C&C Requested: Natural Light Portraits

[toriaj]

Took some pictures of my sister, trying to use what I've learned about light. Please hand over the C&C re: settings, posing, processing, white balance, cropping, lighting, anything at all. I probably will have a chance to re-shoot, not to mention re-process. All shots taken at about 4:00 p.m. with my 50mm 1.8 at ISO 200, shutter priority. The sky was quite overcast, which was a big plus for my lighting I had a little trouble with blown highlights until I dialed in -.7 EC. Next time I might try the Sigma for a variety in FLs, but I was pretty pleased with the 50mm. Most processing done in NX with a little skin smoothing in PSPX.

#1. She had wet her hair just prior to taking the shots I'm sure the damp weather wasn't helping either. I didn't have much luck getting rid of the frizzies without looking fake. 1/80, f/3.5


#2. It was raining lightly. If you look closely you can see the streaks of the raindrops. These shots are not in the shade, just the overcast sky. Facing west. 1/80, f/3.2


#3. The background is an old clubhouse, next to a wire fence. She's facing west and shaded by trees to camera right. (Please ignore the two blue fingernails ) 1/100, f/2 (adjusted SS was a mistake, I tried to stay at 1/80 for the FLxcrop factor)


#4. She was standing in the doorway of an unlit shed, facing east. Next time I'll ask her not to wear black (so as to avoid the "floating head" appearance) but on the other hand, it may have made it easier to PP any lighter areas in the background. 1/100, f/4


#5. Here she was in the doorway of our house, facing west onto a porch with an overhanging roof. 1/80, f/2.5


#6. Here she was crouched in front of the clubhouse facing west, light coming in from rear left creating the backlighting. 1/100, f/1.8


Thanks for your input, if anyone would like the original RAWs, just PM me.

[TheWengler]

I not a fan of the way these turned out. Sometimes I get results similar to this on overcast days. I think it has to do with how you orient the subject to the light source, but I'm not sure. I don't think your sisters fair skin tone helped either. I prefer to shoot in late afternoon shade. Can you send me a RAW file to play with? Maybe #3. I can't promise any results though.

[toriaj]

Thanks for your reply, Lukas. I'll send you a pm re: the RAW file. Can you tell me more about your opinion on the pics? What don't you like, is there not enough contrast in the face or not enough shadow?

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

I'm only an amateur but I like them Tori, she looks a lot like you too.

Re 1 & 2 I like the natural green backdrop but I'd try and get it darker relative to your subject. Perhaps a different time of day or some fill flash.

I reckon Wengler's right intimating 3's a good pose.

4 you've not quite hit focus on the right eye so it's probably out imho and 6 I'm guessing you've lightened her jumper because it's gone to grey a bit on my monitor like what happens when I play with curves a bit much.

5's a bit too much like the standard school photographer against a backdrop rather than a family photo so I don't like it as much. Odly if it came from a professional I'd think they'd done a great job

Oh and I'd prefer dry hair for the reshoot.

[TheWengler]

The light and color tone is what bothering me. The white spots in the hair and on the forehead don't look good. They also look a little cool too me. For me the best lighting is in the ones with the black backdrop. They seem soft though, probably due to opening up the lens.

[toriaj]

Thanks for your comments, DPR. We do look alike in some ways, once I turned from a mirror and saw her and thought I was seeing another mirror, lol.

Here's the original of #6, as you can see her sweater is about the same considering the overall raise in exposure, but since it's backlit it looks different against the dark background (especially when I further darkened the background.)



One of the reasons I tried to achieve that dark background was because my self-conscious 17-year-old brother wanted a "studio" type look, so your comment for #5 sounds like I might have taken a step in that direction. I haven't shown these photos to my family yet. (And I'm definitely with you on the dry hair, lol.)

edit: Lukas, ok thanks for the clarification, perhaps I raised the exposure too much as you can see from the original above? I was kind of going for a pale skin tone, maybe I went too far there. BTW there was no "backdrop," as you can see from the photo I just tried to keep the background as dark as possible and then further darkened it in PP.

[TheWengler]

I like 5 better w/o the processing. When you paint over the background in black it looks like you used the flash and got motion blur.

[toriaj]

Oh, I see what you mean about the darkened background making it look like flash with motion blur.

You mentioned the original for #5, did you want to see it? The original I posted above is for #6. (Also I edited my post #6 after I saw your post #5 above.)

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

I think 6 is underexposed.

I'd throw in some flash to get the subject brighter which should also make the background relatively darker, helping all round.

Lightening it in curves just washed out the contrast.

[jcon]

If I may, Tori. To me, the skin tones are way off... too yellow to me. I agree with Wengler. I think a little tweakin in an editor could provide much better results... you are also welcome to send me a RAW/NEF file and Ill see what I can come up with, thats up to you though. Just my 2 cents :-)