1st try at a portrait

[NJ]

was bored with a mate over so thought i would take a pic for him to put on his myspace acount, so sorry about the tag, thats why its there. please let me know where i could im improve. thanks

Manual 50mm f1.8 800iso

[rflower]

Hi Nathan,

I think it could be a little sharper (eg around the end of his nose) maybe up a step or two. 1.8 is quite a shallow depth of field.

I am not sure about half of his face in shadow either. It is harder to see the eye in that side.

my 2c worth.

Russell

[NJ]

thanks russel, i appreciate it, yeh you're probably right about the DOF, something to try next time.

[rflower]

The photo still looks pretty good (overall it is pretty sharp - especially up in the spikey hair) though - it wasn't meant to be overly negative.

Look forward to you next shot

Russell

[marcotrov]

Nathan great effort skin tones and perspective are terrific. Eyes are pretty sharp but I'd have to agree in this case I think an f/stop to create a broader plane of focus would have created more impact here and certainlt added more sharpness to the eyes. CAtch light's in the eyes set them off, composition is great too.
cheers
marco

[NJ]

thanks guys!
russel, i dont take anything on here to be negative, only constructive and thats just what your comment was, and now i know exactly how to get a better resuly so thanks you

[Matt. K]

Eyes are too dark. There is no life in them. You got too close for this one IMO....back off a tad. Try shooting inside close to a window for more flattering light. Not bad for a first try though. The secret is in using soft light and getting accurate exposure.

[Mitchell]

Great composition. The left eye does look a little unusual as the darkness makes the iris and the pupil blend - makes the left eye look much bigger than the right.
Excellent first attempt - looking forward to the next

[Alpha_7]

. You got too close for this one IMO....back off a tad.

Not something we hear Matt K say very often.

A bit more DOF, and more control over the lighting to reduce the shadows would make a significant improve, that said its a very decent start for a first attempt!

[gstark]

Nathan,

Great shot. Colours/wb are spot on on this one, so that's the first thing put to bed.

As others have noted, the DoF is a little light; perhaps a slightly smaller aperture to increase this, and thus the overall sharpness as well, might be in order.

Remember too that the lens has a sweet spot, and as you get down towards f/5.6 you should be right in that zone.

Exposure ... you're right on the edge of the contrast range of the sensor with this one. The left hand side of the face (as we're viewing it) is just within the range available to you.

It would be interesting to see a similar shot, but with either a reflector placed somewhere to our right (as viewed) or else with a very low level of fill flash added, to help reduce the contrast range exposed in the image.

The idea is to increase the amount of light available for the exposure and thus bring the two sides closer together in that regard.

A small piece of foam core board could be helpful to use as a reflector ... or think too about perhaos moving the subject a bit further away from the light source that was used in this image.

Well done.

[NJ]

thanks everyone for you input. it is really, really helpful!

i'll try and get him to come around this arvo for a second attempt

[shutterbug]

I like it....

[Aussie Dave]

Nathan,

Great shot. Colours/wb are spot on on this one, so that's the first thing put to bed.

As others have noted, the DoF is a little light; perhaps a slightly smaller aperture to increase this, and thus the overall sharpness as well, might be in order.

Remember too that the lens has a sweet spot, and as you get down towards f/5.6 you should be right in that zone.

Exposure ... you're right on the edge of the contrast range of the sensor with this one. The left hand side of the face (as we're viewing it) is just within the range available to you.

It would be interesting to see a similar shot, but with either a reflector placed somewhere to our right (as viewed) or else with a very low level of fill flash added, to help reduce the contrast range exposed in the image.

The idea is to increase the amount of light available for the exposure and thus bring the two sides closer together in that regard.

A small piece of foam core board could be helpful to use as a reflector ... or think too about perhaos moving the subject a bit further away from the light source that was used in this image.

Well done.

Good advice. I just had a bit of a look on the net and the human eye can see a range of approx. 20 stops of light, however only about 6.5 stops at any one time. The ave. digital camera would see approx. 5 stops of light.

Therefore, the range of what you're eyes are seeing is more than that of what your camera will see. To understand what you are seeing, and to bring the "dynamic range" back into within 5 stops of lightest area to darkest area is the trick.

By using fill-flash or a reflector, you are attempting to brighten the darker areas so the difference between the highlights and the shadows are "effectively" brought closer together, hopefully to within 5 stops of each other. Beyond that, your histogram will show clipping and you will be under/overexposing certain parts of your image.

Please correct me if my theory is incorrect...

[NJ]

thanks dave that is really cool info to know, and helps my understanding of highlights on the sensor a lot!
i have had another attempt i will post it now.