First Run at "real" Portraiture

[iamithinkiwill]

This is a photo of my brother. He is in the 8th grade, and the wonderful photographer at his school took his picture without reminding him to take his jacket off. He looked like a bum. So I offered to take a few. This is one of the better ones that were taken. I wanted to get your opinion.

Camera NIKON D40
Exposure 1/10 sec
ISO 200
Aperture f/5.3
Focal Length 46mm

[SusanH1970]

Viewed large, it looks like the focus fell on his right shoulder; his face is very soft. Not a bad job for 1/10 SS, though, otherwise it's fairly sharp. Did you shoot at such a low SS to get the waterfall to look a bit silky?

There needs to be some light in his eyes (there's no light there, he's got the "black hole" thing going on). The background is a little busy and the whole photo looks a little oversaturated.

Keep shooting, you're off to a pretty good start. Watch your backgrounds, lighten up on the color, and look for light in the eyes before you click the shutter.