Pretty Little Girl

[kellymdempewolf]

I hung out with my best friend's daughter while she ran an errand this afternoon. Perfect chance to try out the new 50mm f/1.8 lens in my daughter's room (while my daughter was at school!) It was just me and her and she was completely at ease (known her almost all her life) and we just hung out and I got some great shots!

C&C welcome & appreciated!

Thanks

[Mark von Kanel]

Great shots! well done, do they have a slight pinkish cast to them?

[kellymdempewolf]

They do. She was in a pink room with the sun from the window reflecting off the walls. I removed it in tint in ACR but then when I did the Florabella actions (Classic Film + Ivory Boost + 1968) it gave kind-of a pink cast back onto them again. I may go back into ACR again and pull it out a little more.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Some lovely candid shots there, and there were a few on your blog I liked as well. C&C wise, the colour cast Mark already mentioned. In the second and third shots I'd crop a bit tighter - the mirror on the top right and the items on the bottom left are just a little distracting. You may want to consider brightening her eyes a little just to give it that extra sparkle to draw the viewer in. The only thing is in the third photo, most of her hand on the left side of the photo is out of focus while most of her hand on the right is still reasonably sharp which gives it a bit of a funny effect.


Just minor stuff but hope this helps!

[kellymdempewolf]

Great feedback, Malcolm! Thank you.

I was struggling with cropping trying to get those things out of the picture but I couldn't get enough of her in it maintaining the aspect ratio...if her mom ever wanted to print it, I wanted to make sure that she could...but for online display it can be any aspect ratio I want!

I was shooting pretty much wide open on that third one...probably should have stopped down a little more to get better DOF and get both her hands in the same plane...first time using that lens and I'm sure I'll get used to it...it's a great lens, especially for $100!

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Great feedback, Malcolm! Thank you.

I was struggling with cropping trying to get those things out of the picture but I couldn't get enough of her in it maintaining the aspect ratio...if her mom ever wanted to print it, I wanted to make sure that she could...but for online display it can be any aspect ratio I want!

I was shooting pretty much wide open on that third one...probably should have stopped down a little more to get better DOF and get both her hands in the same plane...first time using that lens and I'm sure I'll get used to it...it's a great lens, especially for $100!

The 50mm 1.8 is what I tend to shoot with most of the time as well - at least the Nikon version which is double the price! I have to confess that I also have a habit of shooting a lot of my portraits wide open and got caught out a lot with my focus point not being precisely right - which it needs to be when wide open.

There's a tutorial on the Cambridge site somewhere about the actual depth of field for a given aperture and focus distance which is quite useful. I'm still trying to memorise all of the numbers for my camera so I know when 1.8 is just going to be too thin. Lots of numbers though so I'm still making mistakes too

[Markvetnz]

From a purely photographic POV. They look overexposed to me. They lack contrast. Colour cast already mentioned.
Try using the levels and curves tools in PS if you have it. There's a good tutorial on site. Most portraits are shot at F11 or even higher! A low f stop gives you such a narrow depth of field that it makes life very difficult.

I love your model. Very cute.

[kellymdempewolf]

Is this better?
I adjusted the levels to bring back in some contrast and tried to remove the pink cast.

Thanks for all your input!



so you don't have to scroll around...the original image...

[speedneeder]

Most portraits are shot at F11 or even higher! A low f stop gives you such a narrow depth of field that it makes life very difficult.

Mark, you know more about this than I do, but I wouldn't suggest to shoot at f11 in this case! I wouldn't suggest f1.8 either, but as a new lens, you just have to shoot there! Simply because you can
The expressions are awesome!

[kellymdempewolf]

Mark, you know more about this than I do, but I wouldn't suggest to shoot at f11 in this case! I wouldn't suggest f1.8 either, but as a new lens, you just have to shoot there! Simply because you can
The expressions are awesome!

Many portraits are shot wider than f/11. And I know f/1.8 was definitely extreme here...but Brian's right...with a new lens you do it just because you can!

[Goldcoastgolfer]

With the right background shooting at F/11 isn't a problem and lets you get a lot more detail in focus. Knowing how to shoot at f/1.8 comes in handy if you've got a poor background you need throw out of focus to keep the attention on the subject. It becomes an exercise of knowing how far away you need to be from the subject to get the depth of field that you want.

I've got a handy reference table still in my camera bag for when I need to check the numbers