Natural Light, Male, Portraits. CC?

So, I started photography about 14 months ago when I bought a 40d off of this very forum -- and let me say, its been a marvelously fun last 14 months! Anyhow, I joined my school's newspaper and have been more "trained" to be a photojournalist, if you will, than a photographer. What I mean is: I "take" pictures as opposed to "make" them (but I'd like to change that).

I'd love to start doing more portraiture but to get better, I need some constructive criticism! Below are 3 photos I took for one of my first "legitimate" portrait sessions with natural light, a 40D, and a sigma 30 1.4!

Do your worst!

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …kevinebarnett/6​864092416/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …kevinebarnett/7​010208579/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …kevinebarnett/7​010208871/

Welcome to POTN!

You found some good light for these shots. The lighting might be a little flat, but you avoided harsh sun and dapples light from shade. You know the good time to shoot.

#1: I'm not sure where the focus is. It might be just behind his head. This made the eyes a bit soft. Try to get the focus directly on an eye.

#2: Richard is in good lighting, but the background is blown out. The eye is drawn to the bright areas.

#3: Eyes in good focus.

In these cases, I'd suggest a couple of things.
1. Get the ISO down to 100-400.
2. Slow the shutter speed to 1/200 to 1/500 or so. No need to be shooting portraits at 1/3200.
3. Stop down the aperture to f/2.8 to f/4 (updated per Numenorean's advice). F/1.4 gives very shallow DOF at close ranges. This will help you get more depth of field and help get the face and eyes in focus.
4. Pop up that little flash on your 40D and cover it with a piece of white paper. Dial it down to -1 or -2 and use it as a fill flash. Richard's eyes are fairly deep set and a little more light around the eyes would give him a friendlier look.

Thanks for sharing..and, once again, Welcome to POTN!

cpam.pix wrote in post #14547517
Welcome to POTN!

You found some good light for these shots. The lighting might be a little flat, but you avoided harsh sun and dapples light from shade. You know the good time to shoot.

#1: I'm not sure where the focus is. It might be just behind his head. This made the eyes a bit soft. Try to get the focus directly on an eye.

#2: Richard is in good lighting, but the background is blown out. The eye is drawn to the bright areas.

#3: Eyes in good focus.

In these cases, I'd suggest a couple of things.
1. Get the ISO down to 100-400.
2. Slow the shutter speed to 1/200 to 1/500 or so. No need to be shooting portraits at 1/3200.
3. Stop down the aperture to f/8 (give or take). This will help you get more depth of field and help get the face and eyes in focus.
4. Pop up that little flash on your 40D and cover it with a piece of white paper. Dial it down to -1 or -2 and use it as a fill flash. Richard's eyes are fairly deep set and a little more light around the eyes would give him a friendlier look.

Thanks for sharing..and, once again, Welcome to POTN!

Thanks for being kind! I'll be sure to apply some of this the next time I go out!

Out of curiosity: do you think that, compositionally, the framing of his face with foreground foliage worked in 2?

For pointer number 4 though, I am not exactly sure what you mean by dialing it down -- am I playing with an exposure compensation bar (?), or do you simply mean meter -1 or -2 stops off of the camera? I can't say I am familiar with the flash and how/what to do with it....

One of the first adages I was "taught" while learning is "Never use on-board flash." Naturally, this was simply for the sake of learning to properly balance ISO, SS and Aperture, but I cannot say I've had the experience of using it to know what you mean!

Ciao!

I like #2 And #3! I'm FAR from professional though, so take my advice for what it is lol, but #1 just seems off from the angle you're shooting or the fact he isn't looking to you.

1 - Woah...if you want the focus on his hairy legs, you've nailed it. Distortion is bad here, lens is too wide and too close to your subject. Focus seems a bit off on the eyes, hard to tell because you also need more light in the eyes - they are too dark. Focus actually seems to be on part of the plant to the right in front of him. Background is distracting and blown out. Wouldn't be quite so bad if you could keep the area behind his head dark.

