Portrait

[thisbejonas]

Here is what I think is my first good portrait. I have not done any editing for this pic other than a little bit of a crop... I want to learn to take "great" pics with the cam then later I'll learn how to make them better with software. Please C&C so I can improve them even more. Thanks

[aakash_vakil]

Hi thisbejonas, firstly for 1/10s you have done a very good job with sharpness !!

The color tones and also natural. Now for portraits, ideally a higher background blur would bring out details in the subject. Would it be possible to use a larger f stop say a f2.8 or 1.8?

I though quite like this as is too as it lets you know it's clicked during christmas / celebration time !!!

[thisbejonas]

Originally Posted by aakash_vakil

The color tones and also natural. Now for portraits, ideally a higher background blur would bring out details in the subject. Would it be possible to use a larger f stop say a f2.8 or 1.8?

I took some with higher f stop also but it seemed to make it to blurry and I want it to be able to tell it was a Xmas pic. With the higher f stop it looked like a generic background i.e. walmart portrait look, the hard part was the lighting, I went and replaced the over head lighting with those Reveal 60 watt bulbs ( 6 of them in the chandlier overhead) and bought 2 of thoseadjustable arm lamps that you can aim and put a 100 watt bulb in each of those. The reason I tell you this is I tried this exact shot yesterday with the regular bulbs and everything was horribly YELLOW. So I am soooo excited since I finally got a decent camera AND I am seeing results alot of which are due to this board. Not to bad for only having a good camera for about a week now

[aakash_vakil]

I guess you hit the bulls eye. It is indeed a very good portrait.

[FocalFrenzy]

Nice job! Thanks for letting us know how you set up the lights for this shot. Now we can ask all of our relatives (in advance) to change out thier lights before we show up to take photos. lol. I have to put in photo time at 3 different locations this year. (either they liked the shots I took last year, or they are too lazy to take thier own) lol. I'm not sure I remember the lighting set up at each location, so I'll call in advance to see what I'll need to bring. This is 1 of the reasons I love this forum, everything I know about lighting, shutter speed, ISO and composition, I learned from the members here. This site is priceless!

[TerryL]

You have heard this before , I am sure, have someone put the 50mm 1.8 ( nifty fifty 79.00 ) on your chrismas list, great for indoors, Great picture.