Hi everyone,
I'd like some constructive feedback on this portrait. I trying my hand at portrait photography and would love to
hear from you all on how I can improve in this style of photography. Thanks in advance.
Your thoughts please. How can I improve on this image?
Initial reaction, I am confussed. What were you trying to do, and was that for the sitter, or for yourself? Did you ask her or tell her about the intentions of the shoot? Why do I ask? Becasue you have a pretty young woman with nice lipstick and she is having her photograph made, I assume she is not thinking snap shot but photograph, and she is not looking in a happy place. This is not always what is needed, so I ask the above questions.
What I see is; a tightly framed shot, which is low key and for these reasons it works if the serious facial expression is what was required. Perhaps to go with a job application for a lawyer or tax inspector. However, if she wanted to look lovely, happy and totally drop dead appealing, for her mum or boyfriend perhaps, it does not.
If you choose to shoot with this lighting then most female sitters will prefer you do a subtle airbrush job, especially if you have a great lens. I stress the word subtle. You need to allow the texture of the complexion to show, but to dial it back maybe 30-50%
The white stuff in the background is a bit distracting but not a big problem.
All said, and not trying to take account of the sitter's expectation, which I don't know about, I like it for what it is.
The pose really doesn't work for me. Have her turn more toward the lens, pull out just a little on your framing, and I would light her with at lease two sources. One light for the face and another to bring out some definition in her dark hair. Some subtle smoothing would be nice for the skin and spot heal the area on the end of her nose.
Just some thoughts.....Craig
Thanks, Ian and Craig for the comments. I'll take those and learn from them. I was going for a moody and dark look here.....my choice not hers, LOL. I do have a few more "pretty" looks from her in this session, so I may post them later. Again, this has been good feedback and I appreciate it.
And you succeeded very well. Good job.
D - give us more information. I'm assuming you're not really interested in comments on expressions and if she's smiling or not, but you're looking for information on lighting and lighting ratios, cropping, posing, etc. Smiling, not smiling, expressions, ect... that's all between you and your model, and aren't relevant as far as technique in lighting and photography go. Your message is your own, and shouldn't be dictated. Commenting on her smiling is like telling the author of a book who's looking for comments on his writing technique that he wrote about the wrong subject. The two points are unrelated. So What are you looking for D?
If you are refering to my comments, actually I was simply posing a question, so as to understand the tight cropping and low key lighting, which work so well with the serious expression but if she had booked a session she might have reasonably expected and wanted something different.
The photographic techniques you discuss are only the technical aspects of photographey, I use the word technical in the fullest sense to include the art of composition and creating mood/atmosphere with light, camera position selection, props and choosing the setting and the lens choice. The photographers skill-set also must include getting the right performance from the sitter/model, so I would argue that expression and pose are critical to comments in a critique.
A lot of things going wrong here which I am happy to speak on:
1. The angle of the model is unflattering. It makes the nose look huge and ill proportionate to her face. This has a lot to do with the focal length of the lens. You need something longer here.
2. The lighting is to close to the subject/the camera settings are to low for the light placed. It needs a little more distance if you are going to keep the same camera settings. if you can change the settings, I would turn the shutter up more (if possible, if not, compensate with aperture), so that the background falls into black more.
3. The Background is distracting. I know you got close to the subject to avoid that issue, but you made it bright and have the horizon way off, on top of it being a poorly placed set up, it is distracting.
4. The white balance is far to yellow and magenta. Add some green, and slide the WB in favor of blue a bit more.
5. Her hair. Have her comb it next time, have her have one of on her at all time to adjust it.