Attempting to re do failed portrait shoot.

[Mark von Kanel]

I bought my Camera and Flash after a ten year break in photography last Christmas, i visited my brother and as he always on the look out for something for nothing he pressured me into holding an impromptu portraiture session. It didnt turn out well!

The reason was i didnt have a clue on how to use my flash, pose subjects sort out backgrounds or apply any, PP its been a busy year full of work and little else, but ive had lots of time to read and some time to take pictures so im getting better.

Im visiting my brother again and will attempt to re shoot the session hopefully with more success. below is one of the salvageable images that ive had a go at, im going to print it out for him any advice?



SOOC



PP includes crop, +1.0 , recovery, - clarity, selective sharpening using masking, and a vignette which im not sure about



As above but no B&W conversion.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Mark,

Lighting 2 people with a single light source is difficult because if you try to have the light coming from the side to get a bit of direction in it, you inevitably end up with one of the people creating shadows over the other. In this type of situation I generally use 2 lights (minimum), but swap key and fill lighting around so that a light along the axis of the lens does the bulk of the work, augmented by a fill light that may impart some directivity. The other approach is to light each person seperately, but that's even trickier

The other issue you have is one of composition ... the one you have here really just doesn't work ... generally, gaps between people don't work well. Perhaps in this situation, having them face to face, with arms around each other (to preserve her modesty), and with a light coming from behind (to produce a silhouette) (perhaps with a little fill from the front?) may have worked.

Nudes / implied nudes require careful lighting though. You might be better prepared by studying some books on boudoir photography?

[Mark von Kanel]

Thanks for the input colin, i knew they were bad this one wasnt posed it was candid, between poses and it realy was the best of a bad experience still im hoping for better this time i have a total of 6 speedlights but i am going to struggle to trigger them... still rome wasnt built in a day and ill see how i go, the nude thing wasnt my idea i hasten to add!!

[Colin Southern]

Thanks for the input colin, i knew they were bad this one wasnt posed it was candid, between poses and it realy was the best of a bad experience still im hoping for better this time i have a total of 6 speedlights but i am going to struggle to trigger them... still rome wasnt built in a day and ill see how i go, the nude thing wasnt my idea i hasten to add!!

Hi Mark,

Keep your chin up! When people ask for advice like this I generally just try to stick to the facts -- so hopefully anything I've said wasn't taken as "discouraging". Frankly, when you're starting out doing this kind of thing if can be quite discouraging, but I think that's a GOOD thing - why? - because it's showing that YOU'RE not happy with the work - which in turn means that you'll strive to do better each time. Contrast that with someone who posts something that looks b****y awful, but they think looks great -- it can be much harder to progress those kinds because they're not receptive to change.

I think the bottom line is that folks can read all kinds of books - watch training videos - receive truckloads of advice here ... but all of that doesn't help them be a better photographer - it only helps them LEARN to be a better photographer. The difference is subtle; in the first instance, people expect good results from minimal effort (ie "a shortcut"), but in the latter instance one learns to accept that the ONLY way to actually achieve ever-improving results is to put the theory into practice. When something works then you've just learnt something that works. When something doesn't work then that's still OK because you now know what DOESN'T work! I've read dozens of books on body-building, but they didn't make my muscles any bigger!

The think with photography is that - the more you "move up the food chain" - the more elements to the process you need to be aware of (and start controlling) - and people usually don't ealise that the "nice casual shot" that they see on the cover of a glossy magazine was the result of 3 days of set construction - 4 hours in makeup (with a professional MUA) - photographer - art director - assistants - professional retouchers etc ... so it's not surprising that these are the kinds of shots we strive for, but at the same time, they're shots that are a LOT more difficult than we ever realised - BUT - when we start producing work that's getting close (and closer) to this level it usually means that we're doing a better and better job of manipulating our environment - we're creating better lighting - we're getting more accurate colour - we're processing shots better - we're having better makup applied - we're chosing better locations ... in short, it means that we're learning one heck of a lot of good stuff. The only downside is that all of this good stuff only comes from experience. Same old routine - get out there - get shooting - look at the results - think about the results - get constructive feedback about the results - think how you'll do something differently next time - do it differently next time. Rinse and repeat!

And next time you do a nude shoot ...

... keep your shirt on!

[Colin Southern]

PS: Here's a quick and dirty edit to show you what I mean about the distance between people.

PPS: Forgot to mention that you need to be careful when using the clarity slider on people ... a little negative clarity can be a quick and dirty fix for smoothing skin, but any positive clarity generally causes train wrecks with respect to portraiture.

[Mark von Kanel]

Thanks for your kind comments Colin, im booking my plane ticket to come and be your un paid VOA until i learn how to do your quick and dirty edits! The clarity added was negative as her skin is patchy, im not discouraged at all, i came on here to learn and will do so.

Well im off up to the cold north that is Leicestershire to attempt some portraiture ill post the results!

Thanks again.

Mark

[Colin Southern]

Yeah, yeah - that's what they all say!

The quick and dirty edit is simply ...

- duplicate the layer

- erase the lady on the top layer

- move the top layer to the right (thus advancing the gent)

With blotchy skin - sometimes you can take a completely different approach that saves heaps of time ...

... just go for a soft look for the entire portrait: