p.1 #1 · Wine guy and master of strings and others- Portrait
Hi Guys,
I was a very frequent member of fredmiranda and then I lost touch with photography for almost 3 years and with a lot of suggestions from other members I am back, I bought a 5D Mark I and with my trust old 50mm f/1.4 started shooting for a local newspaper.
My first assignment is to take a photo of a person known as the wine guy and the second was to photograph Ellen Fulman an inventor of the long string instrument, apart from that I also photographed a few portraits which I wanted to share for critiques and suggestions.
Thanks and very excited to be doing photography again
p.1 #2 · Wine guy and master of strings and others- Portrait
Lighting on faces isn't ideal on first two.
First: Overhead fixtures cause brow to shade eyes. The solution is raise camera (stand on chair or step stool) and have subject look up until the light reaches the eyes.
Second: Flash on a bracket over lens would have allowed preserving ambience and getting better lighting / exposure on her face.
p.1 #3 · Wine guy and master of strings and others- Portrait
cgardner wrote:
Lighting on faces isn't ideal on first two.
First: Overhead fixtures cause brow to shade eyes. The solution is raise camera (stand on chair or step stool) and have subject look up until the light reaches the eyes.
Second: Flash on a bracket over lens would have allowed preserving ambience and getting better lighting / exposure on her face.
Third: Better lighting on that one.
+1... Chuck has said it far better than I could have.
p.1 #4 · Wine guy and master of strings and others- Portrait
Hi thanks chuck and oldrattler, I agree with your suggestions but I have a few limitations,
for the first photo I have 2 mins time with the wine guy, I will write to him again for another shot and if he agrees I will certainly do what you suggested, is there something that can be done via post processing to make it look better?
For photo 2 I would love to use a flash but I am restricted to available light, is there something else you can suggest.
p.1 #5 · Wine guy and master of strings and others- Portrait
Took a stab at some color work and a crop. Has a few issues yet, but it shows a direction you can take the color. Wasn't sure how tight to crop, given the extensive amount of wine surrounding him ... so here's but one option.
p.1 #7 · Wine guy and master of strings and others- Portrait
Although post processing can't completely fix bad lighting, you can by selections and adjustments to exposure, hue/saturation, mid-tone contrast, and sharpening, and color balance adjustments reduce the problems.
p.1 #8 · Wine guy and master of strings and others- Portrait
Thanks auntipode, I love the comments you and rusty give, I am not sure how much I can make this photo better but from next time these two photos will guide me to take better shots.
Do you have any suggestions for the second and third photo?
p.1 #9 · Wine guy and master of strings and others- Portrait
Second has a lens flare/haze that dulls the image. The top of the frame of her glasses obscures her eyes. Her face is it shadow. Composition needs a trim from the right. (Also, try to post no larger than 1024 pixels.)
Third has a problem with sharpness. Perhaps your intent was to make the image about the spot on the forehead, but that doesn't work to my eyes. The child's eyes are not in focus - a critical fault in photographing someone. With an f1.4 lens wide open, it's critical to focus on at least the leading eye and preferably both. If you want to include more, such as the spot, shoot with a smaller aperture for greater depth of field.
