Portrait C&C

Thoie

So, way back when, I asked for some tips for taking portraits. I finally managed to pin a friend down for long enough to take some pictures yesterday. Below are two versions of the same picture - it was very overcast yesterday, and I felt all the originals came out very dull/grey, so the grey one is the original jpeg from my camera, and I've adjusted the levels a bit in the second one. I have the RAW as well - have the "RAW+Jpeg" setting turned on (in my D40, if that makes a difference. F4 was the widest I could go with that lens).

I deliberately haven't picked what I consider to be the "best" of the shots - but this one is fairly typical of what a lot of them turned out like. I feel that this still looks like a snapshot rather than an actual portrait.

So, any advice on where I'm going wrong? There's a few more on flickr if anyone is that amazingly helpful to go through them

1.

2.

AnimalRights

I may be wrong but slightly too much Sat/Contrast in #2?

Thoie

AnimalRights wrote: »

I may be wrong but slightly too much Sat/Contrast in #2?

Sorry, didn't make that clear - I adjusted the levels taking the white level from the "shine" on his lower earring, and the black from the inside of that earring as well. It was a rush job. Will play around tomorrow with the actual WB on the RAW and see how that goes.

challengemaster

Well first of all, its a landscape oriantated shot. IE. you didn't have the camera sideways (typical portrait shot). Also using the zoom end of your lens tends to cause more bokeh than your wide end would. IE. Using a 70-200 f/2.8 L @ 200mm for portraits blurs background more than @70mm would.

2 definatly does look better.

If your shots are coming out dull-ish, try over exposing by 1/3 or 2/3 a stop, see if it helps, or adjust the cameras white balance.

Off camera flash would really help too for lighting. You could use an off-camera cord, and have the model hold the flashgun even...

Also for portraits, try focus on the eyes, and afterwards - a little messing in PS - select only the eyes, up brightness and contrast - makes them stand out more/less bland.

Calina

The angle of the shot strikes me as slightly odd...it looks as though you were pointing the camera slightly down, and as CM has noted, the landscape is maybe not the best. I've done it though...

I am not sure what you wanted to achieve in terms of expression. Obviously the lighting didn't help (so I generally cheat and do bnw conversions on those days) but part of the flatness is more the model and less the lack of colour.

If you have a RAW file and Photoshop or Lightroom, I'd consider using the black slider in RAW Converter - I think it's there in LR as well to see if it wouldn't harden the colour for you a little. At least, that's how I describe it anyway.

1 is clearly flat. 2, I sort of feel the skintones are slightly unnatural looking. Without the file though I have no way of telling you what to do in terms of post processing it beyond desaturating it and upping the contrast.

Thoie

Version 3, coming up!



I reduced the saturation, picked out the eyes and upped both the brightness and contrast, and "kinda" turned it to portrait instead of landscape (think I might have fecked that up a bit).

Thoie

Calina wrote: »

The angle of the shot strikes me as slightly odd...it looks as though you were pointing the camera slightly down

um, I was. Is that a bad thing? I have some where I went more on his level.

Calina

Not necessarily. I just find it a bit distracting in that particular shot.

Thoie

challengemaster wrote: »

Also using the zoom end of your lens tends to cause more bokeh than your wide end would. IE. Using a 70-200 f/2.8 L @ 200mm for portraits blurs background more than @70mm would.

Hmm, was at 55mm on a 55-200 lens - is there something wrong with my lens maybe? Or did I pick that up wrong and I should have been using the 200mm end?

Fionn

no 2 is an improvement, the skin tones can be difficult, as has been mentioned perhaps a B&W conversion with some grain etc. can add some dramatic effect, also research the 'Rule of Thirds' it can help greatly in the composition of portraits.

DotOrg

for me there is very little in his expression, it's like he was bored whilst you were taking the pictures, no glint in his eye, no feeling of any emotion coming through


as regards lighting, it looks like an overcast day. things like extra off camera lighting or even a reflector would have made the image 'pop' a little more

kgiller

Thoie wrote: »

Hmm, was at 55mm on a 55-200 lens - is there something wrong with my lens maybe? Or did I pick that up wrong and I should have been using the 200mm end?

Ya, i think he is saying to shoot at 200mm to achieve more DOF, although this makes sense to me, wouldnt it be even better to shoot at 100-150 where that lens is probably sharpest, while still getting the DOF.

Also, would it help if there was more in the background, ie shoot it with the horizon a third up from the bottom and a high aperture to achieve more blurred and colourful background?

I personally think that the 1st shot was a bit dull, the 2nd was an improvement but a little over saturated, and the 3rd is the best, the crop made it look much better and the colour was improved.

I havnt done much portrait work though, so this is just my opinion.

Thoie

DotOrg wrote: »

for me there is very little in his expression, it's like he was bored whilst you were taking the pictures, no glint in his eye, no feeling of any emotion coming through

The one below is, to me, one of the more "real" shots of him - unfortunately I think it might be a bit out of focus, but I've been staring at a computer all day instead of getting out, so even my hands look blurry at this stage Is it worthwhile trying to salvage anything from the pic below? And kgiller - all opinions are welcome!

Buzz Lightyear

I like this last shot. It captures more emotion from your model.

A couple of pointers -

Also for portraits, try focus on the eyes, and afterwards - a little messing in PS - select only the eyes, up brightness and contrast - makes them stand out more/less bland

Did you forget this one. It's a nice pointer and a touch of this would bring out the brown in his eyes as against just being dark.

The white mark on your models top in the bottom LHS is distracting. Try taking it out with your clone tools or just copy and paste a bit in from around the area to fill in the white.

Finally because the image is in landscape it gives a feeling of a photo as against the portrait of a model. Try cropping in on the right to reduce the landscape effect.

Keep up the good work.

DotOrg

Thoie wrote: »

Is it worthwhile trying to salvage anything from the pic below? And kgiller - all opinions are welcome!

that's a lot more interesting to a viewer who knows nothing about the model etc

the eyes look sharp in the web version which is all you need. it is cropped a little tight but have a post process play with it

here's a quick tweak in photoshop to make it pop a little

Thoie

Thanks DotOrg. I've been messing around with the raw files (overslept and missed the Scott Kelby walk ), but not coming up with anything good. Can I ask what tweaks you did above? I'm not managing to even out the skin tone on the cheeks and forehead like you did. Will keep playing, and if I manage anything decent will post it up, but I suspect I'll just have to grab another friend to photo and start again

DotOrg

all i did was tweak it in curves to change the contrast, think i tweaked the colour balance in curves too, whitened his eyes a little, but that's about it