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If you stop to consider things at all it breaks down quite quickly. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors to produce a frame. Posing is hard regardless of gender. Especially looking good doing it.
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Mar 4, 2013 05:27
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big scary monsters posted:Anyone with a Canon D-SLR can take a portrait... Here's pretty much what you're looking for (I love this series) http://www.flickr.com/photos/clickandclash/sets/72157626584908000/
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Mar 4, 2013 05:35
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It's actually pretty tough to be attentive enough to poses and expressions that you don't repeat yourself or end up doing something hokey. I posted it more as an example of what not to do, but hey, some people took that advice seriously, I'm sure.
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Mar 4, 2013 08:35
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nonanone posted:Here's pretty much what you're looking for (I love this series) http://www.flickr.com/photos/clickandclash/sets/72157626584908000/ That's a pretty great series and it demonstrates more or less exactly what I meant, thanks.
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Mar 4, 2013 12:23
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I think this might be my first time posting on here, but ive occasionally lurked about, and figured i might as well throw something up here. IMG_1906 by Alex Domsky, on Flickr  IMG_1895 by Alex Domsky, on Flickr  IMG_1885 by Alex Domsky, on Flickr
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Mar 5, 2013 01:41
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So I'm giving up on the B&W/film/darkroom thing. I've found my true calling.
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Mar 5, 2013 17:41
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McMadCow posted:So I'm giving up on the B&W/film/darkroom thing. I've found my true calling. I've been looking for that background.  family fun by natebol, on Flickr
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Mar 5, 2013 18:07
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McMadCow posted:So I'm giving up on the B&W/film/darkroom thing. I've found my true calling. http://www.laserportraits.net/
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Mar 5, 2013 18:09
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Oh god every needs lasers now. I've been absent for ages because I'm an idiot and have been waiting for commissions, all of which are far too boring to post. Along with several other aspects of my pitiful existence, I decided to get my arse into gear and just go and set up shoots just because. Did a shoot over the weekend of Luchadores 'The Fabulous Bakewell Boys'. This will mean very little to you non UK resident, but they have a Yorkshire / Northerner gimmick. We scooted around East London and got all cool and poo poo. They're a comedy set, but I thought we'd blur the lines and go between serious and silly. My idea was to avoid pulling mock serious faces and instead have a few where it looked like we were genuinely being serious, a few which were obviously silly, and a few somewhere in between. Anyway, shut up now.     Full set here, if anyone's interested. Gazmachine fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Mar 5, 2013 |
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Mar 5, 2013 19:50
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McMadCow posted:So I'm giving up on the B&W/film/darkroom thing. I've found my true calling. Orthodontist?
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Mar 6, 2013 03:08
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Mar 6, 2013 16:36
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Would've liked to see these shot at a narrower aperture to keep the entire body in focus. Bakewells2 in your flickr set would've definitely been improved with a larger depth of field IMO. I like to PP style though. My job was a bit more run of the mill. He wanted lots of PP but refused to smile because of his chipped teeth that I told him no one really cares about.   
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Mar 7, 2013 01:27
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My sister asked me to take her (outdoor) engagement photos this weekend. I've literally never done any portrait work so needless to say I'm a little indimidated. Any tips for engagement type shots? I've never tried posing people or anything. I've got a 50mm 1.8 and a 17-50 2.8 on a 40D, I'm guessing the 50mm is the way to go for the most part... but I also lack reflectors, flashes, etc. so I know they won't be optimal shots regardless.
