Portraits

These three pictures are straight out of camera. I am trying to learn to take good portraits with flash. Lighting was all speedlites. 24" Soft box camera right, raw speedlite camera left behind subject. Gridded speedlite on floor behind subject. I am really interested in any suggestions to improve as I really want to keep at this and develop my eye.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …thwoods_photo/8​484276188/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …thwoods_photo/8​484276036/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …thwoods_photo/8​483182749/

These are decent for SOOC. Can you show us the finished result after post processing (cropping, sharpening, highlights/shadows improvements, white balance improvements, etc.)?

Thanks for taking the time to respond. Still working on processing. WB was actually very close. Used an 18% gray card to check WB and LR only changed the temperature by 200 - 250 Kelvin when sampling the gray card.

I am going to go back and desaturate the bg some to push it more toward gray.

Will post as soon as they are ready.

I may be wrong, but the first two look like the shirt is more in focus than the face.

I will check but I do not think so. I was using a single focus point right on the eye.

Northwoods Bill wrote in post #15624004
Thanks for taking the time to respond. Still working on processing. WB was actually very close. Used an 18% gray card to check WB and LR only changed the temperature by 200 - 250 Kelvin when sampling the gray card.

I am going to go back and desaturate the bg some to push it more toward gray.

Will post as soon as they are ready.

Just remember that grey cards are best used for exposure since some of them aren't very "neutral". Something like a Colorchecker Passport works pretty well for white balance.

So now I am a bit confused. I am looking up color checker passport now. Can you explain the best way to use the color checker? Also how would I use the gray card to tweak exposure? Thanks!

The Colorchecker Passport has some small patches and a larger "card" that are neutral and work very well for white balance. X-rite has a fair bit of information on their site:

http://xritephoto.com …uct_overview.as​px?ID=1257
http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …olorChecker_Pas​sport.html

You can also use the device to create your own camera profiles. I don't find custom profiles that useful for what I typically shoot, but for studio work I'd certainly consider it.

A lot of the 18% grey cards are not exactly neutral and are better suited for helping with metering when shooting in manual.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com …etermining-exposure.shtml

SJC from VT wrote in post #15624933
I may be wrong, but the first two look like the shirt is more in focus than the face.

I agree, the shirt is the primary focus it would appear.

Northwoods Bill wrote in post #15625580
I will check but I do not think so. I was using a single focus point right on the eye.

Did you use the focus and recompose technique? If you did it would be better to use a focus point that doesn't force you to do so. I would also suggest the back button focus also.

Thanks Bob, I will check out those links.

Thorrulz, No, I never focus then recompose. Never did get in that habit. On a 5diii there should be almost no excuse for focus and recompose. I make it a point to change focus points to the one I need based on framing. I am certain of where my focal point was placed so what else could have caused me to miss focus?

I took a little time this morning and looked at all three images, unedited in LR, 200% magnification. I stared at them until I went bug-eyed and I can't see any difference in focus on the eyes from one to the next.

In either case I also completed edits on two of them (up at 3:30 AM this morning, man will I hate myself tonight!)

Thoughts please....

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …thwoods_photo/8​488962312/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …thwoods_photo/8​487869013/

Uploaded two processed images, please see above.

Thought on PP?

Processing looks pretty good to me. Second one is cropped a little too tight on the left but that may be how the original shot was framed.

The edited ones (especially the second one) look really good to me Bill.

Sorry I missed your post earlier. I think the processing looks pretty good although on my monitor, it looks like you could increase exposure about a half stop. I think you can make things easier for yourself during the shot by adjusting the lights a little.

The light on his right seems brighter than the main light and is creating a pretty heavy shadow on his right eye, cheek and neck. You might try a reflector to open up those shadows some or try to soften up that light source.

navydoc wrote in post #15634046
Sorry I missed your post earlier. I think the processing looks pretty good although on my monitor, it looks like you could increase exposure about a half stop. I think you can make things easier for yourself during the shot by adjusting the lights a little.

The light on his right seems brighter than the main light and is creating a pretty heavy shadow on his right eye, cheek and neck. You might try a reflector to open up those shadows some or try to soften up that light source.

Thanks for taking a look. The light on his right was a speed lite with no diffuser. Realized as I started to edit that I should have diffused it, live and learn! These shoots tend to be a bit rushed because I am very mindful that my son would rather be almost anywhere else . Actually I am really lucky that he is willing to be my test subject.

BTW I responded to your PM response, not sure it went through properly. Let me know if you do not get it.