A Very Lovely Woman

[mblanton]

- My Wife -

I have been trying to learn outdoor portraiture. My wife was nice enough to model for me this evening. I thought it went well, but I know there is always room for improvement. Let me know what you think.

Mike

[mblanton]

Here are a couple more.

[mblanton]

I got my daughter to sit in this time.

[Michaelmjc]

Nice shots, the last two are a little much... Too much post processing.

[drewmk2]

If you look at the color variation between all of them, i would say that your next step should be to learn about accurate white balance. I think you've got a good start. There are also a lot of jpeg compression artifacts :(, and the saturation on the last 2 is a bit high. Keep playing around.

[BottomBracket]

Nice shots. Somehow I like the second one best. It is the overall shade of red, I think this shot would beoutstanding if she had neutral or reddish colored pants. Keep it up!

[mblanton]

Thanks for all the feedback. I am learning alot of great stuff around here. I have been really struggling with fill flash. For these particular shots I set the fill to +1 instead of -1 because it improved the histograms so much. I did not shoot RAW, but I plan to do that this weekend (another test shoot). I am going to post the original pictures so you have a true baseline to compare my finished photos to. I may have over post processed a little and I think my monitor may be causing that. I am seriously thinking about replacing it with a 19 inch flat screen. I want to start taking portraits soon, so share anything thing you can, and remember that I am trying to learn. Thanks.

Mike

[mblanton]

1st pair of originals.

[mblanton]

2nd pair of originals.

[mblanton]

Last set of originals.

[G3owner]

First: I am not an expert in portrait photography, so these are just my very personal 'feelings' about your pics...

It's a very good start that you have a relaxed model. The surroundings are fine, but in my opinion the brick wall is a too heavy colour as a background for her.

If you compare the shots in pair 1 you can clearly see that the white balance is very much off. Probably she has the same clothes in both pics but the colour of her blouse is completely different? And on the photo with the brick wall her face coulour is not very flattering.

You are working with a fill flash, but that is very difficult when the model wears glasses. Lots of reflections taking out her eyes. Try with a remote flash or some kind of fill-in light that does not come directly from your camera.

Looking forward to seeing more as you improve!

G3owner

[mblanton]

How do I maintain a consistant white balance through a series of shots?

Mike

[rammy]

How do I maintain a consistant white balance through a series of shots?

Mike

Change the WB setting from "Auto" to one appropriate to the conditions of the day, in this case maybe cloudy to get more saturation.

Otherwise, do a Custom setting which should be explained quite well in your manual. You typically need to take a shot of white card and change WB to custom and select image you took.

[tim]

I'd suggest working on white ballance and posing.