Be Honest but not brutal :P

[BCLC]

So I am very apprehensive about posting any work here, but I figured If I’m going to comment on any more threads maybe I should get some feedback for myself. I have only just started really working on improving my photography and hopefully I’m not the only one who likes it. I am slowly building my equipment but money is a real issue at the moment but I am trying to make it work. Please be nice lol

http://www.pixoto.com/images-photography/babies-and-children/child-portraits/4567091323600896

[cameraclicker]

Shadow starts over the right eye and goes right through to the edge.  A light from behind would help.

[JustAndy]

C.C. is correct, a light from behind would add separation from the background and depth.  A bit more fill light in the front, or a bounce card to balance out the deep shadows.  If you like the shadows, so be it, but you need to kick some light into the kids eyes… also make sure they don’t slam their eyes all the way to the corners, keep a bit of white on both side of the pupils that way it doesn’t look like a huge gaping hole.  These are suggestions for any photographer, kid or portrait, so it doesn’t just apply to you, it’s a very often made error.

Also, help me out if I’m wrong here, but there is something going on with your focus/sharpness.  This is way too wonky to me… did you try to blur the face?  It looks like the eyes are sharp as is the shirt, but the plane in between seems soft and muddy?  Was your original file correctly exposed?  I’m sorry, it just feels weird to me?  Before anyone says it’s your ISO, I don’t think so, there is something else going on here..???  The light is a shade hot on the left cheek…

I’m not sure if this helps, and overall I’m not slamming your work, these are just some questions and observations…

 

[Worst Case Scenario]

You’re eyes are always going to be drawn to the brightest part of the image first , so making what’s important (his face)  the brightest part is usually a good idea. In this case it’s the white band around his hat. Plus your BW conversion has made his face a little muddy and his eyes need more light. If you shot in raw this could probably all be corrected with a different edit.

[JustAndy]

Thanks W.C.S!!!  It was the B&W conversion!!!  That was killing me and I couldn’t put my finger on it!

[BCLC]

 

Funnily enough my biggest problem in all my images seems to be getting it sharp, I know how that sounds it looks great on my camera screen but as soon as I bring it up larger it’s a bit fuzzier and there is only so much sharpening PS can do.Yes My image was correctly exposed to begin with,(but i still would have needed the light across the face). I did shoot in RAW and I started darkening the background and was liking the way it was looking maybe I went a little overboard lol. but that’s why I am still an L plater.

[nesgran]

The back of the camera is rarely a good thing to look at for evaluating pixel level sharpness. If all your shots come out a bit blurry, what lens are you using? Is it the kit lens? Looking at your exif the problems start with your shutterspeed, it says 1/19 on there which is far, far to slow. Aperture is also f4 which suggests if it is the kit lens that you are using it wide open which isn’t that good in a studio. You need more light simply. You need to get the shutter speed up to 1/125 ideally and aperture down to f8 and you’ll see much sharper photos. I would personally also use a longer focal length than 24mm when photographing people as wide angles aren’t great for people though they sometimes work for kids and babies but if you want to err on the side of caution go to 50mm instead.

[BCLC]

Sadly yes it is a kit lens. I am looking into getting another lens but not sure what to delve into. I also have a 70-200mm lens. Thank you to everyone who has offered up advice to me, It is greatly appreciated I am going to study so much more and keep shooting until I get it right!!

[cameraclicker]

70-200 is a better lens for portraits because you can get into focal lengths that will compress distance and shorten the nose.  At really short focal lengths things near the camera look huge and things only a few inches further away are noticeably smaller.  This can give a lot of depth to a landscape but most people don’t want their nose to appear any larger than it actually is.

Let’s take a moment to think about lights.  If lack of ambient light combined with a low ISO value and smallish aperture prevent the scene from registering on the sensor, then a flash happens, the light from the flash will be what causes the image.  Most studio strobes have a duration of 1/500th to 1/2000th.  Most speedlights have a faster flash, usually between 1/1000th and 1/10,000th though I have seen quotes of 1/20,000th which might be for newer flashes turned right down to minimum power.  Anyway, the point is that image clarity comes from that very brief, very bright flash, not from shutter speed.  Usually sync speed will be 1/60th or 1/125th on old film cameras and 1/160th to 1/250th on newer models and digital cameras.  That is the highest speed that the first and second curtains are completely open.  Speedlights can do something called High Speed Sync, they flash at part power several times instead of giving one big flash.  You don’t get as much light, but you get even coverage at shutter speeds faster than sync.  Studio lights just give one flash so you have to stay at or below sync speed.  I find one or two clicks below sync speed works best with my lights so I am usually at 1/125th or 1/160th.

If you have continuous lights, then none of that last paragraph matters.  With continuous lights, essentially you have ambient light you can move around and control, but it is … continuous.  So a brief flash is not going to freeze any movement, inadvertent or otherwise.  You need shutter speed for that and since you are shooting in continuous light, the rule of thumb about one over focal length as shutter speed is a good idea.  Image stabilization is a great help for stopping camera movement when shooting inanimate objects.  It is no help at all when your subject is moving, even a little.  The benefit of continuous lights is ability to view shadows (the reason studio strobes have modelling lights), the drawback is that by the time you get lights bright enough for necessary shutter speed you have had to crank ISO or the light is painful for subjects with light sensitive eyes.

[JustAndy]

Two things to remember when it comes to sharpness.

1) A tripod is a great tool.  I know it has fallen out out of favor, but it really does help.  It will also force you to slow down and think more about framing and composing the image.

2) You’re shooting a cropped sensor.  While the 70-200mm is a really solid lens, you will not be able to have a true 70mm at the wide end.  You will have more like a 105mm.

Kit lenses aren’t great, and maybe you have a particularly bad one, but they should produce relatively sharp images.  CHECK one thing though; test to see if your auto focus is correct.  You may be either front or back focusing, which is annoying.  You can google image a focus chart, print it out and do a loose test (it’s not the best, but will give you an idea).

I missed your shutter speed when I looked at your image; get that critter up there!  1/19th is too slow for either you or your subject, get it to at the very least (I don’t want to argue with anyone, this is just my suggestion…) 1/60 and more preferably…

I hope this helps a little…

[BCLC]

Thanks Guys,

That explains a lot I am so grateful for everyone taking time to help me out. I will test my kit lens and see, but the problem probably comes down to me being a NOOB lol

Oh and here is a photo a took of my friends 6 day old baby this was with all natural light opinions??

http://www.pixoto.com/images-photography/babies-and-children/babies/sweet-baby-6753565758455808

 

[ebi]

what exactly are you trying to do here? How do you want to light this kid? Why is the background so black? I don’t get it.

[BCLC]

I’ve already seen how you treat people so I’m not even going to respond.

But I can’t wait to see what you have to show of your work!!

[ebi]

Lighting is subjective so I can not help you if I don’t know what you want. Don’t assume that I’ve come here to berate you. If I wanted to do that, I would have done it already. And if I wanted to tell you how I’d light this kid, then I would have offered up my opinions of back lights and key lights and fill lights, what have you. But instead, i decided it would be better to ask you what you want, because from what I can see you haven’t any clue what you are doing and you probably don’t even know what you want. So think about that instead of getting all worried about butt hurt.

[BCLC]

Fair enough, and apologies for assuming, but I’m just wondering if you have read the complete thread at all. I stated the image was properly exposed and in post processing I may have gone a little overboard because I liked the way it looked. This was an image from me just playing around no specific aim, not because I didn’t know what I wanted just because I wanted to practice.

 

[Author]

Posts