a troublesome chair

[Catalina]

As you see my daughter is sitting in a chair with elaborate elements. I have two of these chairs in my living room,
-Do you consider the chair distracting background?
- Should I use these chairs for future pictures?
- Now the chairs are located in front of a terrace window made of glass, How to avoid the things in the picture that are behind of the glass, and the glass itself so the flash wouldn't cause troubles?
I study the lessons that you gave trough the internet about the background and concluded that the living room of my house is crowded with distracting elements, how to take photos of the family reunions in this living?

Thank you very much, in advance, for your answer.

[pnodrog]

I do not find the chair a major distraction but I think the photograph would be better without it especially the cushions. The corner of the round table at the front left is for me the main distraction.

Loverly dress and pose and an appealing tentative but direct expression.

[Stagecoach]

As you see my daughter is sitting in a chair with elaborate elements. I have two of these chairs in my living room,
-Do you consider the chair distracting background?
- Should I use these chairs for future pictures?
- Now the chairs are located in front of a terrace window made of glass, How to avoid the things in the picture that are behind of the glass, and the glass itself so the flash wouldn't cause troubles?
I study the lessons that you gave trough the internet about the background and concluded that the living room of my house is crowded with distracting elements, how to take photos of the family reunions in this living?

Thank you very much, in advance, for your answer.

Catalina,

I do not take portraits or profess to know the 'rules' and 'guidelines' but for me the chair and background add to this picture to make it more interesting. It's obvious what the subject is but good to see something that ties her in with background and her surroundings.

Another one that only needs very quick work to give it a boost.



Grahame

[Shadowman]

I agree with the others regarding the background in the above photo. Consider what is behind the glass if you go with the window treatment, it could become a significant part of the image or a distraction. You can use depth of field to abstract what is behind the glass, if your camera is capable of changing the aperture. I'm not sure if we asked what equipment you have, camera and lens you plan to use for portraiture.

[Catalina]

The camera is a Nikon D40. This camera has not been easy for me. I did a better work with my old AE1 by Canon.
The lens is Nikon dx afs nikkor 18.55 mm and a flash rokinon 2600 bounce swivel automatic zoom flash.
Currently I am still confused using the depth of field, but with exercises I will learn.

Thanks a Lot to all people on this tread.

[Catalina]

The chair has been in our family for four generations, the background is the house where she spent her infancy.

[Manfred M]

Catalina - one of the basic techniques used in portraiture is generally referred to as "simplification". If you look at a portrait, you don't normally want to be distracted by other objects, so a fairly simple background is often chosen so only the subject draws the viewer's eyes. Anything that distracts the viewer should not be in the image.

This is where depth of field comes in. In a shallow depth of field shot, the focus is on the subject (specifically on the subject's eyes) and other areas can be a bit softer. A long focal length lens shot wide open, or close to the largest aperture will tend to blur the background, which is what the depth of field discussion is all about.

There is also a type of portrait that is referred to as an "evnironmental portrait" where the subject is photographed with additional material in the image, much like what you have tried to do with the chair. I think the issue with this shot is that the chair is neither invisible enough for a standard portrait, nor obvious enough for an environmental portrait.

The other issues are the curtains in the background; regardless they are distracting. While bounce flash is a very good lighting technique, it is not my favourite for portraits as it tends to produce soft, but uniteresting lighting. I think you would have done better with natural light, coming in at an angle from the outside. Small flash does work, but it really works best for me if I use it off-camera, from above and at an angle to the subject.

I will often resort to portrait-like techniques in my photography, even when the shot is not done in a controlled setting. This is what I mean; the following shot was taken outdoors in a small village in Africa using natural light with on-camera fill-flash around mid-day.



By shooting wide open, (shooting at 200mm at f/2.8), the whole background is soft and blurred and not distracting. There is very little post-processing done to this image.





Just for comparison; the second shot was taken at f/2.8 at 75mm, from basically the same position as the first shot. The background is a bit more obvious, but is still blurred a bit.

