Sammy

[EOBeav]

It's a fairly straight-forward head shot, but I'd like your thoughts about composition, editing, and anything else you think needs to be in the discussion. Thanks in advance for your helpful feedback.


Sammy by Rick.Scheibner, on Flickr

EXIF:

Camera Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Lens: Canon EF 50mm f/1.4
Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture f/7.1
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV

Strobist: LP160 shoot-through umbrella camera right (fill), setting Eastern Oregon sun camera left (main).

[Rentham]

He looks a little stiff. I might have gone natural light here, maybe with the 70-200mm at f/4. Then, if the eyes are going dead, pop a tiny bit of fill from over my shoulder. I'm generally not a fan of shooting down at guys, but in this case it appears as though he's looking down his nose at us. Finally, it can be very hard to pull off a nice, clean headshot when the subject is wearing a patterned shirt. For me a plain, single colored t-shirt works best.

I'm on a crappy monitor right now, but the image looks split toned. Intentional?

[EOBeav]

Yes, the split toning was intentional. I may just revert to a straight monochrome, though. This kid is actually a nationally ranked wrestler, so I kind of wanted to capture some quiet, subtle confidence without it looking overtly aggressive. And unfortunately, I didn't dress him for this, but I agree I would have chosen something a little simpler for a close up shot. :-) Thanks for the feedback; I'll be posting something else from this shoot.

[Doug Sundseth]

The subjects skin tone in this conversion is pretty close to the tone of the sky. A bit of rim light for separation might help.

I'd like to see this with a bit more dramatic lighting, especially since the subject is a wrestler. Maybe a two-stop difference between key and fill.

I'd also like a bit softer fill light from the right. The shadows from the shirt collar are quite hard and a bit distracting to me. I must say it's a bit surprising that you'd get that hard a shadow with a shoot-through umbrella.

I think you've managed to communicate the attitude pretty well here, so I'd count this a success.

[fais54]

It seems a bit harsh to me. Especially with the shadows on his color. But, that could just be my personal taste. I would boost up the black levels a bit, just to make the picture pop more. I don't really mind the shirt. I feel you should be able to wear whatever during a portrait shoot, as long as there's no distracting logos or anything like that.

It would look a lot better in color or just B+W. It wouldn't look overtly aggressive to me.

[mykadog]

When I first looked at it I thought it was kind of bland, but the longer I looked the better I liked it. The shirt collar is a little washed out on his right. A great catchlight in the eyes. If he likes it, I like it.

[devildogx2]

If this was split toning, I like it. I like the shot and he does look like a confident young man.

[ajax_andy]

I like the shot... the split toning makes it look very old skool and I think the image just has a slightly unusual feel to it that makes it interesting to me.

The shirt confusses my eyes though, but apart from that it's really good and to me looks different to a lot of portraiture I see on here... maybe because his expression matches the pose and style of photograph i.e. not trying to hard to be "something", just being what it is.

[sk66]

To me it looks a bit washed out and flat. I think a simple levels adjustment and setting white output around 245 would help quite a bit.

I don't see color space in the exif...it could look flat like this if it wasn't saved with SRGB tag embedded (I use a Mac w/ color managed browser...many wouldn't see what I do)