Indoor Portrait Of My Sister

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gohan2091

Senior Member
Hello all,

I'm new to the critique forum. I have been learning photography as a hobby for almost a year now. I took a series of photos of my sister a couple of weeks ago which I would like feedback on. Say anything you like, positive or negative, I just want honesty so I can improve my photography. Here is a link to the photos (descriptions are provided underneath each photo)

Flickr: gohan2091's Photostream

Unfortunately, I didn't understand histograms when I took these photos so they were all underexposed. I used Lightroom to correct this. Thanks
 
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alltimeqb

Senior Member
Agree with disciple on the first pict. What is really noticeable is the white balance. With the gold reflector, the white balance looks pretty good on the first two, but with the white or ceiling itself, you can tell the white balance wasn't adjusted for flash; it's way too cool.
 
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gohan2091

Senior Member
I prefer the first shot too. Thanks both of you, I appreciate it. It's interesting you say the other 2 look way too cool. I would associate coolness with blue but I guess I have to agree with you. I had the white balance on auto for everything, should I have changed this to flash then? Within lightroom, when changing the white balance to flash, it doesn't improve it. It actually looks warmer on a cloudy white balance oddly enough. I have white/grey/black card, would this had helped?
 
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gohan2091

Senior Member
I'm not sure why I used a high ISO for that shot... hmmmm. I guess that was a mistake! I must have raised the ISO for some reason and perhaps forgot to lower it again.
 
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alltimeqb

Senior Member
Hey gohan, first off, I am by no means an expert, just thought the second two were too cool, yes, blue. Blue/flash is cool which has a higher kelvin degree.

I purchased a filter which came with a book that mentioned the white balance. I think it's good practice to adjust white balance when you can. Of course, there are many other variables that I am still learning, but I thought that the second two stood out from that perspective.
 
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gohan2091

Senior Member
I always leave my white balance on auto because I know you can change it within Lightroom. Is this a mistake? Thanks all for your comments.
 
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Rick M

Senior Member
I'm gonna give it an 8/10.

I really like the bold red color and the spelling is perfect. Spacing and puncuation is spot on! The underlining really sets the whole link off!
-1 creativity, it's just so linear!
-1 Story telling, it just doesn't tell me much about the subject.

Keep up the great work, post some pictures sometime!

:)
 
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gohan2091

Senior Member
Rick, I don't understand your reply. The forum rules state and I quote:

PHOTO SUBMISSION RULES

1. Only one photo submission per day (24 hours). We don't want the forum to be monopolized by a single member.

2. Upload one image in your post. If you have a set of images, just provide a text link, either to your member gallery here on Nikonites.com or off-site. If you are unsure how to do this, please ask.
Click to expand...

​

Since I have a set of images from the same photo shoot, this is what I have done; provided a text link. Others have been able to click the link and comment on the photos without any problem. What is the issue for you?
 
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Rick M

Senior Member
gohan2091 said:
Rick, I don't understand your reply. The forum rules state and I quote:


[/COLOR][/LEFT]

Since I have a set of images from the same photo shoot, this is what I have done; provided a text link. Others have been able to click the link and comment on the photos without any problem. What is the issue for you?
Click to expand...

I'm just kidding with you gohan :), links are a pet peave of mine, I like to see the picture here, not directed to another website. I'm sure they are very nice.
 
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gohan2091

Senior Member
OK :). Yes, I prefer to view the images on the forum itself but this forum forbids it so.... Is it really such a problem for you to click my link? Nevermind I guess.
 
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Rick M

Senior Member
These are nice shots gohan. A couple things to try in the future would be to shoot them in portrait perspective so the top of her hair is not cut off. Also a bit of seperation between her and the background. Her dark hair gets lost against the dark background. I'm working on portraits also and it gets a bit challenging to keep all of the elements balance and get a fast shutter speed.
 
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gohan2091

Senior Member
Thanks for being brave and clicking on my link :p Excellent tips, thanks very much. I think for 70mm, I should keep it landscape perspective and for the 90mm+, portrait would have been better. For dark backgrounds like this, perhaps a 2nd speedlight positioned behind her would be wise? sort of like a hair light? I only own one speedlight at the moment though.

I may be wrong, but slow shutter speeds shouldn't matter much if there is low ambient light/dark background since flash would freeze the subject.
 
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Rick M

Senior Member
I don't think light freezes the subject. I do think some light on the hair would help. I'm using continuous lighting, so I'm not sure about more speedlights.
 
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gohan2091

Senior Member
If light doesn't freeze the subject, how do you explain the image below? :p both shots were taking using half a seond shutter speed, hand held.

flashfreezesmotion.jpg
 
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Rick M

Senior Member
The pic is not showing the exif data for both images, I'm just curious how they compare. Why do faster shutter speeds result in sharper images then?
 
nikonpup

nikonpup

Senior Member
gohan2091 said:
rick, i don't understand your reply. The forum rules state and i quote:


[/color][/left]

since i have a set of images from the same photo shoot, this is what i have done; provided a text link. Others have been able to click the link and comment on the photos without any problem. What is the issue for you?
Click to expand...
photo critique: Only one photo per day is correct. Post away in other threads or start you own.
 
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