First portrait shoot! Feedback/Tips Needed.

[Mohain]

Hi,

First off, an appology. I know I'm new to the forum and looks like I signed up a while ago but have never got round to posting anything. I know I'm bad

Now that that's out of the way I'd like your expert opinions please? I've not really done any 'proper' people photography before, just poor attempts at candids. My wife's sister is putting together a promo music CD and asked me if I would take some photos of her to go with it

Well here's my pick of about 130 RAW shots, taken over the day yesterday. I've not done any processing on these, just very minor tweaks of the RAW (shadows, exposure, brightness) and the B&W conversions are just straight channel mixer with at 100% red done as a batch, so obviously I can improve on them.

First the images, then the questions.

I don't have any lighting so it's all available light, with reflectors (bits of cardboard) and some with fill-in flash (onboard flash with sock diffuser ).

I'd like to be able to get nice skin tones without making it look false. Some of them could do with warming up a bit but in the past I've struggled to keep skin tones natural looking when warming them up. Any tips here?

Also I'd like to go with a high-key look with the 4th one. Any tips for processing to give it a high-key look without loosing too much detail?

Also the B&W conversions. Not sure which way to go here for portrait shots. Can anyone give any tip here too please? More contrast?

Lastly, some general feedback on the images would be nice. I don't have time to reshoot as I'm on holiday for a week from this weekend but hopefully there will be a next time! I really enjoyed taking these. I hope I can do some more.

Sorry for lots of questions, especially as my first post. I'd appreciate any feedback/tisp you can give me as I've got till Saturday to sort these all out!

Many thanks in advance,

Mohain

 

[CT]

Not bad at all Mohain. I llke No's 5 and 6 as being the most natural shots of an attractive lady mainly because IMHO you've made the best most natural looking use of the available light in those shots. No 2 particularly looks a bit 'Bella Lugosi'. In normal life we're not used to seeing people little from straight on or below... whether it's daylight or artificial room light, the main source of light comes from above, which is why flash on camera can look so unnatural.

No 3 is the best of the others for me in not being over-flashed.

As for mono conversions, there are so many ways to do it and so much of it is personal taste. No5 looks good to me anyway.

Welcome btw.

 

[lee]

Lovely shots Mohain

The only one that doesn't really work for me is no.2, 4 is my favourite though.

 

[trebs]

1st shot is In yer face with the flash, nice look by her, but you can clearly see the harsh flash effect, despite being sockfused. A tip for onboard flash is a 4in square from a translucent plastic milk bottle, leave a tab on it and wedge that under the flash into the hotshoe (illustration if you need)
You can use fabric condition or shampoo bottles too, they often have a slight colour tint, which you can use to your advantage.
Failing that, a translucent 35mm film cannister, slit along the edge and slid over the flash.
Failing that, a trip to Jessups for a proper flash gun

pic 2, You need to work on that conversion a bit I think. The lighting looks bright and low, I'm not sure it's flattering at all.

pic 3, lovely natural pose, I think you can process that RAW 1/2 stop brigther though.

pic 4, cheeky look, grrrr

pic 5, I'd like this in the same colours as pic 6, which rules. Straight out a glossy flogging jumpers.

She is gorgeous.

With the shots you have, process the RAW's as they are, then process another a bit brighter, lat the bright one on a new layer and erase out the skin details, tweak the clothing colours to suit.

highkey stylee.. I'd go , duplicate layer, some curve tweaking, the rub out teh details you want to keep.

1001 ways to skin a cat, even more to edit pics. I dunno which techniques you prefer so it's not a cut-n-shut answer, sorry.

All in all, In my opinion, a great start.

 

[Brains]

Number 1 - lighting seems a bit harsh on the face. I can see where the actual pose/expression is going and I like that.

Number 2 - does not work for me.

Number 3 - quite a nice pose

Number 4 - not bad

Number 5 - like it!

Number 6 - like it....think the skin tone is a bit cold though

Number 7....oh damn....there is no number 7

What is she doing Friday night?

LOL!

Cracking go for a first time! Well done. And welcome to the forums!

