First try at Portraits

Hey guys

My first attempt shot with the Canon 50mm f/1.8 II on a 550d.

Lighting used was 2 x 125W 6400k constant bulbs through umbrellas.

Really had no idea where to put the lights.. just had one on either side back about 1.5 to 2 metres from subjects..

Mostly shot 1/60 at iso 200 at f/3.5 then getting a little blurring so upped iso 800 and 1/125

I know lighting looks fairly bad, please let me know how to improve.

Focusing is off too seems very hard to have everybody focused at once.. maybe my F stop not high enough??

Minimal post processing used mainly changing whie balance and brightness contrast and a little exposure..

All in all i thought they came out OK.

Thanks for any help and ideas

Everything looks a little wrong in my opinion. There should be some good portrait setup tutorials on Youtube that should be of some good detailed help, along with video should make it much easier to understand rather then someone trying to explain.
just a suggestion.

Firstly, kudos to going out there and giving it a shot. I'm no portrait guy myself and am more terrified of it than shooting the most difficult still-life project I've done and hope to do, but let's see if I've got this critique thing down for critique's sake.

1) Were these paying clients? I guess it's just how I am but I hate charging people if I don't know what I'm doing.

2) How new are you to studio shooting? I ask because of #3.

3) Your lights are far too weak. You need more DOF and that requires a lot more light to be able to use something like f/8 and ISO 200. Strobes are probably your best bet. Check out Elinchrom's kits (that's another can of worms). I highly recommend experimenting and reading as much as you can. Have time for a chit-chat or a show? Put that off and focus on the lighting. There's a lot to wrap your head around. It always amazes much just how little I know despite all of my months of trying so hard to better myself without having much of a life.

4) Subjects need to stand a good 10 feet, from what I understand, from the background to avoid shadows and to get it out of focus. This can be fixed in photoshop though.

5) The rest isn't important for me. Lighting is by far the most important thing you can learn first, not to mention that it's the hardest to master, so it's best to practice it earlier.

I hope that was useful! It's impossible to tell you what you need to know without knowing your foundational knowledge of lighting and all things photography related. Be specific as you can be.

SuperHuman21 wrote in post #13525978
Firstly, kudos to going out there and giving it a shot. I'm no portrait guy myself and am more terrified of it than shooting the most difficult still-life project I've done and hope to do, but let's see if I've got this critique thing down for critique's sake.

1) Were these paying clients? I guess it's just how I am but I hate charging people if I don't know what I'm doing.

2) How new are you to studio shooting? I ask because of #3.

3) Your lights are far too weak. You need more DOF and that requires a lot more light to be able to use something like f/8 and ISO 200. Strobes are probably your best bet. Check out Elinchrom's kits (that's another can of worms). I highly recommend experimenting and reading as much as you can. Have time for a chit-chat or a show? Put that off and focus on the lighting. There's a lot to wrap your head around. It always amazes much just how little I know despite all of my months of trying so hard to better myself without having much of a life.

4) Subjects need to stand a good 10 feet, from what I understand, from the background to avoid shadows and to get it out of focus. This can be fixed in photoshop though.

5) The rest isn't important for me. Lighting is by far the most important thing you can learn first, not to mention that it's the hardest to master, so it's best to practice it earlier.

I hope that was useful! It's impossible to tell you what you need to know without knowing your foundational knowledge of lighting and all things photography related. Be specific as you can be.

Thanks for the replies

1. No way! Good friends of mine.. theres no way in the world i wouldve charged anyone for these.

2. Not sure what you mean, but these were done in my garage, with white backdrop..

3. Yeah ive been looking into getting a pocketwizard setup and some elinchrom strobes, they were a little out of the budget that i gave myself, i actually invested in the cheapo light and backdrop set off ebay $250 odd dollars or so, in hindsight i shouldve gone the other way with the strobes - and i will but not quite yet..
I acutally have downloaded many, many photography vids and tutorials and watched lots, even watched the Strobist dvd's but they just totally babble on and on and on..
But yeah watched plenty - but when it actually comes time to doing it and getting it right, its another story..

Can i acutally take some good shots with the gear i have??

4. Ok ok cool - thats one thing none of tuts ive watched have mentioned, so thanks

5. I am mostly a into automotive photography, in specific light painting at night - which is as well about understanding light, but in a totally different way ie reflections etc..

Thanks, yes you have helped - appreciate it.

I really like the emotions you've managed to capture in these - it looks like a fun shoot!

From a technical perspective it's mainly the lighting that's letting you down. There's only so far you can go with always-on lighting, which is why the vast majority of photographers go for strobes. Strobes output a LOT of light in a very short amount of time so they're better suited for portraits. A few years ago I tried to use decorators' lamps which were pretty powerful but they got really hot and didn't produce satisfactory results, so I had to take the plunge and buy some strobes.

In my experience, people are generally harder to work with than gear because gear does exactly what you tell it to, and you can always upgrade if it's not doing what you need it to. You're getting some great results working with people so that's something positive to take away from this.

