One light Portrait on white background and floor

Federico-Nov

Federico-Nov

Senior Member
I'd love to receive your opinion.
It's one of my first attempts with white background + person.

My favorite model, my little daughter, posed for me but she just gave me 10 minutes!!! So I didn't have much time to work on settings... I shot 8 pictures in total and this is my favorite.
I use this:
55-200 @ 60mm, 1/200 - f7,1 - ISO 100

I used two yangnuo for the background and one Godox strobe as the main light. I didn’t have any light left for the fill but I thought that the shadow on the left side was not too strong, so I didn´t even use a reflector. (I have a couple of those 5 in 1 circular reflectors)
I did some post production in Photoshop working mainly on white balance, saturation, background and eliminating other imperfections.
 

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kevy73

kevy73

Senior Member
Nice image, lighting is pretty good. Catch lights more towards the back of the hair would have been nice... Catch lights in her eyes are great.

I would have asked her to give you eye contact to 'engage' with the viewer of the image. You are on the right track with posing... if it bends, bend it and her fingers and arms have nice bends.

There is a weird downward sloping diagonal line, I am guessing the join of the backdrop with the floor... perhaps remove that.

Good stuff though. Thanks for sharing.
 
cwgrizz

cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
This is coming from someone who really doesn't know anything about shooting portraits and really have never tried. Overall, I like the shot. I do, however think that you probably should have used a reflector for the shadow, mostly by her nose. You are doing much, much better than I could even begin to do.
 
M

Moab Man

Senior Member
I don't like the look on her face. It seems indifferent and I would rather be somewhere else. I suspect I'm correct by the 10 minutes reference in your post. When your victim, or subject, doesn't want to be there it radiates through. I have some just like that with my daughter. Noticing a theme? LOL

Don't like the background diagonal line cutting across the background of the photo.

I would have shot at a longer focal length for better compression of your subject. Her head seems proportionally off and she seems hunched almost like, but not quite, like her knees are under her. A short focal length up close will do this disproportioning. A longer focal length compresses things and gets them proportionally corrected.

She's lit well with the lighting you were doing, no real hot spots, catch light in the eyes, but there's an indifference to the feel of the subject/photo.

My advice, you need to shoot her when she's up for doing it, use a longer focal length, and a different pose. At her age she should be, in my opinion, looking more alive.

Hope this helps and is taken with the intention of constructive critique.
 
Federico-Nov

Federico-Nov

Senior Member
kevy73 said:
Nice image, lighting is pretty good. Catch lights more towards the back of the hair would have been nice... Catch lights in her eyes are great.

I would have asked her to give you eye contact to 'engage' with the viewer of the image. You are on the right track with posing... if it bends, bend it and her fingers and arms have nice bends.

There is a weird downward sloping diagonal line, I am guessing the join of the backdrop with the floor... perhaps remove that.

Good stuff though. Thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much! I'll get rid of the diagonal line adjusting the backdrop and try to get some rim light.
 
Last edited:
Federico-Nov

Federico-Nov

Senior Member
cwgrizz said:
This is coming from someone who really doesn't know anything about shooting portraits and really have never tried. Overall, I like the shot. I do, however think that you probably should have used a reflector for the shadow, mostly by her nose. You are doing much, much better than I could even begin to do.
Click to expand...

Thank you! Next time i'll play with the reflector!
 
Federico-Nov

Federico-Nov

Senior Member
Moab Man said:
I don't like the look on her face. It seems indifferent and I would rather be somewhere else. I suspect I'm correct by the 10 minutes reference in your post. When your victim, or subject, doesn't want to be there it radiates through. I have some just like that with my daughter. Noticing a theme? LOL

Don't like the background diagonal line cutting across the background of the photo.

I would have shot at a longer focal length for better compression of your subject. Her head seems proportionally off and she seems hunched almost like, but not quite, like her knees are under her. A short focal length up close will do this disproportioning. A longer focal length compresses things and gets them proportionally corrected.

She's lit well with the lighting you were doing, no real hot spots, catch light in the eyes, but there's an indifference to the feel of the subject/photo.

My advice, you need to shoot her when she's up for doing it, use a longer focal length, and a different pose. At her age she should be, in my opinion, looking more alive.

Hope this helps and is taken with the intention of constructive critique.
Click to expand...

Thank you! Yes she literally split after that shot.

Still I like that expression because it tells something about her (a reflective sweet girl) and her age (when you have no patient for your parent haha)
I’ll surely go for a longer lengths and get rid of the background line and of course work on pose and engagement.
 
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Federico-Nov

Federico-Nov

Senior Member
I feel to stress out how much I appreciated your critics!!!

I had a reflection about it... I was so worried about lights and background the I didn't interact with my daughter.

Ok, I didn't have much time but still...

This lesson tell me that you really have to know perfectly your camera, lights and lighting scenarios to "forget about them" and just concentrate on your subject and interact with him/her.

This is possibly a key factor in a portrait and especially with kids... if you don't interact with them a photo session could be just "hell".

Besides, people with certainly put more attention of the expression and will forgive some mistakes if the picture express something good.

I personally look for both: An interesting, communicative expression and a good
technique.

And the only way to get that is ton of practice.
 
M

Moab Man

Senior Member
Federico-Nov said:
Thank you! Yes she literally split after that shot.

Still I like that expression because it tells something about her (a reflective sweet girl) and her age (when you have no patient for your parent haha)
Click to expand...
I know that expression you're talking about. If you could shoot that same reflective facial at a time when she's wanting to be there doing it with you it will show through.

Keep at it, they are grown and gone so fast.
 
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