Formal portrait

This is the first time I have taken a formal portrait...

The background looks good with the light around her to get separation but the light on her looks too flat to me. Did you use the pop up flash to light her?

You certainly got some things right with this one.
Great smile, I like the head tilt. Exposure looks fine.
Things I'd do differently?
I'd crop out the negative space behind her...if you want to use neg space, make it on the other side.
I'd have her tilt the other direction, so her part is on top....it just allows the hair to flow a bit more natural looking. I'd also get higher, and shoot slightly down on her. First off, it's thinning for the neck, and it makes the eyes look a bit better when she's looking up. Flash looks to be on-camera. If that's all you've got, fine. Try to get it off, or better yet, use a window for light and ditch the flash.

Hi there. Nice first attempt. I honestly can't see nothing really wrong with this photo. Do you have any in portrait orientation?

The above makes a good point about shooting slightly higher for her

JakAHearts wrote in post #12040422
The background looks good with the light around her to get separation but the light on her looks too flat to me. Did you use the pop up flash to light her?

No. I used my 430EX off the camera - placed on my right side about 6ft away from the subject. I don't quite understand how to make light on her not look flat. Would appreciate some clarification/tips on this. Thanks.

ootsk wrote in post #12040435
You certainly got some things right with this one.
Great smile, I like the head tilt. Exposure looks fine.
Things I'd do differently?
I'd crop out the negative space behind her...if you want to use neg space, make it on the other side.
I'd have her tilt the other direction, so her part is on top....it just allows the hair to flow a bit more natural looking. I'd also get higher, and shoot slightly down on her. First off, it's thinning for the neck, and it makes the eyes look a bit better when she's looking up. Flash looks to be on-camera. If that's all you've got, fine. Try to get it off, or better yet, use a window for light and ditch the flash.

I'll try out your suggestions on her tilting on her right and shoot slight from top. I have a 430EX and 7D pop-up flash. I used 430EX off the camera. Thanks for the tips.

kuraz wrote in post #12040511
Hi there. Nice first attempt. I honestly can't see nothing really wrong with this photo. Do you have any in portrait orientation?

The above makes a good point about shooting slightly higher for her

No. I donot have portrait shot. Will try it out next time. Thanks.

I think the lighting looks flat because the popup flash also added to the exposure of the picture. See the little catch light dead center in her pupil? Thats a good indicator that the popup flash lit her. Im pretty sure you can disable that so that only the preflash sets off the off camera 430. I dont have a 7D so I cant help you with that but hopefull someone will chime in here and if not, its in your manual. Hope that helps.

I don't think the exposure is correct. It looks slightly underexposed. One critique was the lighting was "flat". I agree with that. The exposure on both sides of the face look identical and there are no soft shadows to define the face. Ideally, you would want some soft shadows on one side of the face to create definition. Also, if the light was to your right, I'm a little confused about the catchlight in the center of her eye. Did you also use your pop up flash? Recommendation: Move the light further to her left and higher with possible reflector on her right to fill in dark shadows. Good start.

JakAHearts wrote in post #12042864
I think the lighting looks flat because the popup flash also added to the exposure of the picture. See the little catch light dead center in her pupil? Thats a good indicator that the popup flash lit her. Im pretty sure you can disable that so that only the preflash sets off the off camera 430. I dont have a 7D so I cant help you with that but hopefull someone will chime in here and if not, its in your manual. Hope that helps.

Thanks. I checked the exif info on my raw and it does not show whether both flashes fired or only one. Regardless, my popup flash may have fired. I will try it out without (7D manual shows how to set master/slave flash arrangements). Cheers!

bbvdm wrote in post #12042878
I don't think the exposure is correct. It looks slightly underexposed. One critique was the lighting was "flat". I agree with that. The exposure on both sides of the face look identical and there are no soft shadows to define the face. Ideally, you would want some soft shadows on one side of the face to create definition. Also, if the light was to your right, I'm a little confused about the catchlight in the center of her eye. Did you also use your pop up flash? Recommendation: Move the light further to her left and higher with possible reflector on her right to fill in dark shadows. Good start.

Thanks for the recommendation. Will try it out and post new photo soon.

So, I attempted formal portraits again with suggestions made above. I have chosen two portraits that I think captures the suggestions (and ones I like).

What do you think of these?

#1:

Wow, massively better! The only thing that catches my eye at first is that I'd like to see more DoF separation between her and the background... that is, a more blurred out background. You could probably hit it in post production at this point.

Great improvement there!

CBJammin103@gmail.com wrote in post #12057488
Wow, massively better! The only thing that catches my eye at first is that I'd like to see more DoF separation between her and the background... that is, a more blurred out background. You could probably hit it in post production at this point.

Great improvement there!

Thanks. I blurred the background and have update the photos.

Hope I hear from others as well.

I'd like to hear from JakAHearts, ootsk, kuraz, and bbvdm on what they think of the latest photos. I took your advice, and want to see if you think I've hit the mark.

Would also like to hear from other pros out there.

I took a shot at cropping it more towards a formal portrait style. I prefer an 8x10, either landscape or portrait.
I also tilted it as a "masculine" tilt. Look up the different types of tilt...but generally masculine can be done by either sex, but feminine can usually only be done by a female. I left the black line so you can see how much I tilted and cropped it. I would have shot this larger, and included more of her blouse, but I only had to work with what you gave me.
Anyways, this is my view of how to improve this photo.
I DO think it's a major improvement over your first one, so great job on that.
Keep shooting!

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ootsk wrote in post #12099733
I took a shot at cropping it more towards a formal portrait style. I prefer an 8x10, either landscape or portrait.
I also tilted it as a "masculine" tilt. Look up the different types of tilt...but generally masculine can be done by either sex, but feminine can usually only be done by a female. I left the black line so you can see how much I tilted and cropped it. I would have shot this larger, and included more of her blouse, but I only had to work with what you gave me.
Anyways, this is my view of how to improve this photo.
I DO think it's a major improvement over your first one, so great job on that.
Keep shooting!

Ootsk, this crop and tilt is compelling. Thanks.