first attempt at portraits

[Kellyj69]

This is my first attempt at taking a "posed" portrait.. these were taken about 4pm in San Antonio, Tx I would like critique on composition, cropping, bokeh, and ANYTHING else you may offer ..

Equipment
Rebel XS
50mm f/1.8 prime

EXIF
photo 1 (Crystal) shutter speed 1/200 sec photo 2 (Becca) 1/125 sec
Aperture Priority
f/3.5
ISO 100
no flash

cropped and converted in PS5 and added background blur effect in PS5 resized to post with fotosizer

I've also included the unprocessed images for comparison

Thanks

[ShamJolimie]

a 50mm is great for portraits. in this case of the colour shots, i think there's too much headspace. it's not wrong to centre the model but i would have preferred a tigher shot.
the black and white shots are nice although they lack a bit of highlight. maybe your shutter speed could have been a bit lower. as for the blur effect, try to master your aperture to get a nice bokeh, it's better than blurring in photoshop.

[BigFuzzy]

Hi Kelly,

First, I really like that you're trying to take portraits with a 50mm, as I'm a big fan myself.
The reason I included my link is as an example since I think we were pretty much under the exact same conditions (ie camera, 50mm, outdoors, no flash).

The one big issue I have is that the image feel very static. A could of girls sitting there smiling. There's not much done with the framing/composition. If you see my link above, it was all about getting tight, changing perspectives and ensuring they had the most light possible in their faces which are simple things I think you could have done to make your images more dynamic.

If you feel you have to blur out the background, you should have been shooting at 1.8 or 2.0 the whole time. is there a reason (sharpness?) you chose to go with f/3.5?

You black and whites feel a bit flat to me as they are very "grey" with no true whites in them (as far as I can see on my monitor).

In the end, it's a good start.. just try to avoid a very static (boring if I may say) framing with the subjects dead in the middle and get a bit more creative with the angles and perspective to add some dynamism to your shots. You have pretty subjects, take advantage!

Al
PS totally off subject.. but I'm curious as to the t-shirts.. what are they about? Working at an international criminal court, it made me curious..

[Kellyj69]

Thank you both for your advice ..

Sham

the color shots are the originals (except for resizing to post) and the BW photos are after my playing in photoshop .. should I have shot them close like in the BW photos? to get the background bokeh?

BigFuzzy -

not sure why I was at f/3.5 lol except that this DLSR stuff is all very new to me .. to convert to BW , I just converted it in PS through mode adjustment greyscale .. I'm sure theres a better way to do it though I did get alot of ideas from your site though .. thanks

As for the t-shirts.. We are all part of a Paranormal Investigation team (Past Life Investigations), and that is Our company motto

thanks for noticing

[ShamJolimie]

Kelly, getting closer to the subject helps with bokeh, however you also need a wider aperture. f3.5 is quite small, try on f1.8.
why not shoot these ladies in action during an investigation...could be interesting...

[arelis30]

I think it's nice for your first attempt! I think as we take more pictures and get feed back helps us understand where to focus.