Portrait

[ashish]

I took this portrait of a friend's little daughter during a recent outing with family and friends.

C&C welcome

[Manfred M]

Hi Ashish - this is a nice portrait that you should be very happy with.

There is a bit to much shadow from the hood around the right side of the face, and under the left side of the neck, but as you were shooting with a single light source, that is what you get. A bit of fill light from the bottom camera right position would soften that out a bit. I just tend to use some white plastic (foam core or core plast) and position it just outside of camera range on the camera right side.

A bit hard to do with a child, I know, but having your friend's daughter looking a bit more straight ahead would centre her eyes a bit more and give you more whites on either side, and that often results in a more pleasing image.

Finally, let's look at your treatment of the image. There is a lot of material that does not add to the image; the whole bit of material at the top, including part of the hat, as well as the empty space above it. Try a different crop here; in the example below, that is what I have done and employed the "rule of thirds"; both eyes are on the top horizontal third and on the two vertical thirds. I think that this strengthens the composition.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[IzzieK]

I like the look on her face...it is of wonder what she is looking at. I like Manfred's edit here...

[Geoff F]

My first thoughts were about a crop from the top but I wonder if Manfred has gone just a fraction too far for a child portrait which is possibly looking a bit 'harsh and stark' now?

I would be tempted to try cropping just the top and leaving the sides as they are now?

[wilgk]

I think I'm of the same opinion as Geoff on this one, the lighting to me would suit a teenage boy or sporting or environmental portrait. I think Joe McNally has the phrase "Babies are soft, light 'em softly"
However I do really like the way your subject fills the frame & there is no distracting background, well done.

[Manfred M]

The harshness in the image is due to the light source. If you look into the girl's eyes, you can see the tiny catchlight that is typical of small, direct speedlight. A large modifier, i.e. a shoot-through or white reflective umbrella would soften the light dramatically. Bouncing the lightoff a ceiling with a fill card would be an improvement as well, but the results would likely not be as soft as am umbrella, and not ideal in this sitation (as I said before, I suspect there is no place to bounce the light from).

Based on the sharp light drop off, I would guess that there were no nearby walls or ceilings to bounce off and that the flash was fairly close to the subject. The light seems to be coming down from camera left, but the position of the catchlights suggests the the light source was fairly low and close to the camera.

[mknittle]

Very nice Ashish,

[Paniaa]

Very nice.

[Ndukes]

What a wonderful portrait. I like it just as it is.

[ashish]

The harshness in the image is due to the light source. If you look into the girl's eyes, you can see the tiny catchlight that is typical of small, direct speedlight. A large modifier, i.e. a shoot-through or white reflective umbrella would soften the light dramatically. Bouncing the lightoff a ceiling with a fill card would be an improvement as well, but the results would likely not be as soft as am umbrella, and not ideal in this sitation (as I said before, I suspect there is no place to bounce the light from).

Based on the sharp light drop off, I would guess that there were no nearby walls or ceilings to bounce off and that the flash was fairly close to the subject. The light seems to be coming down from camera left, but the position of the catchlights suggests the the light source was fairly low and close to the camera.

You're right Manfred. I had taken this outdoors at night with a remote flash with a grid on it. No place to bounce the light either. The shadows on her neckline are a result of the relatively narrow light beam created by the grid. I was not carrying the softbox and had to make do with what i had. I like your edit. Thank you for your detailed analysis. It definitely helps a lot.

[Manfred M]

Thanks for telling me how you took the shot. Now that I know, I understand a few things I found confusing about the lighting in the image. I'm a bit surprised that you used a grid and not a reflector (with my gear, the grid pops in and out of the reflector), to give a bit wider throw of the light. With no walls or ceilings to reflect the light from, I would have thought that the tight light pattern would not be necessary.

The two things that confused me when I first looked at your image was the size of the catchlights in the girl's eyes. They seemed to be a bit too large to be a Speedlight, so a grided reflector now makes sense. The other issue was the rapid dropoff of the light around the hat, and once again, the hard light from the grid explains that quite nicely.

Thanks for the update.