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[Evertking]

Here are some pictures that I have take of my wife. I like them but that does not mean that they are good and I can't go by what my wife tells me. I feel like she doesn't want to hurt me.
Anyway, here they are.

[Rent]

Can I suggest that you ask her to look at the lens and also keep her elbows out of the way. the elbows in 1 & 2 are nearly as dominant as her face ( Don't be offended by my remarks, I tend to be a bit blunt )
Roy

[Shadowman]

Great lighting, the exposure looks fine and it looks like you've backed down on the aperture setting; I could be wrong. Still be wary of your background, you could darken the background some to eliminate the structure.

[Evertking]

No, it's fine. I see what your saying. The elbows are a big bright spot in the image.
Thanks

[billtils]

Very nice effect from the backlighting. The elbow comments are correct and the third is (to me) the pick of the bunch.

[KWM]

I really like the images. What lighting did you use?

[Geoff F]

I agree about her elbows looking too large.

With the first image although in some ways I like the idea of showing the light source, it is too bright and has become a distraction so I would crop to something similar to the second image although I would cut closer at the bottom to remove the largest area of elbow.

#2 has over bright areas on her cheeks and forehead and the elbow is still over dominant.

#3 is definitely getting there although I would slightly tone down or crop out the top left light source area. It is a rather shallow focus depth but you have her hand and eyes sharply focused so it doesn't really matter if any areas behind those parts does gradually become softer.

[rpcrowe]

I suspect that the dominance of her elbows results from using a 50mm lens on a full frame camera for head and shoulders portraiture. IMO, a longer lens (at least 85 to 100mm with even longer being better) might not cause the distortion since you would be shooting from a longer lens to subject distance...

One thing that I would like to see is a couple of portraits of your lovely wife with her eyes in line with her nose. In other words, with her eyes looking in the same direction as her head is turned...

Finally, there is a red area in the last image stretching from her armpit up to her shoulder. It is not evident in image #2...

[Evertking]

A godox AD600 and a 5ft octa. I rented a 24-70 and these were taken with that but I ended up getting the 135mm.
I'm going to get out here in a few hours and take pictures of a young lady and all the advice given, will be put to use.

[Manfred M]

Time for a few thoughts on what you are doing and what and why things are and are not working:

1. 50mm lens for closeup portraiture work - As others have mentioned, this lens is too short for this type of portraiture work. You end up standing too close to the subject and it will exaggerate the size of anything forward of the eyes in the image.

The most popular pro portrait lenses sold by all of the major full frame camera manufacturers is the 70-200mm focal length. These lenses force the photographer to stand further back and that tends to flatten the perspective, which gives a more aesthetically pleasing image. I know some photographers will shoot scenes like this with an 85mm lens, but I tend to work in the 105 - 135mm range a lot of the time. For outdoor shots, where I have more space to stand back than I would in a studio setting, I often shoot at a full 200mm focal length.

2. Distorting the face with hands / fingers - your wife is pressing and indenting the skin on her face in shots 1 and 3. If she touches her face, get her to just barely make contact to prevent this from happening.

3. Amputations - in image 2 and 3 you have some awkward looking places where body parts are missing. By tucking her hand behind her neck, the hand is partially cut off from the viewer. In #3 you have a hand that comes from nowhere. Is it her hand or is it someone out of frame sticking a hand into the shot. Both look a bit awkward and will subconsciously bother people, making the image less effective.

4. Bright objects in the background - the human visual system is keyed to pick up on bright areas and areas of high contrast. We will see these areas and will look right past the subject. If they are near the edge of the frame, they will pull the viewer's eyes right out of the image, which is not what you want to happen.


Now for the things I do like:

1. Good sharp focus, especially on the eyes. Good positioning of the eyes, especially in #1 and #2. They are getting a bit marginal in #3 as there is very little white on the camera left side of the eye.

2. Nice rim lighting / hair light from the sun. You have white balanced to get the skin looking right which means the light from the setting sun is a bit warmer than your WB (much the same if you had used an orange gelled rim / hair light). This effect works quite well.

3. Good use of shallow depth of field. The background is nice and soft.

One neutral comment:

For this type of shot, using your camera in the portrait / vertical orientation often gives more pleasing results. You might want to consider shooting in both orientations to see which image works out being the stronger one. If you are purely looking at these on a computer screen, there is something to be said for using the horizontal / landscape orientation, but for prints or viewing on a tablet / Smartphone, the vertical / portrait orientation is often stronger.

[Evertking]

Thanks for all the input. I really like my 135mm, it's taking some time to get use to and it needed calibration but I finally got that figured out.
I will be taking a friend's pictures in a few and will be returning to the same location where I took the pictures of my wife. I just have to keep the hands out of the grass and think of poses with nothing around to use as props.

[rpcrowe]

A few more observations...

Makeup: your wife is a lovely woman who really doesn't need makeup for daily wear. However for photography, makeup might help in two areas:

Lips: her lips seem to be somewhat dried and cracked. Perhaps some moistener or lipstick might be appropriate.

Nose, upper left cheek and between chin and mouth: There is a shine/glare in these areas. Perhaps some powder or pancake makeup might dull the shine...

Color balance: I like to have my subject appear the same in all pictures of a series. None of your images seem way off color but, there is quite a difference between the shots.