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Mar 7, 2013 17:37
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_adam posted:My sister asked me to take her (outdoor) engagement photos this weekend. I've literally never done any portrait work so needless to say I'm a little indimidated. Default mostly to your 50mm but sprinkle in a few wide angle shots that incorporate the setting well. If possible, lug a tripod for one and do a multiple exposure shot so you can get a blue sky + properly exposed humans (may or not be worth it for one or two wide angle shots, but whatever)). Unless, of course, you have a gradient filter thingy. Then use that. Shoot around dusk or early in the morning. If that's not a possibility, limit your pictures to being in the shade as much as possible. That alone should help the quality of your photos. Make sure you loosen them up. Ie, if you tell the girl to put her hands on the dudes shoulders and he puts his hands on her hips - make sure there isn't a 6 inch gap between them or they look like they're in a middle school dance. Make them embrace. "Grab your bride, man!" There's only so much a couple could be doing in these photos. Take the same photo three ways: Look at the camera (gangster, smiling, silly), look at each other (smiling/flirting), now kiss (or bump heads, or eskimo kiss, or whatever). Follow this advice and your photos will suck less. To contribute, something for fun: 
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Mar 7, 2013 18:23
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I was taking photos for a ball, and particularly liked this test shot for the lighting. Super traditional setup.
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Mar 8, 2013 06:53
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Had a friend who joined me for supper so I took a quick portrait of him, using 1 small LED panel and a shoot-through umbrella. Danny Santos by alkanphel, on Flickr
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Mar 9, 2013 07:36
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_adam posted:My sister asked me to take her (outdoor) engagement photos this weekend. I've literally never done any portrait work so needless to say I'm a little indimidated. I've worked whole shoots with nothing but a 17-50 f/2.8. It's a wonderful lens. The only things that matter are rapport with the subject and good light. If you have those two things, you can make wonderful portraits with a disposable Walmart camera. In theory, it's simple, but simple doesn't mean easy. Here's my latest effort. 
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Mar 10, 2013 02:17
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Had an interesting photo meetup last night. We were each given 5 minutes to work with the model and then 10 minutes of editing time. This is my favourite shot of the night. IMG_0017 by Breanne Unger, on Flickr Unfortunately all we had to work with was a tiny tiny space and this godawful 90s background. Also didn't have control over the lighting, so it was definitely an exercise in learning how to shoot with limitations.
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Mar 10, 2013 05:58
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Alcoholic posted:I think this might be my first time posting on here, but ive occasionally lurked about, and figured i might as well throw something up here. What kind of off camera lighting did you use? Did you do any processing work? I kind of like the subject and posing but the shadows are way harsh.
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Mar 10, 2013 06:26
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_adam posted:My sister asked me to take her (outdoor) engagement photos this weekend. I've literally never done any portrait work so needless to say I'm a little indimidated. Here's a couple from today that I've edited so far... We didn't end up shooting until like 2 pm so the sun was not cooperative...    It was definitely a learning experience. Because of the conditions it really forced me to utilize the camera settings, and I need to start taking more than one of each shot.
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Mar 11, 2013 03:45
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_adam posted:Here's a couple from today that I've edited so far... We didn't end up shooting until like 2 pm so the sun was not cooperative... I really don't know if this is terrible practice or not, so someone tell me to shut up if it is. In mid day sun, I find that in post processing in Lightroom 4, turning down highlights and turning up shadows gets rid of a lot of the unpleasant sharpness of high contrasting shadow and light. Sometimes it is almost all of the way on the sliders. I generally stop when the sunlight stops producing bright white light and starts to turn a golden color. There is some fidelity loss which I compensate for with a touch of contrast or clarity, they have a similar effect to the highlights/shadows modification.
