Senior Portrait Style: Heather

Been taking lots of photos of friend to try and learn how to do senior portraits. Natural lighting only, and the two lenses I use are the 50mm f/1.8 and the 85mm f/1.8. Any C&C apreciated:

#1

PHOTOBUCKET EMBEDDING IS DISABLED BY THIS MEMBER. Photobucket sends ads instead of embedding photos from their free galleries. Click the link (if available) below to see the image in a gallery page. http://i127.photobucke​t.com …124/chrisa13/IM​G_5258.jpg

PHOTOBUCKET EMBEDDING IS DISABLED BY THIS MEMBER. Photobucket sends ads instead of embedding photos from their free galleries. Click the link (if available) below to see the image in a gallery page. http://i127.photobucke​t.com …124/chrisa13/IM​G_5308.jpg

PHOTOBUCKET EMBEDDING IS DISABLED BY THIS MEMBER. Photobucket sends ads instead of embedding photos from their free galleries. Click the link (if available) below to see the image in a gallery page. http://i127.photobucke​t.com …124/chrisa13/IM​G_5360.jpg

PHOTOBUCKET EMBEDDING IS DISABLED BY THIS MEMBER. Photobucket sends ads instead of embedding photos from their free galleries. Click the link (if available) below to see the image in a gallery page. http://i127.photobucke​t.com …124/chrisa13/IM​G_5493.jpg

PHOTOBUCKET EMBEDDING IS DISABLED BY THIS MEMBER. Photobucket sends ads instead of embedding photos from their free galleries. Click the link (if available) below to see the image in a gallery page. http://i127.photobucke​t.com …124/chrisa13/IM​G_5945.jpg

PHOTOBUCKET EMBEDDING IS DISABLED BY THIS MEMBER. Photobucket sends ads instead of embedding photos from their free galleries. Click the link (if available) below to see the image in a gallery page. http://i127.photobucke​t.com …124/chrisa13/IM​G_5741.jpg

PHOTOBUCKET EMBEDDING IS DISABLED BY THIS MEMBER. Photobucket sends ads instead of embedding photos from their free galleries. Click the link (if available) below to see the image in a gallery page. http://i127.photobucke​t.com …124/chrisa13/IM​G_5393.jpg

PHOTOBUCKET EMBEDDING IS DISABLED BY THIS MEMBER. Photobucket sends ads instead of embedding photos from their free galleries. Click the link (if available) below to see the image in a gallery page. http://i127.photobucke​t.com …124/chrisa13/IM​G_5279.jpg

They need more light. They look a little harsh and the eyes are dark. You might pick up a flash and learn how to use it. I don't mean to sound harsh, just trying to help.

C and C
Pretty young lady!

General notes: the eye is drawn to bright spots on a photo, also when looking at a person, your eye is naturally drawn to the eyes.

Dappled light is difficult

#1 my eyes are continually drawn from her face to the bright bright house. her leading arm with the roled shoulder is not flattering. Also a womans hand should be shot open with fingers close together bent knuckles/fist generally looks mannish.

Now let's look at #8 I like the pose and light on her. How can we improve it a bit? Look into her eyes, now place your right hand over the bright area to her right and see how mch easier it is to focus your attention on her face. In my opinion, there is too much brick in the foreground.


Hope this helps, keep up the good work!

your loosing your detail in the shadows and hair

Her eyes are too dark and without any catchlights they tend to look "dead". Plus you shouldn't see the dark "jowl lines" at the sides of he mouth in someone her age. A little fill flash would fix both problems

I find most 'soft' and underexposed...

With a 'lady' available light needs to be really flat, or use a little fill to soften the shadows.

Generally, straight arms are not as attractive as an elbow that is bent. Be careful about where you crop so that it seems like a natural place for the photo to stop.

PS: If you only take pictures of Heather, we'll get the idea that you REALLY like her. Haha.

I think #2 is the best one

Your exposures are pretty poor. You need to expose for the subject better, or add light. You need to add light so there aren't shadows under the eyes, and so the subject pops out from the background.

I see promise. Keep working on it.

Not a technical comment at all, but I really like the last one.

Need better lighting.. use a reflector.. select better background.

SimpleJack wrote in post #13190086
I think #2 is the best one

Here is another vote for #2.

I agree, you lost important detail in the dark hair. She has beautiful hair, you should show it off a bit.

I'm going to focus on your backgrounds.

I'm not a big fan of the oblique brick walls. They are wonderful for depth of field studies, but I find the OOF, in focus, OOF pattern in the bricks to be distracting from your beautiful model's charm.

To fix this, just get her away from the brick wall. Get her to stand about 6 feet away from the wall. This will give you a soft focus background that blurs the brick detail.

When a model rests her head on bricks (# 2, 3, 5, and especially 7), I feel uncomfortable for the model. If she moves away from the wall, the blocks go out of focus and she doesn't have to lean into bricks.

[And, a light comment: A 5-in-1 reflector with an assistant or a stand could also help with the lighting. Take her away from the dappled lighting under the trees and use it to modify light to your advantage.]

My 2 cents -

All look soft/a little OOF.
Eyes are too dark - need fill from a reflector or flash,
Maybe underexposed overall - 1/2 stop or so would help.
Losing a lot of detail in her hair - need more light.

Focus on the eyes and recompose if necessary. Don't shoot too shallow a DOF - the entire face and especially eyes need to be sharp. MUST get more light on her - she looks a bit underexposed overall. If you can't do flash and don't have a reflector, slow down your shutter speed a 1/2 stop or so.