Practicing my portraits this weekend

[DVC Jen]

Advice, comments, suggestions?

-these were taken last night. Our youngest - Emily and my husband Ian. Tonight I am going to shoot our oldest Kylie andget some of both girls and Ian together. Tomorrow we are heading out to the arboretum again and taking Ems best friend with us.

These are my favs from last night.

Ballet shots...

Typical "teen" shots

I also have the color version of this - but I really like it in black and white

she was begging to be finished when I got this one - it is different but I kinda like it.

OK - now the hubby..

Pleae be honest - I can take it.

just wanted to take a second to add - I TRIED to get Emily to smile. I really did. But - she is 14 and has braces - it was a no go. I caught ONE photo of her smiling - when she was being totally goofy. I like it, but it isn't the best portrait.

As for Ian - well he is a lot like me. Neither one of us can do a real smile on demand. His especially come out looking very strange and forced. As for the "stern" look - that for the most part is Ian. He has his goofy moments - but nothing he would allow me to show anyone else.

OK - NOW you can be honest and let me have it.

 

[Miss Kelly]

I think your doing very well Jen.

It seems that you may have a white balance issue though. Do you set a custom white balance before each background change? It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

My favorites are 1 and 3.

Do you visit any other photography message boards? I've really come a long way since joining a few sites that specialize in Portraits and the like. If your interested, let me know and I'll give you the links.

 

[Tracks N Slabs]

I've really come a long way since joining a few sites that specialize in Portraits and the like. If your interested, let me know and I'll give you the links.

I'd be interested in the links. I mainly shoot sports & nature, so some insight on portraits would be great.

 

[ukcatfan]

I feel like his poses are too squared off. He needs to have his body and/or head posed more.

Kevin

 

[polkadotladybug]

I'm on my old computer (I now have a laptop and haven't been on this old one since Christmas LOL) but was going through my old links and came across this - thought it might be helpful (you may have a posing guide as well) -some of the poses look kinda cheesy to me but it give you a few new ideas (not that you were asking about that LOL). I just thought of your post when I was looking at bookmarks.

http://www.myeworld.net/digimp/posingguide/

 

[DVC Jen]

Thanks - I will check out the links. The issue wasn't with the white balance. It was with settings on my camera. I always shoot with my picture scene being landscape - and I adjusted the settings on it when we went to WDW. It worked great there, but is not cutting it with portraits where you want things a bit more muted.

I changed things around this evening and did some more. I think I fixed that problem.

I don't personally agree with the "cheesy" poses when it comes to Emily - I can see it with Ian. I know I have to work some more on posing when it comes to males.

I have been reading a few other forums as well - and got some great ideas - just getting them from my head into someone elses and then capturing them with the camera is the issue.

Thanks again for the thoughts - keep em coming.

 

[Miss Kelly]

I'd be interested in the links. I mainly shoot sports & nature, so some insight on portraits would be great.

Sure. There a few awesome sports and nature photographers over at the Mpix.com Message Boards. I also enjoy the forums at Silverlakephoto.com and for children portrait photographers, ilovephotography.com is a great resource. Those are my top 3 photography message boards. There are many, many more though.


Jen, were you shooting in RAW? If so, those landscape settings wouldn't have mattered, would they? I just use my expodisc and be done with it.

I'm no expert on lighting (far from it) but on the next to last photograph, it seems that the light wasn't high enough. I try to have my alien bees about a foot or so above the subjects head. Of course, I shoot little people so thats a bit easier to do.

 

[polkadotladybug]

I'm so very sorry for the misunderstanding!!! I was not saying or implying that YOUR poses were cheesy - I was referring to the poses that you will see if you click on the link I was posting!

I didn't realize how my post sounded until I read your comment - I like your poses! I'm glad you mentioned it though since I probably wouldn't have reread my post - ack!

 

[DVC Jen]

I'm so very sorry for the misunderstanding!!! I was not saying or implying that YOUR poses were cheesy - I was referring to the poses that you will see if you click on the link I was posting!

I didn't realize how my post sounded until I read your comment - I like your poses! I'm glad you mentioned it though since I probably wouldn't have reread my post - ack!

