My little Sister

[JPS]

Managed to get my Sister to pose for my real first attempt at a portrait.
Just wondering if you guys would give me some pointers to where I have gone wrong (or may right), I've lost my way a bit and not sure what to do next.

[speedneeder]

Hi John,
The one thing that jumps out at me his her dark lower lip and chin. Is this an effect of vignetting?
A couple little things - her left cheek looks pretty hot on my screen, is this a look you were going for?
For a monotone image like this I would prefer a little more shadow on the face to provide more shape. More contrast?
Not a bad photo at all. I think all of my comments are very subjective.

[Colin Southern]

Hi John,

Normally you'll want the eyes to be in the top 1/2 of the shot (preferably on a rule of thirds intersection). It's common practice to crop off the tops of heads to achieve this (portraiture is all about faces, and cropping the top of a dead doesn't stop us evaluating the face), but normally croppping a chin is a no-no (I'd have to say that overall the crop is too tight).

The other thing tht stands out is the lighting / processing - not sure if this is your intended effect, but what I'm seeing looks more like it's shot with a video camera on night mode.

Hope this helps!

[JPS]

Hi John,
The one thing that jumps out at me his her dark lower lip and chin. Is this an effect of vignetting?
A couple little things - her left cheek looks pretty hot on my screen, is this a look you were going for?
For a monotone image like this I would prefer a little more shadow on the face to provide more shape. More contrast?
Not a bad photo at all. I think all of my comments are very subjective.

Brian,
thanks for taking the time to give me some advice. I would like to say I was trying to get the vignetting effect on her lip/chin, but in truth it is down to my lack of understanding and using light properly. I am currently reading a book called 'Light, Science & Magic' which I think will cover all I will ever need to know. However, reading it and then trying out their techniques is taking time. But then, as I think we would all agree, Photography is a life time of learning, so slowly does it.
Thanks for your advice.

[JPS]

Colin,
Thank you for the points raised, it makes perfect sense. I will try on my next attempt, to incorporate your suggestions. Lighting is one of my many weak points and I must try to get that right, if I'm ever going to improve.
Many thanks, I'll be back soon with my 'New improved' shot. (I hope).
John

[rpcrowe]

What was your lighting setup? This sort of looks like straight on-camera flash. How did you do the conversion to B&W?

[JPS]

Hi Richard,
you are correct I only had a on camera flash when this picture was taken. I have now invested in some other lights so as to allow me to take my next steps in portraiture. In hindsight I would have moved her further away from the background and tried putting a small defused light to the side, behind her. I do agree, perhaps the light on her face should have been more even.

Conversion to B&W was carried out using Photoshop Elements 9 'default' setting, with just a bit of tweaking of the contrast.
Regards