First portraiture...comments please!

First time taking portrait AND first time using flash other than pop-up. Shot with my 85 1.8 & 420ex. My niece was ever so patient. Lot harder than I thought! C & C appreciated.

Kath

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Both are really nice images! 1st off, your niece is beautiful. 2nd, i think you did a really nice job in #1 but the image could use a bit more contrast POP and 3rdly, i think the second image could have used a little more fill flash, but still nice image.

I like these

Hello Kathryn. Nice pictures of a nice young lady.
On the first picture I would like to see her looking in to the picture not out of it, a bit to much vacant space. On the second if the face was the same colour as the first it would look better.

I like the first the best, she's smiling, a nice setting...seems to be a tad flat, might be from conversion I don't know...but I'd bump the contrast just a bit on it myself. Otherwise I like it a lot.
#2 sorry don't do much for me. The tree branch is stuff that's been done before (in fact I had a senior photo of myself like that) this one just don't seem to work that well. You're at the wrong level for the picture, you seem to be shooting slightly up at her and I'd prefer a closer crop so you leave the bottom of her body off of the picture, it just looks odd cropped like that to me. Maybe a tad of fill on her face would have worked nicely too.
Off to a nice start, keep it up.

Portraiture is definitely not simple and easy as you've discovered. But you've done a great job for a first time. They both look great. On the second photo, the branch just seems a little too high for me, like she's having to reach up over. Maybe a more relaxed pose on a lower branch would have worked better.

Having a 420EX is definitely going to help you. Your next step if you want to make your portraits better will be to get that flash off the camera. It's cheap and easy to do, and once you do you open up a world of possibilities. Check out this article on the topic. Then this article will show you how to hook up the flash off camera.

Great work!

Number 1 is definitely the better of the two IMO. #2 is just awkward, the limb is too high, the crop strange.

#1 is better lit, better composed and much better focus/DOF. My suggestion for #1 would be to turn her a bit more toward the camera so you aren't shooting into her bare shoulder. Your pose tends to make her look bigger. I generally try to get the shoulders at about 45 degrees to the camera and the head turned toward the camera.

I believe you will also find that getting that 420EX off camera will present some interesting challenges. Unless you have a meter and will shoot it in manual mode. I opted to use a Sunpak 555 with an optical trigger, using the 550EX in manual mode on the camera just to trip the Sunpak. But the Sunpak is an auto-thyristor flash and will pretty much take care of itself as far as exposure settings.

I think you have cut off too much of her and both photos...they aren't quite headshots but they aren't quite anything else...but you're on your way...

Cheers,

Thanks everyone for your comments & suggestions. I do have the off camera shoe cord.....and will start using it! Can anyone recommend a book, or a link, on portrait composition?

Thanks alot. Kath