New Model Dennis

[PhotoGnat]

Had a photo shoot yesterday with a new model Dennis, got some really great shots. Was hoping I could get some critique on this portrait as far as lighting composition and exposure. Do you think it was executed well and does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks for taking a look and for any feedback, it's very much appreciated.



Exif data

Camera Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Exposure 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 39 mm
ISO Speed 800

[zona5101]

the orientation hurts my eyes. why landscape?

[PhotoGnat]

Originally Posted by zona5101

the orientation hurts my eyes. why landscape?

He was lying down so landscape seemed more natural. I had thought about changing it but figured I'd get some feedback first

[KongeTorsk]

Lower half of the face feels a little too soft for me. Unless his face is naturally baby's bottom smooth, it looks like someone slapped a beard on a woman.
That and maybe a little darker with the highlights and it's good with me!

[PhotoGnat]

Originally Posted by KongeTorsk

Lower half of the face feels a little too soft for me. Unless his face is naturally baby's bottom smooth, it looks like someone slapped a beard on a woman.
That and maybe a little darker with the highlights and it's good with me!

I honestly did little to no softening, he did have really great skin that didn't need much work at all. The only thing I did was a high pass around 3.0 as soft light, then a gaussian blur layer at about 15% opacity.

[graciousness]

It does hurt the eyes. My brain wants to correct it as we're not used to seeing faces in this orientation.

Whilst this is well shot, I was just looking at the exif data. Why the settings that you used at shutter speed of 1/320, ISO of 800 and f-stop of f/8? I ask because since he was lying down outside and almost immobile, the shutter speed used was quite fast and wasn't necessary. Around f/60 would have been fine. If you had used a slower shutter speed, then you could have a much lower ISO so that you wouldn't risk introducing noise to your image. On top of this, your f/stop of f/8 was quite small. A smaller f/stop would have made your image brighter hence not having to use such a high ISO for an outdoor shot. At a much wider aperture (smaller f stop), DOF would have been much shallower, too, and would have blurred the background (which would have been more ideal).

In regards to the focal length, I noticed that you used a wide angle lens. In a close up shot like this, this would have distorted his face (even if you consider that this was taken with a crop sensor camera). A longer focal length would have been much ideal so that his nose wouldn't be exaggerated with such a close up shot.

The composition also could be improved. His arm was chopped. If I was taking this shot, yes, landscape orientation would be ideal, however, his face and arm would have been framed within the shot putting his eyes/face on camera left and the rest of his arm to the right.

In saying all that, though, he's well exposed and eyes are sharp. So good job there. I'm still just baffled at the settings you used, though, as you did use them consciously as you shot this manually.

Cheers,

Grace

[TNH]

I don't really like the angle this was taken at. I find myself turning my head sideways to look at the picture. You can rotate it on the computer and see what it looks like, I really think that rotating it would make it better.

I also think it would have been better if you hadn't cut off his arm. And to me, the fingers coming out from behind his ear look a little strange. Just my opinion though.

Other than those things, I like it. I like the overall pose, and his expression.

[PhotoGnat]

Originally Posted by graciousness

It does hurt the eyes. My brain wants to correct it as we're not used to seeing faces in this orientation.

Whilst this is well shot, I was just looking at the exif data. Why the settings that you used at shutter speed of 1/320, ISO of 800 and f-stop of f/8? I ask because since he was lying down outside and almost immobile, the shutter speed used was quite fast and wasn't necessary. Around f/60 would have been fine. If you had used a slower shutter speed, then you could have a much lower ISO so that you wouldn't risk introducing noise to your image. On top of this, your f/stop of f/8 was quite small. A smaller f/stop would have made your image brighter hence not having to use such a high ISO for an outdoor shot. At a much wider aperture (smaller f stop), DOF would have been much shallower, too, and would have blurred the background (which would have been more ideal).

In regards to the focal length, I noticed that you used a wide angle lens. In a close up shot like this, this would have distorted his face (even if you consider that this was taken with a crop sensor camera). A longer focal length would have been much ideal so that his nose wouldn't be exaggerated with such a close up shot.

The composition also could be improved. His arm was chopped. If I was taking this shot, yes, landscape orientation would be ideal, however, his face and arm would have been framed within the shot putting his eyes/face on camera left and the rest of his arm to the right.

In saying all that, though, he's well exposed and eyes are sharp. So good job there. I'm still just baffled at the settings you used, though, as you did use them consciously as you shot this manually.

Cheers,

Grace

I'm still really new to photography and have really had no formal training of any kind other than what I've read online. I know my settings aren't exactly idea for the type of shot I was taking but I'm still playing around with the manual settings to get a feel for it, I don't want to stay constrained to the pre-set options so I'm trying all different combinations to become more familiar and comfortable with the results I get. I had a couple other shots where I didn't crop as much of his arm out, but I didn't get the focus quite right so I picked this one, I figured having the focus correct would be a little more important than the crop. Thanks for the great feedback though. I didn't know the wide angle at that focal length could distort his face I'm gonna have to read up on that.

[PhotoGnat]

Originally Posted by TNH

I don't really like the angle this was taken at. I find myself turning my head sideways to look at the picture. You can rotate it on the computer and see what it looks like, I really think that rotating it would make it better.

I also think it would have been better if you hadn't cut off his arm. And to me, the fingers coming out from behind his ear look a little strange. Just my opinion though.

Other than those things, I like it. I like the overall pose, and his expression.

Yeah it seems the angle is a common complaint so here is another shot with the adjustments. Let me know what you think.



Exif data

Camera Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Exposure 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 33 mm
ISO Speed 800