Please critique my portraits - I know nothing

[MOmilkman]

I know nothing really about portraits. I would love some feedback from experienced portrait photographers.
I grabbed a couple shots of my daughter yesterday while practicing.
What can I do better? Are these striking enough to be considered a good photo?
Thanks!


Camera Canon EOS 7D
Exposure 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture f/5.0
Focal Length 100 mm
ISO Speed 2500
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash On, Fired

[scootermcq]

There are some good things happening here:

1. Focus is good, as is exposure
2. Composition works for me.

What I think needs improvement

1. Background of first image. Kick the game out of the frame
2. WB is a little too warm.
3. Need to work with levels a bit in PP
4. The eye is one big pupil

I messed around for 2 minutes with the one image. I hope you don't mind, I can delete it from the post, and as soon as I post it, it will be deleted from my machine. All I did was dodge the eyes a bit to try to bring back some of the brown and adjusted levels slightly to remove some of the yellow.

[kristenh]

i think they are both nice shots that are kind of spoiled by their backgrounds and the one with the hair flying about has an unfortunate shadow. if you can find a way to light better w/o using that flash, that would of course help. or use a bigger aperture. the compositions are nice, though.

[Tito87]

If you really have to use the flash, you can diffuse it a little. You can use a small piece of white fabric, or a tissue paper over the flash.

[MOmilkman]

Thanks to all the replies.
The information provided will surely help me improve. Even if just a little.

One question - Dodge brings out the color, what does burn do?

[scootermcq]

Originally Posted by MOmilkman

Thanks to all the replies.
The information provided will surely help me improve. Even if just a little.

One question - Dodge brings out the color, what does burn do?

Burning is what it sounds like, darkens or burns. When you burn the outside of the iris, it darkens the outer ring and creates a more dramatic line between the white and the iris of the eyeball. You can burn anything obviously, so it is used to darken highlights or whites etc....

Dodging is lightening. So in the case where the eyes are too dark it is lightening it, which brings out the color.

[MOmilkman]

Thanks again you have been a great help.