Why don't you try a different location where there's more ambient light next time? It's surprising what you can do with natural light and a reflector or two.

You should probably iron your backdrop. All the wrinkles draw too much attention. Other than that, I agree with the above posts

Orkus wrote in post #13526105
Thanks for the replies

[Snip]

Can i acutally take some good shots with the gear i have??

[Snip]

Yes!

Let's look at my favorites, #2 and #4.

#2: I really like the pose. But, now you have 5 kids doing [looking] where they want to look. Someone is looking at Dad who is standing off to your left. Second one is is bored. Get the separation so we can't see the wrinkles on the backdrop (10 feet is nice if you have the space--cheat lower if you have to). this is one of those situations where it might be easier to quickly take a bunch of pictures and pick the best faces in post processing. Some fine-tuning hand positions would get the heads to line up...from short to tall...if that's your preference.

#4: You captured Mom and Dad having a great time....can't tell if they were in on a joke. But I think you really caught Dad as himself. That's the way I'd like my family captured. When everyone is happy, having a great time, laughing, and relaxed. You caught the boys wonderfully, sis is hiding back a bit.

I'm guessing that the lighting stuff became babble on and on to you because you got too much at one time. Start with one or two concepts and try those out. One concept: Set the lights so that one is closer to the subjects than the other (counters "flat" lighting) and move the other so the angles are not the same. Second concept (and you've done this well): keep the group's people all as close to the same plane (distance to camera) as possible. Make your groups get close to each other...almost as if they really like each other. This helps with lighting and focus.

Now, with those two concepts, start shooting portraits...shoot the neighbors, shoot their dogs, shoot anyone and anything that will sit for you...now start analyzing your pictures (and post them here). Watch another video; read another chapter of a book and repeat. You'll be adding more skill to your portraits every time you shoot.

Super start!

You don't have to iron the backdrop - you could blast it and blow it completely white - just be sure to get your subjects a good 10 feet or so away. You could also underexpose the white backdrop and make it grey...wrinkles may not be as bad there, hard to say.

They all look underexposed. For doing this you probably need to get some strobes. You should be able to shoot at ISO 100-200, f/8 or so and still use 1/125th at least. ISO 800 is usually too high for this type unless you have a newer camera that has no noise problems. Yes f/3.5 is too thin for groups.

Some of the posing is not so good - #5 with his huge hand on her shoulder, some good expressions but looking away from the camera.

Also - if shooting a white backdrop, the people should not wear white clothing unless you plan to underexpose the backdrop to grey - which with your lighting is probably impossible.

really random question, but are you in Canada?

I've attached a photo of my daughter I did with a homemade studio in my basement. I'm using vinyl for background. It is the easiest to keep neat and clean. I have all fluorescent continuous lighting (most made from shop-lights from a hardware store). I have lighting on top and on the left and right. This is a 20x10 backdrop and I have about 800 watts total in bulbs running. My only critique is that I have no shadow on one side, which may not be a bad thing necessarily. She sitting a ways from the backdrop (which has plenty of light on it as well) so with a 50mm or similar, it blows out. I didn't start with expensive equipment, I just made sure that the area and lighting I'm working in is plentiful.

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I am no expert. Hell, I don't know the first thing about photographing people, but I think these are great. Yes, there's the wrinkled backdrop and they are underexposed and there's some details here and there. But I love the energy in these shots. The people look very natural, there are some great poses, I see spontaneity, fun even and my guess is that the photographer had something to do with that. If so, then he is a good director and that's a strength. The other things are technique, things you can learn. A great first try if you ask me.

I forgot to mention too, that I viewed one of Canon's demo shoots during some convention they held online. It was mentioned by a pro that if you can eliminate the hands of your subjects from showing up in a photo, it is a major plus. Hands are huge distractions in portraits. There is so much to remember, isn't there???

Pull you subjects away from the BG a bit to knock down the shadows and allow some OOF on the BG. Then bring your lights in as close as you can get them to the subject without seeing them in the image. Raise the lights to give you a catchlight in the 10 or 2 area of the eye. You can move one back further to adjust for some shadow on one side, which would help a bit to model the faces.

With two lights you won't get the BG to go white but you can work it in post processing a bit. Shooting a wider aperture will help blur the BG though.

Your color looks good and you caught some great expressions - and that can be one of the most difficult things to accomplish.

boutiquegracie wrote in post #13527432
I've attached a photo of my daughter I did with a homemade studio in my basement. I'm using vinyl for background. It is the easiest to keep neat and clean. I have all fluorescent continuous lighting (most made from shop-lights from a hardware store). I have lighting on top and on the left and right. This is a 20x10 backdrop and I have about 800 watts total in bulbs running. My only critique is that I have no shadow on one side, which may not be a bad thing necessarily. She sitting a ways from the backdrop (which has plenty of light on it as well) so with a 50mm or similar, it blows out. I didn't start with expensive equipment, I just made sure that the area and lighting I'm working in is plentiful.

And it looks like you have white balance issues.

Numenorean wrote in post #13528624
And it looks like you have white balance issues.

Yes, a grey card would be nice