What I learned on my first attempt at portraits.

[faeriegodess612]

I'm really kicking myself on the first one. Because this is one thing that I've heard or read over and over and over and over, time and time again. It crossed my mind at the start, then I got distracted and it was a fleeting thought. What is this mucho important thing? Fill flash. Yep, I forgot to press that lil button, and bring up my pop up flash, to use as fill. I've spent a lot of time in PP now trying to fix my mistake.

Secondly, I really need to either make or buy me a diffuser. I realized how much I could've used one. I tried using my "reflectors" ( two car sun shades ), but they are so light weight and the breeze in Texas hardly ceases, so that was a bit difficult.

Thirdly, I need to figure out why my photos are coming out ever so slightly soft. There's a couple reasons that I think might've done it. 1) Since I didnt use my flash, I couldnt get the fastest shutter. So an ever so slight movement from my friend, might've caused a tiny bit of blur. 2) I was using my CPL, so I wonder if it was the glass.

I DID have my camera on tripod, and was using the remote release. Turned off the VR on my lens, to reduce any vibrations there. My camera can't do mirror lock up like the higher grade cameras can. It can only do it for cleaning. I can't take photos while its up.

I had to take a break from editing, so I havent finished all of them yet. When I get them done, I will post somewhere on the forum. I really want some feedback on these.

[kcoppock]

Personally I'd rather have a dark photo than use the pop-up flash. One thing you can do is just get a small sheet of something translucent to hold in front of it, and pump up the flash compensation a bit, it'll help diffuse the light. The results might not be great -- I haven't used my pop-up since I got my SB-400, so I haven't tried it much -- but worst case it'll soften the harshness of the pop-up flash somewhat.

Btw, I've noticed my pictures at 55mm with the 18-55 aren't nearly as sharp as the ones from mid-range, so that could be related as well.

[faeriegodess612]

Idk,..They're sharp enough I guess. There's only one that you can really tell it on. I just uploaded them to my Facebook for her and her Mom to see. I'm actually quite pleased with the way they came out. I spent most of today working on them, but the ones that were too dark took a bit of time to fix. All in all, I came away with 28. They're not quite pro quality, but I don't think they're too awfully bad for my first attempt.



If you wanna see the rest of them, they're on my Flickr now. I still need to make some final tweaks for things I've noticed.

[nickbedford]

That one is a great portrait, well done.

[icewater]

Originally Posted by faeriegodess612

Idk,..They're sharp enough I guess. There's only one that you can really tell it on. I just uploaded them to my Facebook for her and her Mom to see. I'm actually quite pleased with the way they came out. I spent most of today working on them, but the ones that were too dark took a bit of time to fix. All in all, I came away with 28. They're not quite pro quality, but I don't think they're too awfully bad for my first attempt.



If you wanna see the rest of them, they're on my Flickr now. I still need to make some final tweaks for things I've noticed.

i wouldn't shoot this with a pop up flash, i'd rather use a reflector on this one. my 2 cents

[faeriegodess612]

Originally Posted by nickbedford

That one is a great portrait, well done.

Thanks. I brought my old tripod to use as a prop for the reflector, but I couldnt get it in a patch of sunlight big enough to do anything with. It needed to be higher, and held, and I'd need an assistant for that. lol.

[kcoppock]

Those are actually really good! The one you posted is definitely pretty sharp -- I do see what you mean on a few of them, but a bit of sharpening in Photoshop would probably fix them pretty well. Definitely not bad at all for a first try!