Old is Gold | My Dad

salman_asad

salman_asad

New member
Have recently started photography, especially portrait photography. This is a pic of my dad I took with my D3100 and 50mm lens and nissin i662 flash.

It may not be up there with the 'pro' levels but everyone starts somewhere :).

DSC_3929-3.jpg

Am trying to improve my portrait photography. Any comments on compositions and lighting will be highly appreciated.
 
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Epoc

Senior Member
I think you have done well here. You Dad has a fantastic face, full of character and worldliness. The white shirt is a little bright and keeps drawing me to it. There are a couple of hotspots, one on his brow and one on his nose. Try dialling down the flash exp compensation to -1 or so to reduce these hotspots. Image can be brightened in PP if it ends up a little dark.

Well done :)
 
salman_asad

salman_asad

New member
Thanks All for your valuable comments.

Well I started photography around 3-4 months ago and got my 50mm just 1 week ago. I love taking portraits and photography in general so yeah am trying to improve, though am making mistakes. Sometimes my portraits are v bland so want to inject more life in them.

And thanks for pointing out the issues Epoc, much appreciated. Flash exposure comp was +0.3 when I took this picture. And yes I didn't like the bright white shirt. How do I control that? And ummm what's PP?

Also if my image is dark and brighten it up in Lightroom then noise tends to creep in and the image doesn't look good.

And yeah these pictures will live on forever :).
 
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Rexer John

Senior Member
salman_asad said:
And yes I didn't like the bright white shirt. How do I control that? And ummm what's PP?
Click to expand...

If your dad wears bright shirts, that's your dad and how the picture should look IMHO.
Nice photo, character in a face is what keeps you looking for that extra moment.
PP, post processing.
 
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Epoc

Senior Member
Not sure on controlling the bright shirt in Lightroom as I use Photoshop and would use an adjustment layer. I don't think this is possible in LR but am happy to be corrected. When I say to use negative flash exp comp to darken the image, I mean to darken it slightly. Just enough so the bright spots are gone. Shooting in RAW and adjusting exposure slightly in post shouldn't introduce any noise.
 
salman_asad

salman_asad

New member
Ah post processing, thanks!

And well I can only apply the brush tool by introducing less exposure values in Lightroom but that may not be the best way to go about it. Haven't used Photoshop yet, will look into it.

I will try taking more portraits with different exposure values to check out the differences as well. One thing though, even when using TTL i am not particularly pleased with the results so I tend to go manual on my flash and never hit the subject directly with flash, I always bounce it. I used a flash diffuser in the above pic and bounced it off the ceiling, still there were some rough spots. So does this happen to you guys as well or is there a flaw in my technique?

Plus is my composition ok? Sorry for asking so many questions, but I want to get better. Especially with a wedding coming soon where I will be taking portraits. Though I will be the second photographer.

Thanks again for all your time and help :)
 
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