Natural Light Portraits Of My Friend

Hi all,

Here are two natural light portraits of my friend. Critique away.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2kRx​ETX

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2kMJ​6GN

Hi HomeSkillet. Before I begin my critique of your photos, I'd like to say that I am not an expert in portrait photography, but I've learned some important aspects of the genre by combing the internet and forums. The 3 most important facets of portrait photography are (given that your composition and exposure are correct):
1) isolation of your subject from the background;
2) the direction of light, shooting from the broad or short side;
3) the quality of light, hard or soft shadows.

In your 1st photo, you got decent subject isolation, but by opening up your aperture, you could achieve better separation. The photo looks a little hot on his right side, but his position is good, facing the light, for a man's portrait.

In your 2nd photo, you have great subject isolation and good exposure, but that tilting pier in the background is very distracting.

In the end, portrait photography is more complex than just snapping an in focus pic of someone's face. My advice to you would be to scour the internet to find a portrait photographer whose style you admire, and learn from him/her.

skidzam wrote in post #19221123
Hi HomeSkillet. Before I begin my critique of your photos, I'd like to say that I am not an expert in portrait photography, but I've learned some important aspects of the genre by combing the internet and forums. The 3 most important facets of portrait photography are (given that your composition and exposure are correct):
1) isolation of your subject from the background;
2) the direction of light, shooting from the broad or short side;
3) the quality of light, hard or soft shadows.

In your 1st photo, you got decent subject isolation, but by opening up your aperture, you could achieve better separation. The photo looks a little hot on his right side, but his position is good, facing the light, for a man's portrait.

In your 2nd photo, you have great subject isolation and good exposure, but that tilting pier in the background is very distracting.

In the end, portrait photography is more complex than just snapping an in focus pic of someone's face. My advice to you would be to scour the internet to find a portrait photographer whose style you admire, and learn from him/her.

Thank you for the advice

As mentioned.... your horizons are askew and it is amazing how distracting that can be. They human eye wants to find a vertical or horizontal like to orient itself two. Both of these are slightly off.