 

[RobertP]

A tip for onboard flash is a 4in square from a translucent plastic milk bottle, leave a tab on it and wedge that under the flash into the hotshoe (illustration if you need)
You can use fabric condition or shampoo bottles too, they often have a slight colour tint, which you can use to your advantage.
Failing that, a translucent 35mm film cannister, slit along the edge and slid over the flash.

Useful tip

Must be quite upsetting to those that have just spent 60 odd quid on a tupperware Gary someone flash diffuser - all they needed was a plastic milk bottle from Tesco

 

[RobertP]

Oh and I agree that is a very good first effort with the pictures - well done

 

[Mohain]

Hi trebs,

I tried something very similar to the milk bottle thing, also tried the film canister, but sock diffuser 1.1 seemed to work best. I don't want to spend money on a flash yet as the s9500 doesn't have an active hotshoe so can't get a dedicated flash for it. Shall almost certainly be getting as DSLR around Xmas time so will get one then

Thanks Brains also for your input. I can see the cool tone to the skin but I'm not sure the best way to correct it. I never seem to get it right with skin

I just realised that there's one missing, I was banging on about high-key look for No. 4, well this was meant to be No.4...

And Brains, she's married too

 

[Sean_Mcr]

You've got to watch out for distance to subject distortion, the 9500 is 6.2 mm -66.7 mm, which 28-300mm equivalent on a 35mm camera.

Get too close to your subject and you will begin to exaggerate their features, can work fine for documentary type shots, but standard portraits it's not a good idea. It will drag noses closer to the viewer flare nostrils & bulge foreheads ect

Small example here http://www.pbase.com/sean_mcr/distance_to_subject_distortion


There's a lot of nostril going on in a couple of them, which is not flattering.

You have a very good portrait if can sort the tone out on the first shot

 

[Brains]

And Brains, she's married too

Yes, I did spot the ring in the photos. I think it is also a compliment to you that you have captured her beauty with, as RobertP so eloquently states...."a plastic milk bottle from Tesco". It's the photographer and not the equipment.

That last shot is excellent.

What a fantastic job all round really and my congrats again.

As for skin tone....the 'pros' use a gold reflector.....suppose you could use a Honey Nut Cornflakes packet....LOL.

I just tried a basic warming photo filter on Number 6 and it lifted it a bit.

I'd be very proud of these shots. If you are happy with them and she likes them then you have won all round at the end of the day.

I read somewhere...something like...."If you like them then great....if someone else likes them that's a bonus and if a judge likes them then thats a miracle..."

 

[Matt]

the high key on the bed shot is ace, i really like that, 3,4,5,6 are very good too

 

[Mohain]

A lot of very useful information there, thanks. I think I'm gonna like it here

I'll post the final images up when they're done. Thanks for the help and sorry to be so demanding on my first post!

Cheers,

Mohain

 

[Mohain]

Well here are the final 5. The 3rd one I'm not sure about, the flash is too harsh and it's a bit of a funny angle but she and all her family really like it. The wide angle on the last one does make her nose look a little big, and she didn't request it, but I like it so wanted to do it anyway

I've learnt a hell of a lot this week in the shoot and the post processing. People photography is a whole new ball game!! But, most importantly, I've really enjoyed it. I'm happy with the final results although I can now see some glaring errors (hopefully to avoid next time).

Thanks loads to everyone who's helped and sorry to come barging in with loads of questions and request for help on my first post (insert blushing smiley here)

Here they are below.

Feel free to comment if you wish. I have one more night to fix anything that might need it.

Thanks again,

Mohain

 

[ShawWellPete]

Mohain, that's a fantastic improvement in your first image, what was the process?

 

[Mohain]

Thanks

I used a plug-in called Virtual Photographer and used their 'Fall Colours' preset on someones recommendation. The B&W conversion was using the channel mixer (100% red, I think) and the soft look on 2 & 5 was with the good ol' Gaussian on a 30% opacity layer. This is all as well as the usual levels/curves/dodge/burn that every image needs.

 

[Matt]

smashing stuff.

 

[lee]

I liked them originally but what a difference, great shots Mohain.

 

[Hacker]

You've done agreat job there, I couldn't resist having a go at a couple...