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Here are a few portraits i took this evning with my D70..








I used one household lamp and thats it in a empty room, was it successful? any tips would be appreciated.
~William

Nice shots (BTW what lens(es) where you using?)

Out of these my favourite is #2 I like the pose, the lighting is close to spot on and the background helps bring the subject out. I'd say the area near her left eye could perhaps have done with a little more light, but that's being picky and I'm not sure if that would make it better or not. You've cropped the top of her head but for this shot I don't mind it

#3 Is my second favourite, it's perhaps a little too soft I'm guessing you've gone for the gaussian blur / glamour look here for me the eyes are a little too soft. I'd also have made it a little looser around the chin, and toned down the light a little her forehead is a little too hot for my liking. But overall its a great shot of a beautiful women.

#1 This shot doesn't work as well as the first two, I'd crop it differently as we don't see all of her head, I'd like to see less and crop it near the kink in her part. I'd also maybe crop a bit from the bottom as its dark and doesn't offer much (IMO). The lighting for me on this one is too harsh/hot on her face, but perhaps this is the look you were going for ? If so then its spot on, not my cup of tea in this instance, but it works.

#4 Hmm shot #4 is interesting I originally pegged it as my least favourite, but it's kind of a little cheeky or atleast more suggestive so it starts to win me back. It seems well exposed and her eyes look straight up at you, and makes this a very engagin shot, the lighting is good, hard to tell if the face is blown or not, but in this case its not as important as her face isn't all that's on show (if that makes sense?). Actually I really like this shot, and think you've done very well.

Excellent series and considering it was one household lamp, awesome job!

Can you eleborate on how you set up the shots ?

Damm damm and triple damm.

That second one is absolutely superb - exactly the type of lighting I would like to achieve. THe mood is just right,. and the pose is great. Background light spill is perfect.

I would be incredibly interested how you set this up.

While #2 is my favourite I think that it and others suffer because you were looking down on the model... I think some of them would have been far more effective if you'd crouched down...
#3 is good in this respect, but the lighting isn't as good as the others

Nice shots. I also like no.2 the most. No. 1 may benefit from smoother skin on her face. Well done.

Alex

I stumbled across the coloured versions of the shots, WOW, the B&W treatment you've used is awesome when you compare the colour versions. Do you have a particular technique ? I also noticed the eyes have gone very dark compared to the colour shots (were they intentionally darken, or just part of the process). Apologies for being a noisy bugger.

William,

I can only echo what others have said previously. The second shot is the stand out and the lighting you've used is just superb. I'd also like to hear how you achieved this. The composition of the shot doesn't quite work for me (as in it pulls it up just short of being brilliant - I'd be very happy with it personally), but I can't quite put my finger on what it is. Tasty subject too, by the way.

I have only praises to say. These portraits are really really really excellent.

Thanks, i used my Kit lens along with a cheap 60 watt lightbulb lamp pointed at her, as for my black and white technique i always go in to channel mixer and click monochrome them increase the contrast to about 20, then do some dogging and burning from there!
Thanks!

Nice shots William, great subject matter!
Sonny