My most recent senior shoot

[Midwest Sunset]

I had been away from DPS for a least a year or more doing alot of reading & trial & error in improving my portrait photography. I'm posting here because I know that sometimes what the photographer sees as a great shot is sometimes limited by thier knowledge so I'm asking you to pick apart my photo.

crop, lighting, processing

Thanks so much & I truly do appreciate your opinions & critical eye!!



My apologies for forgetting the EXIF:

Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture f/10.0
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire
X-Resolution 75 dpi
Y-Resolution 75 dpi
Orientation Horizontal (normal)
Software Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date and Time (Modified) 2010:10:04 15:23:20
Exposure Program Manual
Date and Time (Original) 2010:10:02 04:52:55.07-05:00
Date and Time (Digitized) 2010:10:02 04:52:55
Max Aperture Value 1.8
Metering Mode Spot
Sub Sec Time Original 07
Sub Sec Time Digitized 07
Color Space sRGB
Focal Plane X-Resolution 3849.2117888965 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution 3908.14196242171 dpi
Custom Rendered Normal
Exposure Mode Manual
White Balance Auto
Scene Capture Type Standard
Compression JPEG (old-style)
Global Angle 30
Global Altitude 30
Copyright Flag False
Photoshop Quality 5
Photoshop Format Standard
Progressive Scans 3 Scans
XMPToolkit Adobe XMP Core 4.1-c036 46.276720, Mon Feb 19 2007 22:40:08
Orientation Horizontal (normal)
Creator Tool Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Rating 0
Metadata Date 2010:10:04 15:23:20-05:00
Lens EF50mm f/1.8 II
Lens ID 29
Image Number 0
Flash Compensation 0
Format image/jpeg
Color Mode 3
ICCProfile Name sRGB IEC61966-2.1
Viewing Conditions Illuminant Type D50
Measurement Observer CIE 1931
Measurement Flare 0.999%
Measurement Illuminant D65
Color Transform YCbCr
Flash Return No return detection
Flash Mode Off
Flash Function False
Flash Red Eye Mode False


More on Flickr if your world is rockin' when critiquein' lol

[sk66]

What's the exif?
Lighting seems a bit strong AND flat; kinda hard to do...what post work was done?
Overall composition is quite nice.

[Benji]

Rather nice composition.

The lighting is very hard, sunshine or a speedlight? Whatever the light source is it is too hard. Portrait lighting is usually soft, especially on young women. I believe the image is underexposed also.

Benji

[oldwolf]

Lighting is a bit harsh. I'd try to soften it up a bit. Either bounce the light off of a reflector or through a diffusion panel or even a white wall of a building.

The other disturbing thing is that her right eye is brighter than her left eye even though her right eye is more in the shade. Kinda creepy almost.

Otherwise, the composition is nice and I like her pose.

[Midwest Sunset]

Originally Posted by sk66

What's the exif?
Lighting seems a bit strong AND flat; kinda hard to do...what post work was done?
Overall composition is quite nice.

Post work included brightening & running through Imaginomics Portrature.

Originally Posted by Benji

Rather nice composition.

The lighting is very hard, sunshine or a speedlight? Whatever the light source is it is too hard. Portrait lighting is usually soft, especially on young women. I believe the image is underexposed also.

Benji

This shot was backlit by the sun & filled with a speedlight although the EXIF doesn't show that. As far as the exposure, I followed the histogram in Lightroom & it's even from end to end with peaks going just to the top of the graph, it seems very bright on my screen but this is definately something I struggle with. Thank you

Originally Posted by oldwolf

Lighting is a bit harsh. I'd try to soften it up a bit. Either bounce the light off of a reflector or through a diffusion panel or even a white wall of a building.

The other disturbing thing is that her right eye is brighter than her left eye even though her right eye is more in the shade. Kinda creepy almost.

Otherwise, the composition is nice and I like her pose.

I totally didn't notice the eyes until you mentioned it & now it's very obvious to me, this is why I like coming here. Next time I'll bring my panel, I do have a box I put on my speedlight but it seems too thick & I often end up ditching it.....note to self, tote the panel along!

Thanks so much everyone! I greatly appreciate all your thoughts!

[kylethemiller]

You want to avoid pointing the nose away from the light source. It will give you those big shadows across the face and make the subjects nose look bigger than it actually is. you (almost always) want the nose to be pointed at the light source, giving you a nice triangle of light on the opposite cheek. which will also give you equal lighting on the eyes.

[Midwest Sunset]

Originally Posted by kylethemiller

You want to avoid pointing the nose away from the light source. It will give you those big shadows across the face and make the subjects nose look bigger than it actually is. you (almost always) want the nose to be pointed at the light source, giving you a nice triangle of light on the opposite cheek. which will also give you equal lighting on the eyes.

Thanks Kyle! Duly noted!

[Nori]

Nice composition, but like everyone had said lights are a bit harsh. Try to shoot with the sun to your back in this picture it looks like the sun was more to the side. I notice you used a 50mm lens, I recommend you to use at least a 100mm lens for portraits, that will compress the image and her nose will look smaller (more appealing) to the viewer. Maybe changing the exposure compensation a little bit to make it brighter!

Overall a like the picture!

[Photologyst]

Pretty girl.

I concur with the other opinions. The sky is very blown. Did you adjust the exposure first? You could plunk in some clouds. Getting rid of that shadow will be a challenge.

You might want to consider checking out Portrait Professional. With that you can adjust every feature, individually.


If I have time, I’ll try my hand at fixing this.