My intro to portrait/modeling photography

Bri7Synyster

Oh I'll so have him do it. I'll pm you the results

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nobodeuno

Cute girl!

Bartstar Photography

Cmike2780

They look good, but could be better. It looks like on some shots she's in a shaded area, but she's a bit underexposed while others are in the open. On a sunny day like this, the light is really harsh and isn't the most flattering if it's direct sunlight. There's a lot of hard shadows and overexposed/washed areas. Its a great source, but you need to control the light. There are a few ways to "light" her up properly with softer light and get rid of the hard shadows.



-The first is a reflector. You need to move your model into a shaded area. Then use the reflector to control the light that hits the model. It's basically a shiny, collapsible reflector on one side and white on the other. You bounce the direct sunlight back to the model, but the result will be spread more softly. You also control how is and where the light hits, which can make or break the shote. I personally like Lastolite. They come in different sizes.


-The second approach is a collapsible diffuser. This is a bit more cumbersome and requires setting the diffuser up high and you will probably need a helper. The advantage is not having to move to shaded area with a large enough diffuser.

-The third approach is to move to a shaded area and use a strobe/flash. Sunlight is great though, so why not use it.

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[09][MB][6-Spd MT][Touring][Stillen Gen III][K&N][Borla CBE][Evo-R]

6spd

I was using a single flash, off camera, with a 24x24" softbox. Looking back, I could have used to expose for the background better, upped the flash output, and/or used both of my flashes. You are right though, there are a lot of slightly under/over exposed areas in some of the shots. The time of day was harsh in that spot too, lots of shadows and bright spot spots, so getting everything exposed right was difficult.

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Cmike2780

Yup, that's kind of what I'm getting at. The composition is good, but the light needs to be more even. If you're gonna use a flash, it needs to pretty much overpower sunlight to expose properly. Your aim is to under-expose available light to an extent and then use the flash to pull the highlights out.

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[09][MB][6-Spd MT][Touring][Stillen Gen III][K&N][Borla CBE][Evo-R]

6spd

ok, thats the explanation that explains a lot to me! Thank you!

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SailFree

#7 shows the problem of photography in bright sun. The dreaded white nose tip. Open shade is best, or use strong reflector and reposition model so sun doesn't hit nose tip.

Bri7Synyster

Oh nose! You're right!

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SailFree

Bri7Synyster, you are a quite pretty woman and the photos are mostly quite reasonably done. Thanks much for having them posted here.

SailFree

CMike2780
"He who laughs last didn't get it"

Fine song by Mark Knopfler called "The Last Laugh," duet with Van Morrison. Nice song.

SailFree

"I need more time behind the camera with portraits, but for my first time out, especially with new equipment, Im pretty confident I can only get better from here."

6spd, you are already better than 99% of the people out there with cameras. Minor problems can be easily corrected. See comment re photo #7, for example.

alcheng

I wish you can blur the background a lot more, especially the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, the background has so much color and 'stuffs', blur them.

And yes, the pose in the 9th is a bit awkward.

Trial and error, keep going man, have fun!!!

Coon-azz

I really don't have much to contribute to the technical aspect here. However, since I have no vested interest and I will gain nothing here-can I say "beautiful eyes!"

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6spd

True. Being focused on other issues at the time, I missed some of the more fine details. In time though. And thank you!
Yeah, I really wish I wasnt limited by the stock lens. I dont like to do background blur myself either so I think ill have this issue for a while until I can get a more capable lens. Im still debating which would be my best choice for this type of photography.

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