Marco flash in portraiture experiment

[Oxygen]

Hi folks, with the wet weather here in London on the weekend, and my new toy arrived during the week - Sigma EM-140 DG - i was dead keen to take some shots. I decided to grab my lovely wife Fiona, and have a go at some portraiture. First time taking this sort of thing...all taken with the kit lens 18-55 around f/4 on the Canon 400D.

Comments on them would be appreciated as am trying a few different processing styles in Lightroom 2 - brillant piece of kit!

1)Getting ready

2)Fashion-ista

3)Lomo Fashion

4)Chilled Glamour

Realised also that there is a sharp drop off in flash illumination around 3 feet so it's head and shoulders only with this set up.
I've gone ahead and ordered a stepdown ring for my 50mm 1.8 as I think this might yield some better results in future.

Thanks for looking

.N.

 

[Flash In The Pan]

Hmmm....I'm not really sure a macro ringflash really works for portraiture. By it's very nature a ringflash for macro work is designed for illuminating much smaller objects than the human face and the power output tends to be too low for portrait work. To overcome this it looks as if, on shot number 2 you've used your lens at sub-20mm which has given the image a strange, unbalanced look to it.

The processing also seems a bit ott to me, particularly the "Lomo" shot.

Sorry for sounding harsh, but to my mind it just doesn't work at all

 

[MikeeB]

They seem a little overly processed to me. Portraits are meant to be soft, but these are super soft. The crop is a little too tight for my taste on #3 too.

 

[Oxygen]

Hmmm....I'm not really sure a macro ringflash really works for portraiture. By it's very nature a ringflash for macro work is designed for illuminating much smaller objects than the human face and the power output tends to be too low for portrait work. To overcome this it looks as if, on shot number 2 you've used your lens at sub-20mm which has given the image a strange, unbalanced look to it.

The processing also seems a bit ott to me, particularly the "Lomo" shot.

Sorry for sounding harsh, but to my mind it just doesn't work at all

You are right, the small illumination area had me working very close to the sitter so I can see what you mean with the facial distortion.
So to combat this you are suggesting that I step back and then zoom in? will this not flatten the image though?

They seem a little overly processed to me. Portraits are meant to be soft, but these are super soft. The crop is a little too tight for my taste on #3 too.

Hmm, I can see i've used the feather filter a tad too much, but I was seeking to keep the eyes sharp so I had hoped it might have looked stylised rather than OTT. No crop on no 3, that is the full frame shot I am afraid.

Thanks for the comments, don't worry about the harsh crit, I'm here to learn and the faster the better frankly. I'll have another go and possibly re-edit these with your advice in mind.
Thanks for posting.
Nathan