first try at senior portraits

[rcpilot_971]

A friend of the family asked me to take a few pictures for a senior portrait I mostley shoot my sons baseball and backetball games & other sports stuff so I said I would give it a try

cant seem to get the skin color right I usng a 1D mkll canon 24-70 2.8

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcpilot_971pictures/4594031309/sizes/l/in/set-72157624030078268/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcpilot_971pictures/4594035457/sizes/m/in/set-72157624030078268/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcpilot_971pictures/4594640900/sizes/l/in/set-72157624030078268/

Thanks Tim

[LSV]

They do look pasty... Try upping the temperature a few hundred and adding +10 to tint. Looks cold and green right now.

[rcpilot_971]

like this
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcpilot_971pictures/4597979524/sizes/m/in/set-72157624030078268/

[pinoyplaya]

Could use better composition and colors need to "pop"

[nostalgiafoto]

Like this?

[pinoyplaya]

Like this?

Yup. Woulda been better if you had the original to edit with.

To the OP: You don't wanna have a subject directly in the middle of portrait shot, it takes away the background and makes the image look like a mugshot unless you are filling the frame completely with the subject.

[rcpilot_971]

okI will give that a try Im doing some more of her today

how can I get the skin tones better from the camera I was metering off her face

Thanks Tim

[kent andersen]

okI will give that a try Im doing some more of her today

how can I get the skin tones better from the camera I was metering off her face

Thanks Tim

The first thing you need (except having the right exposure when shoting) is to have a good screen, and have it calibrated. It is almost impossible to do anything right with colours without a calibrated screen.

When you have that (a calibrated screen), start shoting in RAW (get the exposure right). Start to use the histogram on youre camera, that will help you to get the right exposure. Then adjust the white balance in DPP or another RAW editing programs. If there is a spot that you know is white (like a white t-shirt) pick the white point. If not use the manual tool, and search for the place where you are not having a blue (cold) or a red (warm) tone on the picture. Afther you have set the whitebalance, save it as Tiff or Jpeg and edit it in Photoshop (or other program).

There is no point in trying to work on the colour of skin without a good calibrated screen.

If you are not having a calibrated screen. Do the following: Get the exposure right (nothing blown out, or to dark), then adjust the whitebalance using the automatic adjustment (sunshine, cloudy etc...) in DPP (or even bether, in youre camera before you shoot). Then in Photoshop (or other programs), do no other adjustment than adjusting the histogram. And the only thing you do is to streching it, moving the dark point to the beginning of the first pixel and the same with the white. If you do that, you are able to improve the colours without risking a totaly desaster with the colours. If you want more contrast, don't give it more than 3-4 step. This is editing in blindnes, but it sould improve the picture in most cases.

[ShutteringFocus]

This is a pretty good use of natural light actually. I like how you used the sun as a hair light.

I think you could really improve the photos with 2 things -

First, a reflector to bounce some light back into the subject's face. This could be a fancy photo reflector, or just a piece of white cardboard.

I've used pieces of white, silver, and gold mate board - which when its on sale is less than $5 for a great big 40" x 40" piece.

The second thing is posing.

I think posing is actually more important than light, but that's just an opinion.

Most people, and senior girls are the best at this, will notice things about their pose (how their body looks) before they will notice lighting things.

I've had people actually select photos for prints that I thought had terrible light problems like shadows in funny places etc. etc. They pick those photos because they like the pose.

There are LOTS of great resources referenced on this forum related to posing. Also, do a YouTube search, there are a number of great videos, which really help give you the visual.

[rcpilot_971]

ok I gave it another try
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcpilot_971pictures/4605218895/sizes/m/in/set-72157624030078268/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcpilot_971pictures/4605222157/sizes/l/in/set-72157624030078268/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcpilot_971pictures/4605228259/sizes/m/in/set-72157624030078268/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcpilot_971pictures/4605848646/sizes/m/in/set-72157624030078268/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcpilot_971pictures/4605241579/sizes/m/in/set-72157624030078268/

Thanks Tim

[pinoyplaya]

Huge improvements! Great shots! Relink the images above so that it shows when loading. Some people don't care enough to click to look at the images. If it loads when this page is loaded, more people can see it :)

[ShutteringFocus]

Definitely some better poses and compositions.

Good work.

[tiny123]

My take on it.

Original on top. The picture to begin with is under exposed. Focus on your exposure and editing and fine tuning skin tones will be easy.

http://images54.fotki.com/v514/photos/8/56808/8723079/retouch1-vi.jpg
http://images12.fotki.com/v236/photos/8/56808/8723079/retouch2-vi.jpg

[rcpilot_971]

ok Thanks guys
now I need to figure out how to get better exposures right out of the camera

Tim

[HappySnapper90]

ok Thanks guys
now I need to figure out how to get better exposures right out of the camera

Tim

That isn't really something you can do easily. If you are shooting JPG, you don't want to over expose highlights that you won't be able to recover. The best photographs are shot using RAW making sure not to clip (blow) the highlights and then properly developed with a tone curve to maximize the exposure. You can't get the greatest results from the out-of-camera JPG file.

[PhotoCupcake]

My take on it.

http://images12.fotki.com/v236/photos/8/56808/8723079/retouch2-vi.jpg

Is it just me or does it look like you added some skin smoothing here?

[ShutteringFocus]

That isn't really something you can do easily...The best photographs are shot using RAW making sure not to clip (blow) the highlights and then properly developed with a tone curve to maximize the exposure.

Yeah, this is hard...mostly to understand.

I'm still trying to understand what this even means.

Anybody have some recommendations on a good tread talking about this?