First portrait - lighting ? DoF?

[dotorion]

Right, took me a while before I decided to post this here, but I figured, I'm here to learn and improve, so

I'm using a point-and-shoot for budgetarry reasons for now, so I don't have a lot of stuff I can fiddle with. I asked my sister to pose a bit, mostly mediocre pictures, but I kinda liked this one.

I was trying to go for sidelighting (is that a valid word ) to experiment a bit.

Any comments are appreciated of course, but mostly looking for light/DoF feedback.

EXIF data should be on the Flickr page.



Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture f/4.5
Focal Length 16.8 mm
ISO Speed 160
Exposure Bias 0 EV


Thanks for looking

[SuperDan]

let me say that there is nothing wrong with using a point and shoot, but.. if you are really wanting control over, especially dof then get away from them soon as you can tweak them somebit, but.. even on a point and shoot you can get it out of auto

now, the photo... she is stunning and all, but i really dont see any much dof here but that comes with the camera. you were "open all the way at 4.5) but the camera did that as you were on auto mode.

the lighting is decent.. but honestly, the backlighting the diagonal line thats created is totally distracting, she has wonderul highlights on her hair but, her face is in darkness repsectively

also, the little candelabra to the right of her is way out of place here

[Tito87]

You can use a reflector to lighten up her face a bit.

[kayzar]

Hi
I am not really new to these forums, more of a lurker than anything else, and I am far from a professional photographer, but one thing I can say is the side lighting would work a lot better if her hair wasn't blocking it from hitting her face. At the moment you have a huge highlight on her hair, and her face is a bit dark. You could either move her hair, or maybe throw a reflector to camera left to add some light to her face.

[daddyoproductions]

I commend you for posting and trying to learn as much as possible from the wealth of knowledge here at DPS. As was mentioned before, you don't need a big fancy camera to take good quality shots. I heard someone say one time that the most important part of the camera is the foot-and-a-half behind it. I bet Ansel Adams could still take a pretty good picture if you gave him a point and shoot. My point is learn all you can about the basics of photography before taking the plunge and spend lots of $$$ on gear. So here are my tidbits regarding your photo.

1) Think about the rule of thirds when composing your shots. If you don't do it when you take the photo, then definately think about it when you are post processing and cropping.

2) Try to keep an eye out for anything distracting in the foreground and background of your pictures. Your photo has quite a few distractions. As was mentioned already, the diagonal shadow line in the background, the candlestick holder on the right and the flower stem on the left.

3) Also mentioned already was the lighting. Morning and evening provide for best outdoor lighting. Also, this photo would be one of the few time where direct, on-camera flash would probably be beneficial to even out some of the harsh shadows. And the reflector of course. If you don't have a reflector then you could use white bristol board even.

Practice, practice and more practice is what we all need to become better photographers. Keep shooting and most importantly, have fun with photography.

~G~

[dotorion]

Thank you everyone for commenting, I appreciate it

@SuperDan: like I said, it's mostly out of budgettary reasons. I'm a student who has to pay for his own studies, so I'm a bit short on cash. I'm saving up, though !
But like ~G~ said, I'll have to get to grips with the basics with my P&S for now.

[kristenh]

i think it's a sweet photo- i love her expression. i have a p and s that you can still use in aperture priority mode- perhaps you are already doing that- if not, try that and open it all the way up. as a pp said, the reason the sidelighting attempt didn't work was that her hair is nicely sidelit, but not so much her face! it does still look like a time of day, though, where the sidelighting would have been a little harsh still- maybe if you waited till later in the day.

[dotorion]

I'm afraid I can only directly adjust the ISO on my P&S, if i want to mess with aperture or shutter speed I'll have to be creative with the shooting modes.

And it was shot in the evening around 7PM I think.

[MariJ]

I saw this post and took in a HUGE sigh of relief a fellow Point and Shoot user..yayyy...lol..I am saving every penny for my brand new DSLR as I learn. So Bravo to you for posting this! I was thinking I was going to wait because I might get laughed at, but the support and response is awesome! Can't wait to see more of your pics and I now feel a little more confident to post some of my images Oh and I read recently~"People make photographs not cameras."~Ken Rockwell Warmest Regards!