More of what I hate to do...

[Plumcrak]

...but I am still trying. After fighting the sun, the surf, the shadows from the pier and the boy who does not smile...I am about to give up. C & C welcome.


she will kill me for this one!

I do believe this is my favorite from this dismal outing.

[Manfred M]

I noticed a few compositional elements you might want to watch out for when shooting.

1. Glasses are notoriously difficult to work with. Reflections are a common problem, and the other issue is having the frame of the glasses cutting through the eye of the subject. Have a look at the top and bottom picture, I think you'll see that I mean.

2. Unless you are shooting a profile and all you see is one eye, try to keep the nose from "cutting" the cheek line. You don't quite do it in the bottom image, but having the model turn a bit more towards you will make her back eye and cheek look better. Leaving a bit of space between the tip of the nose and the cheek line usually gives a nicer looking portrait.

3. Careful when posing hands. The lens can tend to make the model's hand look a bit claw-like. I prefer keeping hand out of the image, but when you can't a profile view of the hand tends to make it slimmer and more attractive. Again, look a the hands in the top and bottom image.

[Donald]

Manfred has offered up what I think is a very good commentary. The one additional point I'd suggest is 'think of the background'.

I feel that in the first two what we have as the backdrop is a magnificent pier. So magnificent that our attention is torn between the people and the pier.

[PKFUSION]

Just to add a small thing, 'lean in' as a last desperate cry often produces a picture with a much more affectionate atmosphere. Compare the first to the last picture, makes the last one my favourite..
(Sorry, have to mention the slightly wonky horizon, very difficult to get straight when you have those sort or angled converging lines of the pier, but easy to fix later)

[Manfred M]

Donald makes a very good point - the viewer should never have to wonder about what the subject of the photograph is. The pier is magnificent and unabashedly intrudes into the image. The reason you likely prefer the third image is that the background does not compete with the subject matter.

I have a simple rule of thumb; look away from the image for at least 30 seconds and then look at it. Remember the first thing that catches your eye. If it is not the subject of the photo, you have a problem with the image.

I think that the first two images are best described as snapshots, the bottom one is a photograph.

[kdoc856]

Superb feedback. I've not done much (nor have any particular plans for) portraiture but I'm memorizing all of this for future reference.

[Polar01]

Jon I am only going to say something about the colour, it seems to orange and yellow. If you worked your file in Raw, try this, open file, use crop tool to crop important area (them), now go to magnify to enlarge. This histogram you see is now for the cropped area, using the individual colours sliders get the cropped image the way you like it, then select crop tool, pull down "clear crop". Now save image, if the background does not look correct, open the saved image, rework, rename, and put the best of the two images together the best way you can. I think less orange and yellow will give you a better skin tone.

Cheers:

Allan

[gilliebg]

The third picture is my favorite of the three; I really like the pose and the conversion is well handled in my eyes. You have some expert opinions from people who know far more than I, but to me, the other two shots look as though you have placed the young people on a background that was taken in different light and with a different exposure and with different white balance.

[Plumcrak]

Thank you all for the very helpful C & C, I have stored all this information in my rusty brain. As I have stated before, I really hate taking pictures of people...there is just too much to consider and worry about. I will probably continue shooting people at some point but the more I am around people, the more I like my dogs.

[JPS]

Jon,
number 3 is my favourite too. I have seen somewhere that by using a flash high up pointing down and at a 30 degree angle, eliminates any reflections in models that are wearing glasses. I'm sure one of our more experienced members will be able to explain this better than me.
I think both their expressions in number 3 are great. You are lucky to have them both to model for you; are they family? I wish someone in my family would pose for me, they all seem camera shy. Or perhaps they think my technique is rubbish. lol
Thanks for sharing.
John

[Plumcrak]

John, Yes, these are my kids. My daughter seems somewhat willing, but it is like pulling teeth to get my son to smile or make any kind of expression other than a scowl,

[stephencamptonjones]

My kids are the same except in reverse.
I get them to smile when I as them to talk about their most hated teacher. Works a treat. I also make sure the wife isn't around the language is good and the smiles fly.

[Plumcrak]

The third picture is my favorite of the three; I really like the pose and the conversion is well handled in my eyes. You have some expert opinions from people who know far more than I, but to me, the other two shots look as though you have placed the young people on a background that was taken in different light and with a different exposure and with different white balance.

Gillie, I thought the same thing when looking at them, but I cannot figure out why they look like that. The background is what was there. I thought my eyes were getting even worse or I was losing my mind (which is a possibility).