Fast Portrait for Mother's Day Gift

[vjhoward]

Backstory: found one coworker taking a pic of another coworker in the breakroom with a cell phone (with awful backlighting from a really big window). I asked what they were doing and she said she wanted to give her mom a new picture for mothers day. It was a crazy day at work, but I grabbed my camera and co-worker and headed outside to a shaded area. We had very little time because of some big deadlines at work, but 30 minutes laters I produced the photo below that she loved and thought her mom would love also. I first produced in color (which she really liked) then did a quick conversion to a sepia (which she fell in love with). Gave her hi-res jpg of 3 different crops and sent her off to a photo lab to print.

Now, I am really happy she like it and that I did not totally flub the shot, but I am really just learning how to do portraits. I did the shot under a tree canopy along a busy street. I used a Nikon SB600 with a diffuser to provide fill light. I tried different angles and found a 45% angle worked best, even though I still had some strong flash reflection off her skin that I had to clean up on post.

Please provide comments on what I could do to improve the photo. Composition? Lighting? Post-processing cleanup?

EXIF
Camera: Nikon D300S
Lens: 18-200mm F/3.5-5.6 G VR
Focal Length: 55mm
Aperature: f4.8
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO 200

Post processing using Nikon Capture NX2

Tonya_MomsDayGift_sml on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[iboy]

I would love to see the color version. It seems like the sepia version just brings all of the background to a tone that is probably very close to her natural skin tone. With the busy background, I think she gets a little lost.

I know you took this without much prep, but a reflector or second light would remove some of the shadow under her chin. Alternatively, you might just lower your speedlight to just under her chin height.

Then, if you'd really had time and gear to prep, a hair light to separate her hair from the background would be good. You might have obtained more separation by moving her slightly to one side or change your angle slightly - she seems to be right in front of a tree that is darker than the others.

Now all of those things are things I see with time to look at one picture on a monitor, not on the back of my camera at the heat of the moment. For a spontaneous shot, I think you did a pretty good job with lighting. I like the offcenter crop.

[sma200]

In my opinion for just starting out with portraits and doing a think on your toes, last minute shot - you did great. Her mother is going to love it. Those with the naked eye, and those with a photographer eye will see two different things. They will see a great photo, and we will see ways to make it better.

I would suggest next time having her look slightly off to the distance, and not directly into the camera. Since you chose to have a blank void of space, then it would be more appealing to see her looking somewhere in the direction of the blank void of space. Here is a great explanation of what I am talking about Give Your Subject Space to Look Into

Overall - Good Job!

[sma200]

Hope the link I posted for you is of some help

[vjhoward]

Thanks for the feedback. I did not catch the shadow under the chin and probably could have fixed it some in post. Something to consider when I am putting together the composition.

Yes. I have a 42" 5-in-1 diffusor/reflector on order from Adorama. Can't wait to get it and start using it. My second speedlight had dead batteries (grrrr) or I could have put it on the ground and triggered it with CLS.

All good stuff to consider as I continue learning this craft. Thanks a million for your comments and feedback.

I just loaded the color version to my Flickr account: Tonya_MomsDayGift_color on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

OH, and the web link article is very helpful. Thanks for pointer...