Portrait with guitar

I'm fairly happy with these but would love to hear any critiques or comments on how I could improve. They are a mix of natural light and bounced flash.

I like them, a lot

They do seem a little "flat" to me, but you could punch them up with PP.

You may have been able to move him a little more to camera left (on the bench), but I have a feeling your background may have prevented that.

I should state that.... I'm not qualified to give advice

Nice work, I like the balance of the lighting, and I do like both shots. But for me I like his expression in the 1st one, and his outfit better in the second one.

Heya,

Nice, I like the first one best for overall feel (expression seems more earnest and casual, which matches the acoustic and flannel more to me). Lighting wise, I think dropping ambient light more would have been nicer, and using the bounce flash as minor fill from a source a bit more to the right perhaps. The lower back ambient would have given a bit more pop to the subject. Example, drop ISO to 100 (or even 50), increase SS to 1/200s and ambient would have been over 1 stop lower, even up to 2 and 1/3rd lower if you really wanted to make it significantly different, worth exploring. Flash in manual with whatever power level needed to get a nice soft fill on the subject.

Very best,

hornrocker wrote in post #17833100
I like them, a lot

They do seem a little "flat" to me, but you could punch them up with PP.

You may have been able to move him a little more to camera left (on the bench), but I have a feeling your background may have prevented that.

I should state that.... I'm not qualified to give advice

Thank you for your comments. You are correct about the background. There were two parked cars behind him. I hid one with his body and the other was just to the left of the frame.

t_hedlund wrote in post #17833102
Nice work, I like the balance of the lighting, and I do like both shots. But for me I like his expression in the 1st one, and his outfit better in the second one.

I agree. His expression is a little forced in the second one.

MalVeauX wrote in post #17833104
Heya,

Nice, I like the first one best for overall feel (expression seems more earnest and casual, which matches the acoustic and flannel more to me). Lighting wise, I think dropping ambient light more would have been nicer, and using the bounce flash as minor fill from a source a bit more to the right perhaps. The lower back ambient would have given a bit more pop to the subject. Example, drop ISO to 100 (or even 50), increase SS to 1/200s and ambient would have been over 1 stop lower, even up to 2 and 1/3rd lower if you really wanted to make it significantly different, worth exploring. Flash in manual with whatever power level needed to get a nice soft fill on the subject.

Very best,

Thank you for your advice, MalVeaux. I've read many of your posts and I value your opinion. I struggle a little with balancing flash and ambient and was fairly happy with the balance on these. After reading your comments, I see how dropping the ambient could have helped these "pop" more. Something to remember for next time!

One more from the session, without the guitar. I welcome any comments and critiques.

I like #1 expression most of all. It feels real and natural. And because the color in the shirt works so well wit the color of the brick.

The first one looks very natural, and the third one is very nice also. I did a very quick and dirty edit to drop the background in the first one by around one stop exposure to illustrate MalVeauX's advice - here's a before/after comparison (I hope this is OK with you, if not, I'll delete it).

Thank you for your comments, stsva. Yes, editing is fine. Your edit is very subtle but I think I can see a difference.

fishbio wrote in post #17838250
Thank you for your comments, stsva. Yes, editing is fine. Your edit is very subtle but I think I can see a difference.

It shows more in the full image. Follow MalVeauX's advice and adjust the ambient exposure for contrast and you'll notice a lot more difference than in this edit.

I like the photos, but wondering if he had propped his arm up on his guitar a little further down (not at the largest part of the guitar) if it would have looked any better. Or if he was a little straighter with his back.

His hiked up shoulder looks a little uncomfortable to me.

I like the last photo the most I think. Could have even slid the guitar in there too...his hands holding onto the neck of the guitar and the base of it resting on the ground.

*note - I've been doing alot of reading to improve my own posing techniques, so my mindset is to pay alot of attention to that aspect*

(edit - those comments are being extremely nitpicky, i'd be more than happy for these results)

I hadn't noticed the shoulder until you mentioned it....perhaps it would have been better if his arm had been further down and his shoulder not so hiked.

Yes, I could've slid a guitar in his hands on the last one. I'll try that next time. Thanks.