Very green! Would like help, feedback, criticism, you name it!

[lynnfox1975]

Hello, I am VERY new to photography. I am here to learn and appreciate any advice as my family can not be relied on to give me anything less than a compliment. The image is of my 2 year old son. It was taken in front of our bay window in morning light with a Nikon F1.8 lens. It was really just a snapshot because I thought he looked cute and he was kind enough to ignore the camera while I fooled around with it in Aperature Priority. I am that green... I am just trying to learn how to take it out of Auto mode...

Included the original pic and one that I made bw and softened as well as edited the scratch on his cheek.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

I'm sure some of the portrait experts will be along soon to help give some pointers. I'm only new to the whole photo thing but from my perspective I think the image could actually use a little sharpening rather than softening. Not sure what aperture you used but if you used 1.8 that could be why one of your son's eyes is a little out of focus - very shallow depth of field at 1.8 close up. Just got my 50mm 1.8 delivered yesterday and have run into a similar issue.

The black and white seems to work well though - if you could darken the background I think it would make your son stand out more. Also, not sure if the photo is cropped at all but I think a bit of negative space on the left of the image would work as well.

[lynnfox1975]

Thank you. I didn't do any cropping. I am finding I have a tendancy to fill the frame with my subject and rarely leave enough room for cropping. I need to work on that as it has caused me trouble many times in the past. I can't recall the aperture I used but it likely was 1.8 as I remember concentrating on trying to blur the background.

I'll play around with darkening the background and sharpening the image to see what I come up with.

I appreciate the comments

[Goldcoastgolfer]

You probably don't need to open up as high as 1.8 for portrait shots - especially if you're taking photos close up as that will cause the depth of field to be shallow anyway. Stopping down a bit will give you a depth of field that should help keep more of the face in focus - I think F/4 is what one of the portrait experts on here recommended to me when I was contemplating getting the 1.8 lens.

Looking forward to seeing more of your shots

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Lynn,

Welcome to the CiC forums from me, great to have you join us.

The EXIF data reveals you did shoot this at f/1.8 at 1/25s and iso 200 with a Nikon D3100 - it must have been quite dim

You really could do with a higher shutter speed (to freeze the active lad) and a narrower aperture (for DoF), but iso alone isn't going to achieve all that, more light if possible, but not harsh sunlight, or we'll trade one set of problems for another.

Regarding blurring the background, as long as the subject is closer to you (and the camera) than they are to the background, there shouldn't be a problem and you will need f/2.8 to f/4 to get both eyes in focus.

By the way, I should also admit to not being a practicising portraitist, but I know the basics (well, I think I do)

For someone "very green", you're not doing too bad and seem to hav ethe right idea on most things, there's much more right than wrong with this shot, so well done - oooh, a compliment, I'd better shurrup

All the best,

[lynnfox1975]

Ha! I like compliments, I just like them peppered with advice. Your post is perfect Thanks.

Yes our livingroom is quite the cave despite the large bay window. Since I don't have any studio lights (yet - but one can hope - Santa??) I am going to have to experiment with different rooms in our home and see if I can do better.

Thanks for all of the advice. I will put it all into practice and see how I do.

ps - I'm glad to be here. I am finding CIC fantastic so far!