed out a few things that are very minor that most will not care about. Photographers are the harshest critics of our own work.

Dan is absolutely correct. We pick our own photos apart looking for "perfection" and other photographers look at an image with a different kind of critical eye than the average person would. I get paid to take portraits, and more than once the customer has chosen a proof that is totally different than what suits my tastes. Sometimes, I think WE look at technical aspects so closely we miss the overall strong points of the photo - can't see the forest for the trees, so to speak. These are good photos, and IMO if I was showing these as proofs to a customer, they would be ecstatic.

[mmeyer]

You guys are really great! Thanks for all the encouraging words. And thanks for all of the information. This post has been very educational for me and others as well I'm sure. This just reinforces the reason I come to this forum everyday.

I must be getting a little smarter because I used to learn something here everyday. Now it's maybe only 99 out of 100. I can't wait to get to the point where I can give someone the advice that you guys give with confidence.

Thanks again, it doesn't go unnoticed!!

Mike

[yakfisher]

I'm with Mike on that sentiment. Thanks to all!

[dockothebay]

me three! Thank You - Thank You - Thank You -

[Steve Foss]

I also strongly echo how picky photographers are about their own work. Photographers look at a picture very differently than the general public.