[Catalina]

Thanks for explaining in such an extension the laws of portraits and I also can say that is a complete explanation

I will consider the law of simplification a very important point to ponder when choosing the location for a portrait.

[jcuknz]

While bounce flash can give a dull flat uninteresting result it can be improved on by having some of the light go directly at the subject ... my flashgun has a little pull up tab to do this, or you can rubber band a piece of white plastic ... the bottom of an icecream container in my case. one point is the flash should not be tipped towards the subject as in photo as this may give you an over exposed band across the top of the photo

Another way is to use the camera flash, which is triggering the Rokinor flash in you case either directly with its built-in optical; trigger [ like my YongNuo[s] ] or else with a extra trigger, can be about USD20 from B&H in New York [ I assume you are in America though you have not adjusted your details ]
If the camera flash results in a too bright effect coming from the camera I have held my finger over part of it

With curtains drawn to reveal the garden the first problem I suspect will be the brightness of the outside light which needs to be balanced with the flash ... a quite advanced form of photography called 'syncro-sunlight' [ even when it is overcast and cloudy ] which might be best left until you know more.
The position of the Rokinor should not make problems so long as it is is not in the reflection angle [ triangle ] and seen by the camera in the glass ... the onboard flash might in this case be shielded completely from the subjects and window with just enough escaping sideways to trigger the Rokinor ... or you can get wireless tranmitter/receiver to make the flash work with the camera [ USD30 upwards, Amazon ]

Amazon is also a source for portable backdrops for complicated rooms though hardly worth it for the occasional family group.
Getting and gaining experience and confidence in what you can do with an editor [ a proper one like PSP, Adobe Elements, or Adobe Photoshop in degrees of expense if not competance. ] may solve your background problems.

If the curtain is not acceptable then hanging a sheet of material on it could be an alternative.

[Catalina]

Such a detailed explanation just for me . You are very kind.

I will try to digest it step by step, doing several exercises with the flash.

When you talk about syncrosunlight I remember the last class of photography that I took, the professor used big reflectors under plain sunlight, and they were synchronized with the camera. A very expensive and large equipment.

I have those photos somewhere in the pc.

I ask you, is a curtain a good background?

Thank you very much Jcuknz. You have been very helpful

[Catalina]

Do you mean a piece of fabric like the one used in the studios of photography. I took this photo when Cristina was a girl. I don't particularly like her expression but I took advantage of the fabric placed there by the photographer of her school.

[jcuknz]

Yes to #11 and not really to #10
This is an example of syncro-sunlight with the onboard adjusted to minus one stop in its output, I think 1.5 or even minus two stops would have been better as the idea is to lighten the dark shadows without it looking like a flash photo which sadly is the result here. [ apart from my setting the flash strength the camera took the photo for me ... no skill required, unlike when I first did S/S with film and a manual camera]


edit Curtains ...What I didn't like about them in your son's photo was their dominance over the subject. Comes of the 'approved' way of hanging curtains with twice the material for the wdith, which in my home I ignore and have a flat curtain
The folds created dark shadows.[ from memory ] ... though the angle of the light to the material can change its appearance as I remember of a photo of a carpet partly hung up so some was on the floor and some up against the wall of the studio.

[Catalina]

I see that the light in this photography is strong, but there are no shadows, I mean unwanted shadows. The color of the skin of the bride is beautiful. Her mother looks pale to me and the groom has reddish skin. But those must be their natural skin tones.

As I am not familiar with the work off the flash, either during night time or plain day I try to avoid it, just for now, and try to open the diaphragm.

I took a series of photos of my mother using the light at 5 pm. Her expression looked good, there were not unwanted shadows because the intensity and color of the light: I could avoid the use of flash.

Now it is another step for me. To use the flash during day or night.
thanks again jcuknz. Have yourself a merry, merry Christmas and lot of accomplished goals in 2014.

I have already published this photo on the forum and now,I ask you, should I use flash?