2 - Focus seems better but still needs more light in the eyes. I don't like the blurred tree in front. I like that you have some lines leading you in, but that piece is distracting. The crop is odd where it is - you have just a bit of skin past the shorts showing and it's strange to me. Background is blown out here, but it actually may work if you could get enough fill light on your model. Though this particular shot seems to me like it would be a better location for a female rather than a male with the pink flowers and such - even though I know he has a pink shirt on.

3 - Again, more light on the eyes needed. I like the darker background, but I would move him away from it more and try to blur it a bit more and hide some of the twig details. Also some rim light to separate his hair from the background would be ideal in this location since his hair blends in to the background a bit.

cpam.pix wrote in post #14547517
3. Stop down the aperture to f/8 (give or take). This will help you get more depth of field and help get the face and eyes in focus.

Sorry but I must take exception with this. This is not good advice. You shouldn't be using f/8 for portraits, especially for a single person, except in very specific circumstances. Ideally you would stick around f/2.8-f/4 at the widest - usually. f/8 could be useful for group portraits a few rows deep.

Numenorean wrote in post #14547715
1 - Woah...if you want the focus on his hairy legs, you've nailed it. Distortion is bad here, lens is too wide and too close to your subject. Focus seems a bit off on the eyes, hard to tell because you also need more light in the eyes - they are too dark. Focus actually seems to be on part of the plant to the right in front of him. Background is distracting and blown out. Wouldn't be quite so bad if you could keep the area behind his head dark.

2 - Focus seems better but still needs more light in the eyes. I don't like the blurred tree in front. I like that you have some lines leading you in, but that piece is distracting. The crop is odd where it is - you have just a bit of skin past the shorts showing and it's strange to me. Background is blown out here, but it actually may work if you could get enough fill light on your model. Though this particular shot seems to me like it would be a better location for a female rather than a male with the pink flowers and such - even though I know he has a pink shirt on.

3 - Again, more light on the eyes needed. I like the darker background, but I would move him away from it more and try to blur it a bit more and hide some of the twig details. Also some rim light to separate his hair from the background would be ideal in this location since his hair blends in to the background a bit.

Hahah, I promise I was definitely going for the hair on his legs as my focal point!

As for your commentary on a location better suited for a girl... I'm not sure if this makes it better, but the model in question is not straight, but is instead, gay!

And yea, I don't really have any idea how to use lights/don't own any but I'll definitely consider it far more for the future!

Thanks again,

Ciao!

Get a reflector as a starting point. That will help and they are relatively inexpensive.

Numenorean wrote in post #14547740
Sorry but I must take exception with this. This is not good advice. You shouldn't be using f/8 for portraits, especially for a single person, except in very specific circumstances. Ideally you would stick around f/2.8-f/4 at the widest - usually. f/8 could be useful for group portraits a few rows deep.

Thanks for correcting me....I'll fix the post with your recommendations.

Numenorean wrote in post #14547740
Sorry but I must take exception with this. This is not good advice. You shouldn't be using f/8 for portraits, especially for a single person, except in very specific circumstances. Ideally you would stick around f/2.8-f/4 at the widest - usually. f/8 could be useful for group portraits a few rows deep.

Thought it was a bit much in terms of stopping down, figured you'd want to really isolate the single person from the background to give it that portraity-dreamy-bokeh-ish effect.

Thanks for everyone's continued advice!

Ciao!

Numenorean wrote in post #14548154
Get a reflector as a starting point. That will help and they are relatively inexpensive.

This will help tons, the first thing I noticed! he has a very dark shadow around his eye, you can lighten it in post a bit, but bringing and know how to use a reflector will help.

I like number 2, its ok the background is lighter, but its appears blown out, try a little bit of recover to bring it back, (overcast days are great for soft shadows, but make sure they don't blow out)

Michael_nine22 wrote in post #14549867
This will help tons, the first thing I noticed! he has a very dark shadow around his eye, you can lighten it in post a bit, but bringing and know how to use a reflector will help.

I like number 2, its ok the background is lighter, but its appears blown out, try a little bit of recover to bring it back, (overcast days are great for soft shadows, but make sure they don't blow out)

Thanks boss, seems like the first thing I'll do today when I get home is buy a reflector and read up on its appropriate usage!

And yea, I'll have to see how it looks in post again when I fiddle with some sliders (such as the recovery one) as you've suggested.

Thanks,

Ciao!