my first portrait shoot

[mkippen]

my good friend lorenzo asked me if i could take some pics for his family/ firends, and being my first portrait shoot, i wanted to get some opinion on what you think :)

the light was good, but got bad very quickly (shot late afternoon), so some of the pics came out a little dark. i know my lighting needs a lot of help, but i'm just looking for opinions on the composition, or any other specific stuff to doing portraits?

i am just getting my site up, but the rest of hte pics can be seen here: http://www.mkippen.com/gallery/friends/lorenzo/lorenzo.htm
these are 2 of my favorites 8)
http://www.mkippen.com/gallery/friends/lorenzo/images/big/IMG_5554%20copy.jpg

i wish that his hat could have had a little more contrast with the background, but i like this one a lot.
http://www.mkippen.com/gallery/friends/lorenzo/images/big/IMG_5613%20copy.jpg

anyhow, i got an amateur model coming out for a shoot in a few days.
i'm pretty nervous/excited... and any tips you have for me to get some quality shots would be cool.
please let me know what you think, what i can work on etc...

thanks for checking them out
Mike
http://www.mkippen.com

[Andy_T]

In the first picture, I like the slant of the lawn mower, that adds some life to the photo.

In the second picture, I like the off-center pose (rule of thirds).

I think you are right with your lighting being the best place to look for improvement.

If you use fill flash to light up the face in the pictures, they will look better.

Best regards,
Andy

[Tbel]

I agree composition looks good, and your lighting needs work.
In the first pic I'd blur the background, the house bothers me.

[4walls]

Sittin' on a John Deere, eh?

You know what they say about John Deere?
"Nothing runs like a Deere",
but the rest of the saying is what really gets
ya "...and nothing stinks like a John!"