First Portrait Attempts

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
It's taken too long to get these processed to the point of posting, but there were several firsts here: first portraits, first use of off-camera flash, first use of light modifiers, ... ok, I'll stop there.

Thoughts?

Christy-1.jpg

Christy-2.jpg

Christy-3.jpg

Christy-4.jpg
 

kevy73

Senior Member
Looks good for a first attempt!! You should be proud of your work. Sure, there are a few things which can be improved upon, but overall, you did an awesome job.

Fave one for me is the 3rd shot. Looks the most natural.
 

Krs_2007

Senior Member
Good job Charlie, you don't look like what I thought you did...LOL.

Really nice, you did your homework on the setup.

Tough call, I like the 3rd as well but would like to see a looser crop on the 4th. Just my preference.


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RocketCowboy

Senior Member
Yeah, I thought the hair light was pretty hot, but the few attempts I took to dial it down didn't show much difference.

I also noticed for some reason my ISO is pretty high, which is contributing some grain to the images.

Scott... I noticed my auto-focus was challenged in the beginning to get focus. I didn't notice it right away until I pulled the first batch of images to the computer. I'm thinking the aperture didn't help either, but I needed to have more ambient light to help the AF. I'm also going to try shooting tethered next time so I can see sooner if the AF is that far out.


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Eyelight

Senior Member
Lovely lady. I bet the sitting cost you plenty.:)

#1 the best pose
#4 the best lighting
#4 the best framing

All a bit tight on the edges with 1, 2, & 3 the top only.

Good work all in all.
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
Just two speedlights (568s). The back hair light had no modifier, and the main light was through a Westcott RapidBox with beauty dish.


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RocketCowboy

Senior Member
Very nice. I would cut down on the hair light a bit, seems to bright.

Definitely appreciate the feedback, so please don't take my questions as anything counter to that. I think the reason I left the hair light that hot was to provide some separation between my black backdrop and her dark clothing. When I turned the lighting down more (and the other problem was not having a short enough light stand), her clothing started to get lost in the background. The right thing would have been to shoot against a different colored backdrop, but black is all I have right now. In that scenario, would there be another way to still provide some isolation while not over-doing the hair light? If I had moved the hair light more to something like 90 degrees to the side of the subject?
 

FastGlass

Senior Member
Definitely appreciate the feedback, so please don't take my questions as anything counter to that. I think the reason I left the hair light that hot was to provide some separation between my black backdrop and her dark clothing. When I turned the lighting down more (and the other problem was not having a short enough light stand), her clothing started to get lost in the background. The right thing would have been to shoot against a different colored backdrop, but black is all I have right now. In that scenario, would there be another way to still provide some isolation while not over-doing the hair light? If I had moved the hair light more to something like 90 degrees to the side of the subject?
Looking at the images it looks like you set the hair light directly behind her? Maybe set it higher much like a key light and opposite from it. I really like the looks of dark clothing against a dark backdrop. The challenges I have is knowing what looks right with my own images. It's so easy to look at others and find something to tweek a little. I don't think there's anything wrong with your images just something I would change a bit. Nice shots.
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
Looking at the images it looks like you set the hair light directly behind her? Maybe set it higher much like a key light and opposite from it. I really like the looks of dark clothing against a dark backdrop. The challenges I have is knowing what looks right with my own images. It's so easy to look at others and find something to tweek a little. I don't think there's anything wrong with your images just something I would change a bit. Nice shots.

Exactly right ... the hair light is directly behind her. Because my light stand was too tall, I had to place the light directly behind her to keep from flashing directly into the camera.

Next time I'll add a modifier to that light and see if I can't get better results with the modifier and moving it out of frame opposite the key light. Thanks again for the feedback!
 

fotojack

Senior Member
Charlie, nice first attempt at portraiture. Good job.

Here's a suggestion....take it as you will. :) Get yourself a couple of YN560 III's or IV's and a YN560-TX controller/trigger. This combo is awesome in adjusting flash output on the fly, right from your camera!

Yongnuo cheat sheet.jpg
Here's an idea for your next attempt. Just a thought. :)

PHOTO-15-DIAGRAM-1024x625.jpg

If you're on Facebook at all, there's a guy named Mark Jesse you could learn from. He's amazing at explaining how to use your flash and ambient light. He's in this Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/speedlightfundamentals/
For ordering Yongnuo gear, look up a guy named Tim Payne on Facebook also. You can order directly from him. He also has videos on how to set them up and use them. He's also in the same Group.

Hope all this helps you out, bud. :)
 
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Great shots. I especially like the last one. Very striking. I have to agree about the hair/back light though. It is a little hot but the idea is great.

It really does not matter what we think though. How does the model like them. Your wife?
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
It really does not matter what we think though. How does the model like them. Your wife?

The "model" is my sister. We were taking some headshot pics to use for her new website. She hasn't seen these latest processed images, just the original untouched raw images off the camera. Based on those raw images, she was inclined to use a snapshot that a friend got of her instead, but I'm hoping some of the finish here might change her mind. Her primary concern was the camera perspective, and the feeling that it made her head look better proportionally that it is. Some of that could be crop related, but perhaps I could have had the camera lower than eye level at her as well. We'll see.




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