"Knee High..."

[TylerGS]

"...by the 4th of July." Or so the saying goes.

How is the composition? Color? I wish I could have had a silver reflector on the subject's face... besides his being too dark, what could be better with the lighting? Any other comments?



Nikon D40
f/1.8 50mm lens
exposure time 1/500
f/4.5
ISO 200

[BigFuzzy]

As for the lighting, it's really difficult to do anything in these conditions without a flash or at least reflector. I would have tried to place the subject either with the sun (harsh as it is) more in his face, or backlit him with it (using a flash or reflector as a fill-light).
What time of day was this shot.. it seems you took it during some of the worse sunlight hours. Always try early or late to take advantage of that nice soft light. The harshness of the light is also why the colors feel washed out.

As for your asking about composition. I'm sorry, but I find it a bit blah.. The foreground is not that interesting and the angle is pretty standard (ie pretty much the normal standing view anyone would have looking at this). Could you have gotten lower or higher. Consider cropping it in square format cutting out the bottom part...see if that helps.

Is he on the phone, or simply pulling his ear. His pose in general makes this feel more like a captured snapshot more than a planned portrait.

I like your use of DoF and there's lots of potential in this arrangement, but a bit more thought in lighting/composition could really help it.
Cheers,
Al

[SusanH1970]

I see by your EXIF that you did use spot metering, but where did you meter off? It looks like the camera exposed for the brightly lit grass and not your subject, as he is underexposed (as you know). When using spot metering, meter off your subject's cheek.

There's also a blown out spot on the left side of his face from where the sunlight was hitting him. Having him face more toward you and having the sun more behind him would have backlit him and avoided that blowout.

Yes, using a reflector definitely would have helped - although in outdoor situations I use the white side rather than the silver - silver tends to blind your subjects when working with daylight.

He also looks a bit green (color cast from all the grass). This can be fixed in post processing.

Hope this helps, you're off to a good start, I like the portrait overall, although I don't "get" him talking on the phone in the middle of a field.

ETA: LOL, cross posted with Al. Looks like we more or less agree.

[Vagebond]

If you spot-metered the subject's face you should probably overexpose one or two stops. The meter averages the spot to the world famous 18% gray, in this case the face if you metered it.

A post by kencelano a while ago explains it (zone system) better than I can. I can tell you that it works for me though.

http://digital-photography-school.co...644-post9.html

[TylerGS]

@BigFuzzy: It was shot at around 6:30 PM.

Based on all ya'll's critiques, I should work on:

composition – more creative or unique with angles, poses, crops, etc. Seek to tell a clear story.

lighting – only shoot in prime lighting conditions. Watch for problems (blow outs, inadequate lighting, etc) and avoid.

metering – know what I want, and adjust accordingly.

Anything else?

[TylerGS]

When you were talking about cropping, BigFuzzy, is this what you had in mind?



EDIT: Did some touching up on the colors, too.

[BigFuzzy]

Yeah, I personally like this crop a lot better..
But remember, it's just one man's opinion.. if you like the other better, keep that, it's more important what you think thank what I think!

[TylerGS]

I'm with you here. The square crop is much better.