First attempt at studio portraits! C&C please!!

[BradSut26]

finally set up a makeshift studio today. my brother was the only model i had. these are the best i got from todays shoot.





i know on some of the photos (if not all) the features are a little soft. especially for a male. but my lighting was bad so i had to smooth it out a bit to reduce noise. so aside from that. what do you guys think??

[Nomadr]

good for a first try, smoothing the skin is not my scene tho, i think you should have used a different BG, his hood gets lost in the darkness and to me looks like he has something akin to pigtails (especially in the last shot), a table lamp placed behind pointing at the BG might help with seperation,obviously when/if you start really getting into it you would add hairlights and stuff but at the moment you can use things around the house,
it might be worth mentioning your settings and if you used a flash meter or not to get correct exposure, i dont do much portrait so not really the best person to advise but i know a good portrait when i see one,
lastly its a great idea practicing with your brother, save your pictures and see how the improvements go along the way, cheers martyn

[BradSut26]

thanks for the reply. my iso was at 800 and exposure around 100 or slower i believe. im not at my computer so im just trying to remember. I agree with the change in color for the background because of his hood. i wasnt thinking about it at the time. im going to reshoot today and see what i can improve upon!

[speedneeder]

I think Martyn summed it up pretty good.
The good things is that you already saw some things that you wanted to improve on! It can be hard to critique someone else's work when you aren't sure exactly what look they were trying to get in the first place.
Kudos to your brother for cooperating!
There is a stickied turorial about portraiture in this forum. You should take a look if you haven't already. There's some good ideas in there.
I'd like to see your second round of photos.

[BradSut26]

Thanks Brian! i havent checked it out yet ill go take a look now. And i will definitely post my second round of photos sometime this weekend!

[speedneeder]

Great! I look forward to it.