Need your opinions!

[lschafer]

This is now my second post. Am trying to get "better" so I need your thoughts on composition? lighting? and post processing critique? I have found that outdoor/location shots are easier for me and am trying to improve indoor shots. For this shoot I used strobe lighting with my Canon Rebel XSI.

Settings:

1/125 sec at f3.5, , ISO 400, 28 mm
using a EF28-135 f3.5-5.6 IS USM lens

[dblightsey]

hey, you are getting there. It takes a lot of practice and since you posted a shot you are moving in the right direction.

The first thing I notice is the wrinkles in the sheet/backdrop. You can fix that in Photoshop,I have elements but there are programs that can fix that. Ideally if you have someone coming over for a shoot you would want it looking nice, ironed etc.

the next thing I notice is the angle seems a little extreme to me. That could be just a personal thing though so take it with a grain of salt.

I would change my ISO, drop it down some since your inside and play with your settings to compensate for lowering the ISO.

Thanks for sharing and I look forward to seeing more!

[Nicole]

The composition feels kind of awkward to me. You're cutting him off at the head, the elbow, and the knee and hip essentially. Cutting off part of the head doesn't bother me too much, but in combination with the other things...

I also think that the angle feels a bit extreme. But I will admit that I have a hard time liking angled shots and don't think they work well most of the time.

The exposure looks ok. But I would make sure you're focused on the face / eyes. The face seems ever so slightly less in focus than the body. Depending on what kind of lights you're using, you might try playing with those more to change how the light hits your subject. You said you used strobe lighting with your camera. I just want to clarify, external flash? Studio lights? Built in flash? If it's an external flash or studio lights you could try moving the lights around to get more of the light on your subject and less on the background and you could also use light and shadow to draw attention to the subject.

Good portraits are hard, so keep trying!

[kleidascope]

Yeah that background isn't 'doing it'. Backgrounds and wrinkles are a PAIN. Iron and steamer are necessary.

The angle it too choped off at too many places. Like said above, I could handle one of the chop offs, but all of them together just do not work for me. If you have more in the original, play with the cropping.

I think your lighting looks pretty good. It kind of has a brown/yellow tint to it, was that post processing or a white balance issue?