Wife Headshot

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Seth Brown

New member
Okay, I am very new at portraits, so here we go.


This is my wife and I was using a cheap off camera flash.



Settings: 1/125, ƒ/16, ISO-400, 36 mm
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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Dave_W

The Dude
It looks very nice, SB. I like how the upper side lighting is working in this portrait. I suspect some may say the dark side is too dark but I think it's perfect as is. The eyes are in sharp focus and you have solid catchlights. Technically it seems spot on. Any critique beyond this would just be preference (head tilt, body alignment, etc.). So as far as portraits go, I don't think it gets much better than this. Good job.
 
Marcel

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
The results is OK, I find the light could have been a little higher. The thing that bothers me the most is the choice of focal length. A longer lens would have been more flattering for a portrait. On a cropped sensor 50mm is better for head and shoulder shots IMHO.
 
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Dave_W

The Dude
Marcel said:
The results is OK, I find the light could have been a little higher. The thing that bothers me the most is the choice of focal length. A longer lens would have been more flattering for a portrait. On a cropped sensor 50mm is better for head and shoulder shots IMHO.
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A longer lens is a good point but I worry a higher light would begin to bring in brow shadows. So unless he has fill light he might be as high as he can go....or not. :D
 
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fotojack

Senior Member
I'm going to go along with Dave on this one. I like the softness of the portrait, yet the eyes and catch lights stand out for me. Nicely done, SB.
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
I read a blog by a model once about things that every photographer should know, and one was "For headshots, can we leave the 35mm lens in the bag?" It's either going to elongate the face and accentuate the nose, or make it chubby and, once again, bring out the nose. Otherwise, everything looks real nice.
 
Disorderly

Disorderly

Senior Member
I'll reiterate what others have said: put a longer lens on your camera. I'd say 85mm at minimum on a DX camera, longer if you have it. I love my 105mm macro as a portrait lens. The only times I use anything in the wide angle range for a portrait is when I want a laugh.
 
ohkphoto

ohkphoto

Snow White
BackdoorHippie said:
It's either going to elongate the face and accentuate the nose, or make it chubby and, once again, bring out the nose. Otherwise, everything looks real nice.
Click to expand...

This is exactly right and excellent advice, and would be my number 1 suggestion. The second suggestion would be to tone down the flash output a little (don't know if your flash has EV control). The bright side of her face borders on overexposure.

Other than that, this is a beautiful capture . . . lovely expression, nice catchlights and sharp eyes. Well done for someone "new" to portraits. :)
 
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Seth Brown

New member
Well thank you guys! I took this photo with my old camera witch is a Panasonic DMC-G10 and the kit lens witch is an 18-42mm lens. I have now ordered a D90 and have some lenses for that camera on order as well. I did not expect the feedback I got, I was thinking the shot needed more work than that. Here is the photo before post.


 
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