Portrait

[sherryrowe]

OK, I'm a bit nervous. I'm very new to real photography. I'm currently using an old 2MP Fujifilm FinePix 2650. I've always been interested in photography, but never want to spend any money on a good camera. My hubby finally convinced me to spend $300 and buy a decent camera. I ordered a Fuijifilm Finepix S5200, and it'll be here next week. Anyway, I've been playing with the settings on my old camera a lot during the past couple of weeks. Here's a shot I took of my little girl. I'm getting mixed reactions. I love it. Interestingly, all females tend to have the same reaction. Males tend to say it makes her head look too big. Your thoughts, please!

[hoges]

You are off to a good start,hope you dont mind I did some quick photoshop on your photo to show you what a bit of cropping and soft focus can do. Dont be nervous this is one of the best places to learn.

[sherryrowe]

I don't mind a bit! I'm thrilled to have the feedback! Just for my future knowledge, why did you crop it there? And how did you know it needed to be softened? It definitely looks better, but I think knowing the reasoning will help me in the future. Again, thank you so much for your help!

Sherry

[hoges]

Cropping: i wanted the face to be at least 2/3 of the photo, in the original there was too much background,she is now the main part of the photo, I soften the image because it takes the photo from that snapshot sort of look to a more portrait style, there is no rule for this just a feel for how i like to see close up of a younger person, a older person more detail to show wrinkles ect would mean a sharper image. Hint: two ways to learn 1) take lots of photos 2) look at lots of other peoples photos. Keep all your images so that as you progress you can see how much you have learnt.

[ikiteboarding]

Your composition is almost there, and you have a good pose and natural expression.

A few areas that you could improve on :

1) Tight crop is good, but you are cropping off part of the hand and the face here. Taking a step backwards would improve this.

2) Flash Hotspot. Try and use natural light where possible. If you can't step back a bit so that the flash doesn't whiten the face that much, or use a flash diffuser or a flash bounce technique.