A First Attempt at Portraiture

[Snarkbyte]

I've never attempted portraiture before, and being reluctant to subject anyone else to the trouble and humiliation (my studio is literally a closet), I settled on a self-portrait as the only avenue available. Obviously, I wasn't trying to make myself look pretty here (an impossible task in any event... I'll settle for no damage to the lens). C&C welcome and appreciated.

[dubaiphil]

Well the light's great and a nice thoughtful pose! Good on you, Al. Shooting with a 40mm at f5.6 has limited the depth of field a little, so it's not as sharp as it could be but that's very tricky to achieve when you're prefocusing for a self portrait.

EXIF shows that flash did not fire, so what's your light source?

[AB26]

Hi Al,
Now that is a great shot. Looks like a picture from a book on teaching photography. The tone, the focus, the lighting and composition: Brilliant! Absolutely BRILLIANT!

[Snarkbyte]

This was shot in my living room, early in the morning, so the shot was done in available light through the window. Thanks for the comments, Phil and Andre.

[MilT0s]

Al this is a fantastic shot. Superb result with minimum equipment aiming at the heart of photography.

Ok your nose is a bit dark but come on this is available light, pre-focused self-portrait! It looks like a pros' "high tech" studio result!

[Loose Canon]

Hi Al!

A very dashing young lad you have chosen as your first portrait subject! I think you have captured him very nicely. The B&W really sings here.

Not for nothing Al, but I am noticing a couple of white specks on your model's jaw line and cheek that might be better off not there.

I hope your model didn't give you as much heartache and misery as mine does! Though mine works cheap, he is a huge PITA! I'm not so sure he is worth the trouble!

Nice work, Al.

[Snarkbyte]

Thanks for the comments, everyone... much appreciated.

@Terry: You're right... I had to fire the model because he insisted on running every detail of the entire shoot. The one important technical aspect of portraiture that Colin has been unwilling to share is how to attract those gorgeous young female models. I could use an in-depth tutorial on the subject, if you're reading this, Colin.

FWIW: This shot wasn't really pre-focused. I just used the classic cell-phone technique of holding the camera at arm's length and letting auto-focus do the rest. I was really just playing around with my new 40mm pancake lens. I bought this specifically for stealthy street shooting, since it doesn't attract much attention, but I couldn't resist playing around a bit.

[Colin Southern]

Looks pretty good to me -- only comment is that I think it's a little over-sharpened that make the skin texture a tad on the crunchy side.

[ggt]

I like the reality of the photo.

Nice work, IMHO.