First ever home studio portrait shots

DannoBoy

DannoBoy

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Name
Dan
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Hi all,
These were taken a while ago but I've only just gotten round to getting them on here to get destroyed, sorry I mean constructively criticised, lol.

The girl pictured is not a model, just a family friend who fancied a play around shoot with various outfits to make her feel better, thankfully she loved the pics but I'd like to know what some of you think of how i've done and how I can improve in future, I know the processing will not be to everyone's taste but she was loving them, thanks for taking the time to look (y)

1.
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2.
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Very good Dan.

Only thing I'd say is i'd like to see something like 0.5ev more on your subject, I'm sure that would only add to the glow of her skin and of course bring out a little more detail in those dark shadows in her clothes.

Well done.
 
Thanks Phil, I will try to remember that next time I have a shoot planned :) or would you rather push it up in pp afterwards ?
 
Care to share you lighting setup Dan? Two front light? Is the blue background added in PP or is it a gelled light?

One small thing for me would be to get the camera to eye level, you're just a little low and feel it loses a little of the connection with her.
 
Oscellaris said:
I like them both yet No.1 stands out for me.
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Thank you :)

Phil Young said:
I think it could be very easily done in PP with a low flow shift adjustment brush.
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You think just using the adjustment brush over the model would be better than upping the whole exposure Phil ?

Frey said:
Great set Dan
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Thank you :)

barrylau said:
Great work Dan. Much prefer the pose on the first one!
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Thank you :) the first is my more favoured shot too !
 
dan_yorkshire said:
Care to share you lighting setup Dan? Two front light? Is the blue background added in PP or is it a gelled light?

One small thing for me would be to get the camera to eye level, you're just a little low and feel it loses a little of the connection with her.
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Sorry, Dan almost forgot your reply, lol. Yes your correct, it was my first time using them, a donated pair of Courtney Solaflash strobes either side of the model, the bg is PP. The only problem I am is I can't get any modifiers for them, I have shoot through and reflective bounce umbrellas only. I've realised less is more recently so I've been playing with set ups since these shots.

Thanks for the info about eye level, I shall take that on board too :)
 
Phil Young said:
Try it Dan, the exposure on the BG is perfect though hence the adjustment brush suggestion...I don't suppose it would hurt the image just to bring up the overall though.
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I will do just that Phil, thanks for your help.

Thanks to everyone who has commented (y)
 
If that's your first attempt at studio lighting, you're off to a good start. I agree with perhaps half a stop more on the main subject... but I quite like the flat ratio actually... suits the colour tones in the shot.

This is WAY better than my first attempts at studio lighting any way :)
 
Pookeyhead said:
If that's your first attempt at studio lighting, you're off to a good start. I agree with perhaps half a stop more on the main subject... but I quite like the flat ratio actually... suits the colour tones in the shot.

This is WAY better than my first attempts at studio lighting any way :)
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Thanks dude (y)
 
Update to first image using Phil's suggestion of upping exposure using adjustment brush on model only, must say Phil, it looks bang on now :)

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(y)
 
Brilliant work!!! Are you sure it was your first shoot?????? ;)

Wish mine were as good as this, the hardest thing i find is the poses I could just do with a book full of poses and I can pick them out rather than trying to remember them.
 
Dannhy said:
Brilliant work!!! Are you sure it was your first shoot?????? ;)

Wish mine were as good as this, the hardest thing i find is the poses I could just do with a book full of poses and I can pick them out rather than trying to remember them.
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It was indeed my first shoot using a seamless paper bg and the lights. Trust me the posing was not easy, direction doesn't come naturally to me and like I said the model was a friend and not a pro or amateur model.
I downloaded an iPad app for posing, so next time I'll be ready, that time was just luck I think, plus we had as much time as we wanted so no rush which is always fun, the only thing I can say to you Danny is keep trying and practising, read books and look around on TP, there are lot's of people willing to help and also alot of how to's written by some of the guys here :)

Thanks for commenting too, much appreciated (y)
 
Cheers Danno


Ye I've been looking and reading up on here, I'm after setting up a relatively cheap home set up so I might be buying some bits soon.
 
I feel like she looks about 10 years younger on photo 1 compared to 2... no idea why, something to do with the eyes. Anyway, really like them , espically the edited one.
 
Canon brook said:
Like the adjusted version too- what exactly did you do here ?:)
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I used Lightroom's adjustment brush tool and raised the exposure to 0.5 and set the flow to 30 and painted over the model, nothing particularly difficult but certainly shows how small adjustments can make a big difference.

mikeplow1961 said:
Very nice shots, she looks very comfortable in front of the camera too.
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Thanks for your comment (y)

lmgculley said:
I feel like she looks about 10 years younger on photo 1 compared to 2... no idea why, something to do with the eyes. Anyway, really like them , espically the edited one.
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Thanks for the comments, won't tell her you said she looks older in the second shot :LOL:
 
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