First attempt to studio portraits

[Phideaux]

I could do with some constructive criticism and some advice on colour management between PSCS3, monitor and printer.

The four images were post processed and the colour balance made slightly warmer on one or two from 4350k to about 4700k and the others left at 4700-4800. All looked fine colourwise on my monitor, but when printed on an Epson Photo R220 have come out much too warm/dark.

I've had similar problems with landscapes, the images come out about 1 - 1.5 stops darker than the monitor shows (to my eye anyway).

 

[natjag]

I like the last image. The first few, the focus isn;t quite on the eyes. Colour balance looks ok to me on my monitor which is calirated. You may need to set a profile for your printer.

 

[Steep]

I think the hats are wrong, she's a lovely girl but hidden by too much hat (her idea or yours?) and she looks a wee bit straight-backed and stiff.
Get a few fun shots like number 4 before starting the session proper to relax the model maybe?

 

[trebs]

Firstly, I'd suggest fiddling with your lighting a bit. These images are rather flat and under exposed. You could get a lot more feel and depth in there by adjusting your lights.
Ditch the hats. Sorry. Very '80's photo club feel with those. :s

As for the white balance, try using a grey card. Ask the model to hold it for one shot each time you change the lighting. You can just select that grey with your RAW converter software's colour selector and it'll give a much more consistent result.

Onto the printer output.. We've already gone past several stages where the colours can be messed up.
Lighting, white balance, RAW conversion and then printed to paper.

It's vital to have the printer set up properly. Paper profiles are usually available for different papers.
Print with print preview selected. Switch off all the driver colour management and select the paper's profile in the preview box.

You'll get a much better result then.

Oh, of course, your screen needs pretty much calibrated too.

good luck.

 

[awp]

You're giving your self a big lighting challenge because of the hats and it almost comes off. They are a little flat and 'heavy' - if they were shot RAW you could fix that easily. Also a little on the warm side on my monitor. As others have said the model is a little stiff in the first three - get her to relax more - portrait photography is as much about managing the subject as the technical things. Just maybe shoot dozens - hundreds - of shots and really work at it - I'm sure your model is capable of providing you with stunning pictures.

 

[leoedin]

I noticed the aperture was f/3.5. Because you (I assume) have quite a lot of light to play with, you should stop down to f/8 or so. That'll also get much more of her in focus, and mean you won't end up with underexposed eyes.

Turn up the lights

The first one looks like it's been overprocessed to me. It may be her makeup, but the skin looks slightly smudged. I guess it depends on the look you're going for.

 

[Phideaux]

You're giving your self a big lighting challenge because of the hats and it almost comes off. They are a little flat and 'heavy' - if they were shot RAW you could fix that easily. Also a little on the warm side on my monitor. As others have said the model is a little stiff in the first three - get her to relax more - portrait photography is as much about managing the subject as the technical things. Just maybe shoot dozens - hundreds - of shots and really work at it - I'm sure your model is capable of providing you with stunning pictures.

Hi,

I did shoot in RAW and the warm may be because on my monitor they were a bit light so I increased the colour temp from 4350 to about 4700.

I think part of the stiffness was the studio was cold (for her,warm for me) so she was jumping in and out of a fleece.

The hats were Debbie's preference as she felt that her hair was a mess.

We probably got through a couple of hundred shots, mainly because I couldn't get the lighting right - to shoot at f3/5 and blur the background I had to put a 2 stop grad on even with the strobes at the lowest setting.

 

[Phideaux]

I noticed the aperture was f/3.5. Because you (I assume) have quite a lot of light to play with, you should stop down to f/8 or so. That'll also get much more of her in focus, and mean you won't end up with underexposed eyes.

Turn up the lights

The first one looks like it's been overprocessed to me. It may be her makeup, but the skin looks slightly smudged. I guess it depends on the look you're going for.

The skin is slightly smudged as I was trying out a skin smoothing technique http://www.ferradasphotography.com/skinsosoft/

 

[awp]

try again and enjoy!

 

[I MAG images]

Hi There I think that 1 and 2 are out of focus or at least too soft. the other two I quite like and I think that its good to use wide apertures but the golden rule is to always get the eyes in sharp focus. The lighting looks good what setup did you use?.....Ian

 

[Phideaux]

. The lighting looks good what setup did you use?.....Ian

Elinchrom FX400 0.5x0.5m softbox to subject's left (from the camera) at 7-8 O'clock about 2m height plus another FX with flash-through white umbrella to right at 4-5 O'clock at 1.5m height (to get under the hat brim). Flash setting 2.0 with a 2 stop ND filter (actually a polarising filter as that's what was to hand). Strobes were about 2m from subject.

 

[Ally]

they seem fine to me, Most of the stuff i would say has been said. I would just have the images a bit more contrasty.

 

[Phideaux]

You're giving your self a big lighting challenge because of the hats and it almost comes off. They are a little flat and 'heavy' - if they were shot RAW you could fix that easily. Also a little on the warm side on my monitor. As others have said the model is a little stiff in the first three - get her to relax more - portrait photography is as much about managing the subject as the technical things. Just maybe shoot dozens - hundreds - of shots and really work at it - I'm sure your model is capable of providing you with stunning pictures.

Please explain what you mean "flat" and "heavy" as statements because I don't really understand? This is not a challenge, I just don't comprehend what you mean.