Critique of first Portrait shots

I am just starting Portrait Photography. I am starting with a single off-camera speedlight (SB-700) on my Nikon D3100 with a sync cord. I am using an umbrella (white) in the reflective mode. I will try shoot through mode next. Settings were 1/200th, f/2.2, Iso 200. TTL flash, Macro lens (60 mm). I am learning and playing around with the standard lighting methods (loop, split, Rembrandt, butterfly, broad and short lighting. Please critique these for me paying attention to the lighting as that is what I was trying to practice with.

Rules:
1) No mention about the choice of model (me) because I took these early in the morning before a shower and a full load of coffee!! My goal here is to learn on myself and then bring the more photogenic members of my family (ie. the females) into it.
2) Nothing on more equipment yet, that will come after I get this down. Note, I will also switch to manual flash in the future, I wanted to try out my new sync cord here!!
3) Forget focus comments, I did the best I could using an object where I thought I would be to manually focus on. Same goes for the cropping, Did the best I could without looking through the view finder. Again, just trying to work on the lighting.

Ok, here they come. Drum roll please! I'm nervous!!! LOL The first is my attempt at butterfly. I had trouble getting a shadow under my nose. I had the umbrella right behind the camera as high up as I could get it. Any tips??

1st picture - butterfly
2nd - Loop
3rd - Broad
4th - Rembrandt
5th - Loop
6th - Split
7th - Short Lighting

Again, I had trouble with the butterfly technique. Maybe I was sitting too high (bar stool) and the ceiling wasn't tall enough. Any tips on that would be appreciated (plus critique on the rest of course)

Here is an excellent video to watch for what you are talking about. This guy is really good about explaining things. I have his book too which I recommend. 5 Minute Portrait Lighting Tutorial: How to Use the Main, Fill, Hair, Background, and Kicker Lights - YouTube As for the pics, I am no pro but I can see where the light source is coming from and it shades the opposite side of your faces. Check out his video.

I'm no portrait expert, but here's a few thoughts,

- I like the different lighting angles, you just need more light.
- You're going to need to shoot at a higher aperture setting, at least f5.6. Look at the ear in the second to last shot as an example.
- You could bump up the ISO a bit to compensate for less light, but I think you need more source light or reflected at least. (but of course this depends on your goal).

Nice start!

Use the lighting from shot #5 as I think it make you look much better !

Congrats on your venture into portrait photography. As you know, photography is all about the light. No light = no photograph. Simple concept, right? OK....let's go from there. The only fair photo I see in this bunch is the one of your wife, or daughter....whoever. The rest are seriously underlit...if there is such a word!
If you're using an SB-700 with a sync cord, you need to turn up your flash power. It's way too low.
Second....move the umbrella closer to the subject you wish to shoot. The resulting light will "flow" over the subject, wrapping around the subject, so to speak.
Third, your butterfly lighting was too high, for one thing;the use of a soft box would have been a better choice in this instance. There are DIY web sites to show you how to build your own soft boxes. I'm going to assume you're under strict budgetary restrictions (the wife), so I would suggest you look at this site for lighting gear. Believe me, it's inexpensive, with excellent service. I use a lot of it myself, and I do portraits.

Buy Lighting & Studio Accessories, Cheap and Quality Lighting & Studio Accessories on Linkdelight.com


There is no getting around it....lighting is the most important aspect of a good portrait. Using a flash and a single umbrella is not ideal to getting nice portraits. Why not do it right and use the right gear for doing this. It will inspire you to do better and better things in portraiture.

Thanks Smoke, I will check that out later. Everything I have read is very vague and since I am a math/science type I want details. I understand that every face will need a different approach, I would like to get a starting point that works for me.

Thanks Rick, In my reading, it always said to use the lowest aperture setting possible. Maybe they weren't talking about Macro lens. I kind of thought f/2.2 was very low (unless you just want the cornea in focus). I'll bump it up a bit and use ISO if I need more light.

Ijustwant1 said:

Use the lighting from shot #5 as I think it make you look much better !

Click to expand...

Too funny. I agree, my skin looks younger, less freckles, no bags under my eyes!!

Thanks fotojack. I think I found one of the problems, self-portraits!!!! I import all my RAW photos into Lightroom and when I looked at these I thought they all were horrible photos of myself (as I think with pretty much every photo of myself); thus I did everything I could in Lightroom to make it look better. Unfortunately in this case, I dropped the exposure a full stop (maybe more). Anyhow, lets work with what you said and I will get one shot I think is good and re-post it to see if I got the lighting better.

Most of the stuff I read said to use the umbrella about 30 to 45 degrees off the camera-subject axis and keep it high and close to the subject (about 3 feet when using it as relective). What the heck is 3 feet?? I assume they mean from the apex of the umbrella?? How high?? What Angle?? Yes yes, I am a detail person and want it all to the mm and the degree. Anyhow, I am looking for a good starting point in which I can adjust for the subject as I get better.

You really have me confused on the butterfly technique. I had the flash as high as I could get it with an 8 foot ceiling using an umbrella. It was pretty much right above the camera. I still didn't see much of a shadow below the nose so I don't see how lowering the light would do me any better. BTW, budget is not a problem, I just want to get proficient with the equipment I have before I add things.

ps. I won't tell my daughter you thought she was my wife, She would find that really weird!!!! lol

Since you're stuck with an 8' ceiling, the other thing you can do is lower the chair of bench you're sitting on. The other thing I think you could improve is the posture. Try to be leaning towards the camera. In studios I've worked in, we used an adjustable elbow support so the person could actually lean against. I'm sure you can find something in the house to just fill that need. So just try to lean forward a bit with the shoulders turned towards the light source. Hopefully you'd find it gives a little more dynamics to a portrait.

Strobist: Lighting 101: Using Umbrellas
Revet, I hope this helps you understand more about using light modifiers - umbrellas - to get the right kind of shot. Look through the whole web site, as it has carries a wealth of useful information for you.

ps: Sorry about the wife/daughter mixup. hehehe

No expert but from watching numerous videos on the subject I would suggest your subject (you in this case) drops the chin an inch or two to get the butterfly shadow.