First try at true portait work

[vikingforlife44]

Borrowed some lights from a friend, bought a back drop. Grandkids were staying with us for a few days and got some decent shots for a first try.



Camera Sony DSLR-A200
Exposure 0.077 sec (1/13)
Aperture f/6.3
Focal Length 45 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

[monroe]

Nice PIcture and colors. I would have covered the seat cushions. I found the break between the two cushions distracting from an otherwise good portrait.

[SusanH1970]

What was your lighting setup? With studio lighting, you shouldn't have to use such a slow shutter speed. 1/13 is super slow - I usually shoot at at leas 1/125 in studio. Very cute little girl, but the photo is definitely underexposed and the white balance is very off - lots of orange tones in there.

[vikingforlife44]

I'm not really sure why the shutter speed is so slow. I had two 500watt lights with a pretty thin diffuser on each. I've had similar issues since I got my tamron lens. Maybe I'll try same thing with my sony lens and see what I get.

[T.R.R]

If I may state a few things I have noticed. With a picture like this I would go with the largest aperture I can, not that 6.3 is small, I would shot for 4.x or so. This would get you a little more speed, not that you really need it. Also having a solid black background you are going to lose light to. With brighter colored backgrounds light is reflected back, which gives you more speed. I would guess that your camera was balancing off of the wood box, thats why you have orange overtones. Now as far as the lighting is concerned I wouldn't change a thing. I like the shadows and level of exposure. I think it fits the mood of the image very well. I also like the orange overtones, I gives the image a warm tone. I think the proper WB would take away from the image.

[SuperDan]

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

What was your lighting setup? With studio lighting, you shouldn't have to use such a slow shutter speed. 1/13 is super slow - I usually shoot at at leas 1/125 in studio. Very cute little girl, but the photo is definitely underexposed and the white balance is very off - lots of orange tones in there.

first thing in my mind was WB

[theArchitect]

Same, it seems a little too warm.

[Mso]

I'm with T.R.R. I like it, to me it looks like she is staring into a fire and the warmth of the picture comes from that....

She is gorgeous.

[mandyatm]

I like the lighting a lot - it is soft and even and fits the mood. Your speed was really slow, I would try increasing the aperture because you will get a lot of blurred shots at that speed, especially with kids. But you got lucky with this one! Are you using continuos lighting or strobes? Contiuous lighting could be why the speed is slower, and could be why the picture has an orange tint if they were tungsten lights.

I like her pose, but I think it would look better with a tighter crop, maybe without her legs showing. Adorable little girl!

[Life in Motion]

anybody else think it is way more impactful as a bw image? just a quick conversion...ignore the pixelization due to the small image size. you could make an awesome conversion with the original image size. i just feel it give more emotion to the picture with the deep blacks and soft lights as a bw image...just make sure and fix the WB and exposure before converting , also a very slightly closer crop moves her eyes at a better location to be drawn in i think.


just one opinion