1st attempt at portrait

[teenuh]

My close friend found out I am just starting out in photography and asked me to take some photos or her and make them black and white. I've had my D3000 since January this year and love it. I've been shooting in Manual mode ever since I bought it. This was taken around 5PM with the sun on the right side of her. I still need to practice and fine tune my post production skills. I'd like to hear how I could improve and what is good. Thanks!




EXIF
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 22 mm
0 EV
Aperture f/25
Exposure1/60


And here is the rest of the set if you would like to view it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanama...7626683041135/

[BigFuzzy]

heya Ryan, welcome to DPS and photogrpahy in general!

Couple of questions which are related to the areas I think could use improving on this image.

Why choose f/22? To me, part of what could use improvement in this image is the background and the fact so much of it is in focus. It's distracting, particularly the pole directly behind the subject. Anything 'growing' out the top of the subjects head is typically considered a bad idea. F/22 also ensures that everying is in focus behind the girl. I would think that using a wider aperture (smaller # like f/2.8 or whatever your lens can do) would blur out the background and allow for the subject to stand out more from the background.

Before worrying about things like finetuning your post production skills, worry more about getting the basics, like background to be something you think about before you consider pulling the shutter. I think many agree that in this sort of shot you'd want to make the background as simple as possible either by blurring it out (wide aperture) or by finding a less busy background.

With portraits I think it's most important to get light into the face which I think is more relevant part of image. In this case you turned her face so that the sun actually casts a shadow on most of her face and particularly eyes. you could still get nice depth creating shadows by having her face more of a 45degree angle to the sun as opposed to 90deg as seems the case by the shadow.

Also, something I always tell people is to change your perspective/angle. It seems to me you were pretty much standing there with the camera at eye level pointing down at her. It's a pretty standard (and sorry for saying so, boring) position. Getting lower or lower could have helped make it more dynamic and interesting as it would have helped with your background issue. Getting higher you could have made the plain concrete or grass the background or getting lower could have made the nice clear (and plain) sky be her background instead of a light pole.
Always discard the first few thoughts you have in terms of composition because, odds are, a million other people have thought that exact same thing and therefore your image won't stand out at all.


For someone just starting off, kudos on starting with Manual, you won't regret it. There's potential here, just start thinking about the composition and the consequences of your setting choices. Keep posting and keep pushing yourself!

EDIT: Just looked at the set and all but the first one have issues with the background being busy/distracting except for the one which you shot from above, in my opinion, is the best of the set because you've changed perspective and the background is less of an issue even though you cropped off her feet which is a bit awkward.

[JFSanders]

I am with BFuzzy on this. I also like the shot from above. If you could have moved her back and used the lines in concrete as graphic cues the shot would have more impact.

Jim

[3bayjunkie]

really not tooo bad. Some good points were already made. Be careful shooting in direct sunlight. next time would be good to find a place with some shade, or you can get a screen that you set up and have your subject stand or sit under the screen. these are used a lot on beach photography. Also try to keep a tight composition in portraits. You did good at that on some but others were lacking. Keep practicing, you are doing good

[teenuh]

Thank you for the critique everyone. I went out with her again today and took some more photo's and thought of what has been said here. I will post the one I think is best tomorrow.