Critique. Male portrait

I have a new photostudio in my basement. Playing around with light setup this am. Good picture? Bad Picture? Composition? I know slightly soft focus as I had to set my tripod up and focus in the air without subject being there. Ignoring subject (me) does this pic work.

Be honest, I need to learn! Thanks!!!

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Soft focus (which you mentioned). Try placing something there in your place, focus on it, use a greater f/stop since your are doing a self portrait, run in that exact spot making sure you are in the same focal plane as the item was and let the photo snap. Try using something with words on it to stand in your place and take a picture of that before you take a picture of yourself. That way you can see if you were too far back or too close. Takes time to do this and I haven't had to the time to play with self portraits too much but it worked out when i tried it.

Other than that, don't cut your elbow off. If you would have gotten the elbow and the complete forehead in the frame I think it would be a little better.

Hope that helps. Good luck with the new setup

As mentioned the focus and the crop/tightness of the shot are off. Also, with the pose and lighting you have, there is much more attention on the underarm than on the face. Underarms in general are not great subjects, so maybe try a different pose for the arm. Light is also low, causing some odd shadows above the brow.

Summary:
- No armpits
- higher light
- looser crop/framing

kuraz wrote in post #11801825
Soft focus (which you mentioned). Try placing something there in your place, focus on it, use a greater f/stop since your are doing a self portrait, run in that exact spot making sure you are in the same focal plane as the item was and let the photo snap. Try using something with words on it to stand in your place and take a picture of that before you take a picture of yourself. That way you can see if you were too far back or too close. Takes time to do this and I haven't had to the time to play with self portraits too much but it worked out when i tried it.

Other than that, don't cut your elbow off. If you would have gotten the elbow and the complete forehead in the frame I think it would be a little better.

Hope that helps. Good luck with the new setup

Thanks, Was actually shooting at f11, hoping that would work. ON back of camera it looked good. Of course after 20 or so pics screwing aroudn, then throwing them up on a 27" imac. BIG DIFFERENCE! The way i was trying to crop on lightroom, turning the pic, it had to cut elbow off. I guess i could use photoshop and clone backround to make it square again. No biggie, just learning right now. It was 5am when i took those. haha

moeronn wrote in post #11801923
As mentioned the focus and the crop/tightness of the shot are off. Also, with the pose and lighting you have, there is much more attention on the underarm than on the face. Underarms in general are not great subjects, so maybe try a different pose for the arm. Light is also low, causing some odd shadows above the brow.

Summary:
- No armpits
- higher light
- looser crop/framing

Thanks, The actual pic was bigger. The issue i am having. I have two softboxes that i got with the set. One is a large, 5 foot or so octobox and the other is a 2x4 foot softbox. This pic was using the oxtobox. I could not get it up any higher and celiing limitations in this part of basement. I am trying to figure which softbox i like more. Which one gives different effects. I was also shooting with my 70-200 f2.8 is from accross the room. Figured that would be better then my tamron 17-50 2.8.

Funny thing is with the pose. I was actually shooting this as a girl shot with long hair. Just to see what certain poses look like. My wife is out of town for the week, so did not have a stand in.

bphillips330 wrote in post #11802009
Thanks, Was actually shooting at f11, hoping that would work. ON back of camera it looked good. Of course after 20 or so pics screwing aroudn, then throwing them up on a 27" imac. BIG DIFFERENCE! The way i was trying to crop on lightroom, turning the pic, it had to cut elbow off. I guess i could use photoshop and clone backround to make it square again. No biggie, just learning right now. It was 5am when i took those. haha

Post the original crop if you cropped it in post so we can all take a look .

About looking on the back of the lcd screen for sharpness. I had trouble of soft images at first (every now and then still). Take a picture of something in your house (watch the shutter speed) without recomposing and then zoom in a few times on the lcd screen (press the button at least 3 or 4 times) and you will see how sharp the image is really suppose to be on the lcd. Zoomed all the way out on a 2.5 or 3" screen is going to look sharp unless its a really close up head shot. Now take a photo of your self portrait and zoom in. Compare the sharpness.

Its not just that the lcd screen is small but its the amount of the image that is viewable on the small screen. If you zoom all the way in so that the small 3" section is about the same size as a 3" section on your 27" imac you will get a pretty good idea of how it will look on the imac as far as sharpness goes.

Hope this helps.

Here is un crop