I have been shooting and shooting, trying to improve my studio portraits which are definitely out of my go-to natural light, outdoor photo wheelhouse. Last time I posted I received some extremely helpful constructive criticism, and I'm back for more.
1 light set up, 47" octabox. Shot with either a 24-70 or 85. As always, thank you for taking the time to look!
Only nits would be to really police the image and watch the details. Image #2 find the lace ribbon / strap of the headpiece distracting. In the 4th the wisp of hair under the childs chin is to me distracting, would either have pushed it back or brought a little more of her hair forward of her shoulder. #1 to me doesn't work, would like to have seen the childs legs, looks like a doll stuck on a box.
Love the expression of the 3rd image and I think lighting and skin tones have been rendered nicely. Would maybe warm up just a tad the purple/blueish tones of the 1st and 2nd at the inside crook of her elbow. I know she has very light skin but looks as if almost bruised.
Also maybe turn up the modeling lamp or have another aux light to help close down the pupils just a bit so the you capture more of the iris.
These are all minor nits and am sure the families loved the images.
Dawn, I am not a portrait shooter. Believe me I have tried but all the proper equipment need to take a proper composition plus my own faults in technique, leave only to comment as a viewer.
All I see as excellent compositions! #1, the child's left side of face, to me, is a tad dark but I do understand that in portrait photography that can be part of the composition process.
The rest are excellent!! Beautiful smiles, backdrop is wonderful and complimentary!
As a high school teacher told me, "Repitition is the Mother of Learning"....you have that mentality down firm!
Dan
It seems like your light is falling off fairly dramatically. Perhaps tightening some of the crops could alleviate this by putting more focus on the more lit areas.
I like the soft look the octo brings and I think the advice above about reducing the pupil size is great.
Thank you all for your comments and helpful critique. I do know that I need to be more mindful in the moment of getting everything as perfect as I can in the studio before I click the shutter. I tend to rush, especially with ages 2-3 years old as I always feel like my time is so limited with their attention spans. I always regret it later when I'm faced with a tedious photoshop job or encounter something that is beyond my ability to correct in post at all.
My modeling light is maxed on my D2 and my studio lights are quite bright, so I'm not sure what I can do to enlarge the pupils! Anyone have any other tips for tiny pupils??
dawnkyung wrote:
My modeling light is maxed on my D2 and my studio lights are quite bright, so I'm not sure what I can do to enlarge the pupils! Anyone have any other tips for tiny pupils??
Hi Dawn,
1) Try shooting your session with the overall ambient light in your studio turned on in order to close the pupils (rather than dimming the ambient to better see the modeling light on the strobe). This has pretty much zero effect on the exposure because the strobe is so much more powerful than room lighting.
This can be a little more difficult because photographers like being able to judge the lighting effect using the modeling lamp on the strobe, but after previewing a test shot or three on the camera screen, you can easily adjust the strobe position and power as you normally would.
One approach is to do all the basic lighting prep with room lights off, then turn them back on for the shoot itself once you have the lighting dialed in the way you want it;
or
2) Sometimes I just point a flashlight (or similar) toward the subject(s)... bright enough to get their pupils to react but with zero effect on the strobe-lit result.
