Work portrait

PapaST

Senior Member
Hello Nikonites,

I told a friend that I would help with some work portraits for his website so the eventual pic he uses will be smaller. This is my first time so I did some playing around to try and dial in the settings. I understand I can only display one pic so of the 25 or so test shots I think maybe 7 are keepers and this is about the worst of the 7. I think it would be more beneficial to get feedback on the ones that need the most improvement. Actually doing portraits showed me exactly how much I don't know about doing portraits.

I used a 5x7 gray backdrop and originally had 3 speedlights with 41" umbrellas. One at 45degrees on each side and one to light the backdrop. I ended up turning the backdrop light off since it looked better to me off.

The left umbrella was set for 1/16 and the right umbrella was set to 1/64

The camera was a D600 with 1/200 shutter, at f4 and ISO 100. The lens was a Nikon 85mm f1.8. Shooting RAW.

Other than some slight cropping the photo is unedited. I'm interested in any feedback... cropping, pose, etc. But very interested in knowing how well the exposure is. Do the left and right power settings look okay? Too much shadow?

Glare on his forehead and the skin overlapping his collar are things I'm smacking myself for not catching at first.

Thanks guys.

mark shoot.JPG
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
I like it very much. The light and postures are fine, but the crop is a little tight for my taste. Also, I always try to have more room in front of the person toward where his shoulders are pointed at. In this case, I think it would benefit from having more room to the left.
 

Krs_2007

Senior Member
I agree, the lighting, pose and such look spot on to me. But it does feel cramped like Marcel says. You should be able to fix the skin overlap in post.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
As said, give yourself some room on top. I also find that the full body pose is rather, um, too much body for a portrait.

As for the lighting, I do think it's a little lacking in fill from the right. Don't know if you have the Nik Collection, but I just threw this in and pulled up Reflector Efex from Color Efex Pro 4 as follows...

Screen Shot 2014-11-06 at 5.04.06 PM.jpg

From here I might dodge and burn a little to even the light a bit. Ultimately, I'm thinking something like this...

mark shoot.JPG
 

Krs_2007

Senior Member
As said, give yourself some room on top. I also find that the full body pose is rather, um, too much body for a portrait.

As for the lighting, I do think it's a little lacking in fill from the right. Don't know if you have the Nik Collection, but I just threw this in and pulled up Reflector Efex from Color Efex Pro 4 as follows...

View attachment 122494

From here I might dodge and burn a little to even the light a bit. Ultimately, I'm thinking something like this...

View attachment 122496


And Jake comes along to show that my opinion doesn't matter....LOL. Kidding, I actually forget about the reflector. This does look much better as far as lighting goes. I like both shots, so for the me the crop could go either way.
 

PapaST

Senior Member
Thanks Marcel, Krs_2007 and Backdoorhippie. Those are all great ways to improve. I felt a little cramp when I cropped them in. Since I've never done them before I just checked a bunch of national law firms and their portraits. It's more of a misinterpretation on my part. I felt that website portraits tended to be more cramp because of how they are displayed in the webpage. I'll definitely remove most of the cropping to give more room.

I sort of laughed about the hands things and how much I DON'T know. My buddy and I didn't really know if we should or shouldn't? Because it seems when you do you have to go a little further below so it's not cropped too tight and therefore feels a little long. I think most photographers get around this by including a prop like a leather bound chair or a conference room table of sorts. That allows the hands to naturally rest higher for one and breaks up the length at the bottom.

I do have NIK and I'll give some of that a whirl. Thanks again guys.
 

Krs_2007

Senior Member
Thanks Marcel, Krs_2007 and Backdoorhippie. Those are all great ways to improve. I felt a little cramp when I cropped them in. Since I've never done them before I just checked a bunch of national law firms and their portraits. It's more of a misinterpretation on my part. I felt that website portraits tended to be more cramp because of how they are displayed in the webpage. I'll definitely remove most of the cropping to give more room.

I sort of laughed about the hands things and how much I DON'T know. My buddy and I didn't really know if we should or shouldn't? Because it seems when you do you have to go a little further below so it's not cropped too tight and therefore feels a little long. I think most photographers get around this by including a prop like a leather bound chair or a conference room table of sorts. That allows the hands to naturally rest higher for one and breaks up the length at the bottom.

I do have NIK and I'll give some of that a whirl. Thanks again guys.


Yep, just changing the crop to remove the hands changes the whole feel. Something to think about if I ever get this type of shot.
 

FastGlass

Senior Member
Using the third for a rim light would have been nice. To me he needs a little separation from the background. The fill light should be more on axis to the lens. It's purpose is to fill in shadows seen from the lens. All in all, very nice shot.
 

Lawrence

Senior Member
I really like it and even more so with Jake's changes.

I would take the crop even further to between his button and where his tie disappears into his jacket. Is are hanging just don't look right to my eye.
 

FastGlass

Senior Member
^^^ diddo on the crop. To much of him. Rule of thumb on cropping is to cut off limbs above a joint. Never want to see part of a shin below the knee, part of an arm below the elbow. And never just above the foot and the hand.
 

markdubya

New member
Yep I'm with the two above the crop needs to be tighter definitely where the tie ends in the suit jacket. Crop above the button as the button would be a distraction. Getting the subject to lift the chin slightly would a) reduce any sign of double chin and b) reduce the shadow of bags under the eyes. Other than that a good image
 
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