[Steve Robb]

Hi, now I'm not putting this shot up as a fantastic photo or anything like that, I'm sure it can be improved on a hundred times over. What I'm looking for here, is some critique to help me learn how to make this shot better, either initial shotwise, or post production wise. Thankyou

[Rob Barron]

Steve, stop apologising for your shots. They stand well on their own so stop worrying

In terms of the girl, she has been captured nicely, the eyes are nice and sharp and have a strong contact with the viewer, especially with this catchlights. I think you will find there is more detail in the dark area so it would be worth doing a selection and lifting it so that there is separation between the hair and the sofa in the BG. It doesn't help that she has a dark hairband but that's the thing you don't really notice until afterwards. You'll learn to look for that kind of thing when taking portraits and correct them before the shot but it isn't a big deal.

The ddepth of field here was a bit too shallow. I know you wanted to blur the BG and that is fine. The problem is, the DoF is so shallow that her eyes are pin sharp but her nose is rather soft.

You could close the aperture a couple of stops and take the shutter speed down two stops to balance it. This would give you a better DoF. Another thing you could try is moving further away from your subject and using a slightly longer lens or just cropping it a bit more to give the same porportions but with greater DoF.

Good work, keep it up

Cheers,
Rob

[spacepacker]

To my eyes it looks like you have used a too short a focal length lens. This tends to "pull" the features forward. A longer focal length would cure that.
Perhaps, if the young lady's head was above the dark background we would see her hair in a much better light!.
If this is your Daughter, be very pleased with the pic.
Again, good work, keep it up...Kenny

[Dabhand16]

Well, first reaction to the picture is that the background is interfering with her hairline both at the top and elsewhere. There is a cushion on the LHS that is distracting. So paying attention to what is behind your subject is important. Ideally a plain background is best or making sure that the background is well out of focus. You need to use a wide aperture to get the BG out of focus, and get some space between your model and the BG.

I'll bet that you used the kit lens at fairly close range for this shot. Portraits are best taken with lenses of 50-100mm or longer. They distort less. Her face does not seem to be in proportion to her shoulders.

Using natural light does give some great lighting, but the LHS as viewed is overexposed. Don't forget you can use reflectors to good effect - and you don't need 'proper' ones - white paper, tinfoil wrapped over cardboard etc will do fine.

It is important in portraits to get the eyes in sharp focus, and you have achieved this, so well done in this department

These are just a few things to be thinking about - there is always more stuff down the road, but practice does no-one any harm and you might like to look at some magazines to see a portrait you like, then try to achieve the same look/effect. Don't expect to get it literally the same - look for the style and lighting.

Always bracket your exposures by a reasonable amount until you start to get the feel of how a shot will turn out, then still bracket, but it can be kept tighter.

I would not worry too much about the PP side of things yet - get the shot better first.

[JMitchell]

The exposure and focus on the face is very nice, and a good expression that you've captured there. As Rob says, don't apologise! I've put up shots worse than this
As per the advice above, a longer focal length lens with a narrower aperture would possibly have made her stand out from the background a bit more, and preserved her feature shapes slightly better, and you could probably 'lift' the black sofa a little to get detail.
Perhaps the only real tip you need is to use a single colour (and lighter) background to make it completely clear what the subject is (that's an exaggeration, we can see what it is here, I really mean to remove distractions). Maybe not even a single colour, but corresponding and complimentary colours, blurred out with a nice wide aperture

Sorry if that was a bit of a ramble, but HTH





Jack

[Steve Robb]

Thanks all for the response, I really am just learning the ropes at the moment, and I apologise for apologising all the time I see the standard on here and feel woefully inadequate, however I know I will get nowhere if I don't ask, I will take onboard all that has been said so far.

I'll bet that you used the kit lens at fairly close range for this shot.

Indeed I did

[Angela]

Well, everyone has focused on the initial shot but as I had a little time to spare (not that I'm meant to be working or anything ) I had a little play.

I cropped out the distracting background, slightly adjusted the colour balance and then converted to mono and sharpened a little. I am not the expert when it comes to manipulation but I like the tight crop.

[Steve Robb]

Wow, that's great thanks.

[Dabhand16]

Steve - you have exactly the right attitude to achieve what you want to do. You have been here for a bit now, so you'll know that no-one will put you down, take the p*** (not until we get to know you better, anyway), or be sanctimonious.

I like Angela's crop (brownie points needed) - that has improved the image no end in an instant by removing more or less everything that has been spoken about.

[JMitchell]

Ooh good one Angela, didn't think of that, great conversion, and now all that is left are the good elements of the shot we talked about

[Angela]

Originally Posted by Steve Robb

Wow, that's great thanks.

Glad you like it!

[Steve Robb]

I've had a crack at it myself, and I'm very happy, it makes a huge difference and I've managed to print out a lovely photo, thanks again for all your advice

[Angela]

Excellent stuff!