How can I improve these and make em sing?! **Added a new pic in mono**

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April 2008
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I need some portrait help! I need to start learning portraiture, but really haven't a clue what I am doing. With the recent arrival of Jack, I thought "great, a willing model". And I'm adopting the approach of learning with him, the theory being that if I can get decent shots of a baby/kid then I should be able to manage it with someone older who I can talk to and direct.

So... these are my first attempt, and I am not too happy. They just look like bog standard snaps that anyone could have taken, but I don't know why. I know the idea isn't new using the ballpool balls, and I'm not sure what I was expecting, just something better than these.

Flash was on camera, and I was using ETTL, but dialed in flash compensation and had the flash at 45° with the little built in white bounce card up. Ambient was the main light and I had the camera in manual, with only about 2/3 stop underexposure according to the meter on matrix metering. Light was coming through the bedroom window (behind me in the second shot, and in front of me in the first).

Anyways... here's the shots. Comments and suggestions welcome as to how I could retake them and improve things.

Oh, does the dodgy bedding make then look a little amateur? Just occurred to me!

1.



2.

 
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I would say Rome was NOT built over night, but I'm sure that wouldn't cut much!

They're not that bad?. #1 is probably the winner. Keep at it, it'll come together. Get the flash off the camera perhaps.

Not sure I agree about your subject theory though!
 
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His head looks a bit disconnected in the first and the trailing hand behind doesnt do much in the way of favours, but still its not a bad shot at all. Nice wide open eyes and good lighting.

Cant decide if he's wailing or not in the 2nd one. Anyway I'd put this in the "snaps" album
 
Poor chap could do with some olive oil on some cotton wool :)

I've found that with shots like #1 positioning myself either more left or more right works better than face on. Full face appears to work better when he's upright, say looking over mum's shoulder.... if that helps :shrug:
 
The colour is probably a distraction in #1 so I'd go for a nice soft B&W.

I'd probably ditch #2 if I'm honest. The angle doesn't work, the light doesn't work and the expression doesn't work.
 
id say get the flash of the camera and it should start looking better
 
Merovingian said:
I would say Rome was NOT built over night, but I'm sure that wouldn't cut much!
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The thing is, I seem to be building Middlesbrough. The foundations are there, and I can get the buildings erected, but the finished town is just unappealing and nobody really wants to look at it.

V8burble said:
Poor chap could do with some olive oil on some cotton wool
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Hehe, he's be done several times. Was a little too overcooked though so seems to be taking a while to sort.

The other comments
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I'm a still a little lost as to why I have failed. I seem to be hearing that a much softer mono would be better. And either get the flash off the camera or dump it altogether. I think maybe I am overly keen to use flash, because I am scared of it and need to learn how to use it. At the mo I can't take it off camera though as my flebay triggers have packed in. I'm contemplating some PW's, just not got any yet.

I'll try some natural light shots next and get back to y'all for more :)

Thanks.
 
Lee, I really like the first image as it will only take a few minutes to fix and 'make it sing'.

1. Firstly I adjusted the basic exposure using some curves layers (I have this automated as actions to save time).

2. Next thing was to do some mild skin smoothing to try and reduce the appearance of the dry skin although I didn't want a plastic baby effect. Looking at it now I would probably clone out some of the larger flakes but I have already uploaded it and can't be arsed to go back again. :D

3. The eyes were a but dull and lifeless so I used my eye pop technique although I realise I have overdone it on the small file size but I left it like this so you could see what a difference it can make.

4. The next step was to add a touch of glow around the edges, I also blurred them slightly but kept the wee man in focus.

5. Finally I added a very slight white vignette to concentrate the eye.

If this was one of mine I would spend longer than I have here as I think the image has great potential. Hope this helps and if you don't like it I'll remove it.

(y)

3629064805_6c60a1e0f9_o1.jpg
3629064805_6c60a1e0f9_o.jpg
 
great work there pipe (y)
 
Hacker said:
Hope this helps and if you don't like it I'll remove it.
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No, that's fine, no need to remove it. I'm gonna have to probe further, and go through your points, if you'll let me...

1. Yep, not a problem, I know how to use curves. (y)

2. How do you do skin smoothing? I have to say that it's quite subjective and whilst I am not a big fan, it's something I could do to learn. If it was me, I know how to use the heal or clone to touch up things like spots and flaky bits of skin, but that's it.

3. That's a stonkin bit of 'pop' on those eyes! Woah! I've seen tutorial's on this, basically just a bit of selective levels adjustment and sharpen yeah?

4. Not sure at all what this means or entails. :LOL:

5. Ooo, I'd never considered adding a white vignette to images. That's a new technique to me, but one that I can see should be obvious for pale background images. (y)

Should I take it that the eyes are crucial in ANY portrait? Get them to pop, and it can add a real boost really helping to distinguish the professional looking images, from the P&S snaps?
 
Now take Colin's edit and B&W it. Babies skin usually benefits from black and white because it's actually got a lot of red in it. :)
 
B+W looks great (y), my only small concern being the ink black of some of the balls from the conversion :shrug:
 
1. Yep, not a problem, I know how to use curves.

(y)

2. How do you do skin smoothing? I have to say that it's quite subjective and whilst I am not a big fan, it's something I could do to learn. If it was me, I know how to use the heal or clone to touch up things like spots and flaky bits of skin, but that's it.

There are various ways of doing it but you could try creating a layer copy and adding some gaussian blur, add a layer mask and paint back the details then adjust the opacity until you are happy with the look.

3. That's a stonkin bit of 'pop' on those eyes! Woah! I've seen tutorial's on this, basically just a bit of selective levels adjustment and sharpen yeah?

Try this tutorial I wrote about 18 months ago.

4. Not sure at all what this means or entails.

As with most things in Photoshop there are various ways of doing the same job. For a quick and dirty edit use the elliptical marquee tool to make a selection touching all four sides, invert the selection and copy it into a new layer (Ctrl+c, Ctrl+v), add a bit of blur and diffuse glow and adjust opacity to suit. I have a plugin for this so my workflow is slightly different.

5. Ooo, I'd never considered adding a white vignette to images. That's a new technique to me, but one that I can see should be obvious for pale background images.

A slight one can work well with images like this.

Should I take it that the eyes are crucial in ANY portrait? Get them to pop, and it can add a real boost really helping to distinguish the professional looking images, from the P&S snaps?

Spot on, the eyes are usually the most important part, it is what everyone looks at first - get them right and you hold the viewers attention.

Hope this helps!
 
Ahh bless the little fella, I had a play with PS, a couple of soft layers bit of curves and a softlight blend finished in neat image hope you like ;) Don't do portraits that often these days but hey ho!!
 
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Hacker said:
Try this tutorial I wrote about 18 months ago.
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Cheers Colin, am just taking a look at this and have taken some new pics to post later tonite once i've found five mins to pp em.

Ajophotog said:
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Alby... sorry mate, I hadn't seen your reply. Please repost the image if you still have it. I am open to any help and suggestions on the 'people pics' front. Clueless ain't the word for me here. :LOL:
 
Still had it in my waste bin so upped it again to flickr. Not that great really but hey ho.

3641864712_696c75b579_o.jpg
 
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