Thank you

I really appreciate you clearing that up. It is SO difficult to get your point across on the net sometimes. I have been misunderstood many times.

LOL ya know - I read the cheesy comment and then went to your link and LOL sat here saying -WHAT?? What *I* am doing is cheesy???

Now I am sitting here laughing - what a relief.

I have been working so hard, and trying sooo hard, to improve over the past few months - but especially the past few weeks. I know how far I have to go - and I guess I just want to know if I am improving at all. Even the slightest bit would be encouraging.

I am extremely hard on myself - extremely critical.

Miss Kelly - I got those puppies (lights) cranked up as high as I could - but in order to get them about a foot above my husbands head they would have been touching the ceiling of the garage.

I also do NOT have good lighting - that I know. I just can't afford it right now. So I am trying to make due the best I can with what I have. I am even getting ready to resort to the old two tin cans and a string method if it will help at all.

As far the settings - yes I shoot in raw - and i don't know all of the technical stuff as to why it does change the settings I think it is kinda like exposure compensation - ya alter these settings a bit and ya get more contrast - more color - more sharpness. I know it works with raw because I have seen a change in the raw image when I go to process it compared to how it looked before I made the changes.

I read my manual - it told me what to do - I did it. It worked.

I took more tonight - and will take more tomorrow - hopefully the changes I made will improve the quality.

I saw/see EXACTLY what you are talking about as far as you mentioning the white balance. I don't know how to do custom white balance yet. Like I said - I still have a lot to learn. I will get there - someday. Feeling kinda overwhelmed right now.

I have been reading the mpix forum this past week and WOW I have learned so much from it - especially the business forum.

Thanks again for everyones help. I really appreciate it.

 

[polkadotladybug]

LOL - so now that you've gone to that link - I think you see what I meant by there being cheesy poses - LOL!

 

[Miss Kelly]

Do you have a 18% gray card? A custom white balance is as simple as filling you viewfinder (or the little circle on the 30D) with the card and taking a photograph. Go to menu and into Custom White Balance. Change that to the photograph you just took and then change the setting on top to the pretty flower. Assuming your settings are correct, you should have perfect white balance.

lol Sorry, I suck at explaining stuff.

Glad your enjoying Mpix. Please join in and post. We are almost like family over there. If you've been reading, don't you just love Scott (splauche), Marti (Lucky), and Mary Anne's (mtalamo sp?) work? I aspire to be as good as them. Sorry to ramble.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I think they are fabulous, Jen. And great you had such willing models. Emily is striking.

 

[gruZ]

I just saw this link, and there is a tutorial on portraits - some VERY useful "rules" to help improve. You will need to register with the site to see the example pictures - no charge - and the tutorial with pics is much better IMO.

 

[DVC Jen]

I just saw this link, and there is a tutorial on portraits - some VERY useful "rules" to help improve. You will need to register with the site to see the example pictures - no charge - and the tutorial with pics is much better IMO.

I just took a few minutes and read through a few of the rules.

Thank you - that is something that I can really use.

 

[figment52]

Your hubby kinda reminds me of Jimmy Buffet in the last photo - I don't know why.

 

[jann1033]

Jen i think the b&w of emily is really good. the composition is great. know nothing about lighting so sure can't comment at all on that but from what i see you are really progressing !

 

[mikamah]

I think your portraits are awesome. I especially love the last 3 of Emily, and how you can just read her mind in the last one. The one of her feet is just beautiful. I can picture it as a poster for a little ballerina.
You husband looks like he's a great sport. Nice work.

 

[DVC Jen]

Your hubby kinda reminds me of Jimmy Buffet in the last photo - I don't know why.

Probably because he doesn't mind wasting away in margaritaville???

 

[0bli0]

they look great, Jen. you might try putting a little more space between the subject and the backdrop. you might also try a wider aperture, if your lens has it (to help soften the backdrop).

 

[DVC Jen]

they look great, Jen. you might try putting a little more space between the subject and the backdrop. you might also try a wider aperture, if your lens has it (to help soften the backdrop).

I noticed that too.

I am trying to find the balance between having enough room to be able to crop to an 8x10 - having the backdrop up high enough and having enough of it draped on the floor so that it doesn't get cut off on the bottom.

Practice - practice - practice.