1st Portrait Post

[englishw]

I shot this of Jillian (a high school senior) on her 2nd of 2 senior photo shoots I did with her. She wanted a fall shoot and a spring shoot.

Always looking to improve...first post asking for critique of a portrait though.

Canon D30
Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens
1/500s @ f/2.8 ISO 200

80349

[coreypolis]

welcome, great feel to it and love the lighting and composition. looks like you had fun

only thing I'd change is move the reflector up, its a little too low (very common to do), and maybe to shoot at a wider aperature to get those leaves in front out of focus

[TrackVino]

welcome, great feel to it and love the lighting and composition. looks like you had fun

only thing I'd change is move the reflector up, its a little too low (very common to do), and maybe to shoot at a wider aperature to get those leaves in front out of focus

Im new too, dont understand thoe what you mean too low on the reflector, I thought the bottom of her head needed a bit more light?

[TrackVino]

I mean her hair around the chest is kind of dark, and the mid section has quite a bit of light

[coreypolis]

Im new too, dont understand thoe what you mean too low on the reflector, I thought the bottom of her head needed a bit more light?

you can see in the catch light in her eye where the reflector was positioned. by doing this the light comes from below introducing a little moster lighting. you can see the shadow from her nose actually goes up above it to a degree, and that just ins't natural. it did light the face nicely though, as thats the lighter area and your eye is drawn to that

I'd be careful about where the crop is too, I'd like to see all of her hands

[TrackVino]

Wow, thanks, I see that now.

[grego]

Ooh, you cropped it in the wrong area. Right on her hands. Considering they come together , like she is holding her other hand, you want the hands in there more then.

[song4themoon]

I think its a wonderful shot with great use of the natural light to highlight her beautiful hair! I am sure she loves this shot! I think the shades and highlights are just in the right place

[tony fanning]

I love the lighting-nice model too.

[kevbailey]

Her smile and those beautiful eyes make this photo for me. She has a wonderful expression.

I see what they are saying about the refector, and that's something I need to learn as well. Great advice!

Kevin

[ImagineTNT]

Awesome shot! I really like it.

In addition to the points mentioned above, my small suggestion would be to crop in a little and make it more of a portrait as the foreground leaves are a little too prominent and distracting.

[DRC]

Bill:
Nice shot, model. I agree about cropping hands and raising reflector to get catchlight in top half of eye. Be proud of using reflector. Most people don't think of that.
Rick

[englishw]

Thank you everyone for the comments!

The shot was taken in an arched pathway and the reflector position was all that was available in that situation. As for the pose/crop - I have no training in posing. Hands, arms, feet, etc. I always just rely on what "looks good" or "looks natural". Can anyone suggest a place for me to start learning? Either online or with a book? Posing is my greatest struggle when I go out on a shoot. Composition would be my next big area I need to work on. Any suggestions for that as well? I mostly shoot high school seniors.

Thanks again! I hope I can learn a lot from these forums!

[ajbalazic]

The backlighting here is magnificient! I love this shot.