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Mar 11, 2013 05:23
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I just did my first paid gig today (that is, paid in cash and not beer). I was really psyched but also nervous since I was not bringing lighting or anything and just going on their home and a park next door. Overall the kid was a ham and was pretty easy to work with. I am wondering if I am going in an ok direction with processing here - I don't want to go too over the top.     I also think I need to get better with direction with a little kid (this was a first birthday shoot if you cannot tell from the cute shirt he has on). I had some ideas as we went but it is all at the whim of this kid, so disrupting my ideas as we went kind of messed up my flow sometimes creating undesirable backdrops like in the last picture. e: I should mention that there are a whole bunch of photos - I only started with these for whatever reason rio fucked around with this message at 06:49 on Mar 11, 2013 |
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Mar 11, 2013 06:41
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rio posted:I just did my first paid gig today (that is, paid in cash and not beer). I was really psyched but also nervous since I was not bringing lighting or anything and just going on their home and a park next door. Overall the kid was a ham and was pretty easy to work with. I am wondering if I am going in an ok direction with processing here - I don't want to go too over the top. Well based on my commercial photography experience, most parents look closely at their kid's expression when the technical photography is spot on. Weird or uncommon facial expressions will turn parents off the photo when looking at them regardless of how well you tried on the processing. It doesn't matter too greatly as long as the kid looks okay. We, as photographers, look so much into the technical sometimes we forget we are trying to capture memories. There was one time where I didn't have a particularly inspired session with a baby, but they took their first steps and I captured everything. They bought $400 in prints. That being said, your processing looks great. If the parents pick apart their child's facial expressions, you did a good job. I'm curious though, with my experience I would bet they like the 4th photo of the set you posted the most despite the tot not looking at the camera. Let me know what they think of it, if you are willing.
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Mar 11, 2013 07:04
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A few more, trying to keep the people/portraits series interesting. Untitled by thetzar, on Flickr  Untitled by thetzar, on Flickr  Steve in stages by thetzar, on Flickr
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Mar 11, 2013 12:56
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Experimenting with hard light sources, and my younger cousin who's been begging for photos for a while. Not a model by any stretch, but I think she did pretty well. Kass B&W by Rick0r McZany, on Flickr
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Mar 12, 2013 00:17
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rio posted:I just did my first paid gig today (that is, paid in cash and not beer). I was really psyched but also nervous since I was not bringing lighting or anything and just going on their home and a park next door. Overall the kid was a ham and was pretty easy to work with. I am wondering if I am going in an ok direction with processing here - I don't want to go too over the top. This is a solid first paid gig. Well done.
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Mar 12, 2013 01:48
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Elite Taco posted:This is a solid first paid gig. Well done. Thanks man. That really means a lot because I was hesitant to start charging - it seems like there is always something to learn, something that isn't perfect or some piece of gear I should save for and it was holding me back from feeling confident enough to get into it. The bad photo thread and seeing bad pictures being paid for in combination with encouragement from my wife helped. And I can thank the dorkroom in particular because most of what I have learned has been here. Here are a couple others from the day. I have about 20 total - one thing I really did not want to do was post up every photo including total poo poo like I see from some wedding photographers, but I also didn't want to choose the 5 absolute best and have the parents miss out on seeing some nice moments. Out of curiosity, how many pictures do you all generally say a client should expect from an hour shoot?     
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Mar 12, 2013 05:36
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Mate, this is golden. They must want to marry you.
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Mar 12, 2013 18:38
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rio posted:Here are a couple others from the day. I have about 20 total - one thing I really did not want to do was post up every photo including total poo poo like I see from some wedding photographers, but I also didn't want to choose the 5 absolute best and have the parents miss out on seeing some nice moments. Out of curiosity, how many pictures do you all generally say a client should expect from an hour shoot? When it comes to kids and parents, just show every one that's in focus, the kid looks cute and there's not obvious horrible crap creeping in to frame. They love it and unless they are super poor they will be sitting down with you and asking the golden question "how much for the lot?". Seriously, every parent loves every photo of their kids, period. (and that photo I posted there owns) One of my recent ones, mildly :NSFW: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ziasoylly51uruq/IMG_9481.jpg One of those awesome moments where the model has never done photos before yet she poses like a pro
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Mar 13, 2013 02:37
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First good one in a while. Crosspost from the large format thread. Cherisse by dorkasaurus_rex, on Flickr
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Mar 13, 2013 04:47
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Really nice dorkasaurus, love the lighting 
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Mar 13, 2013 09:23
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AceClown posted:When it comes to kids and parents, just show every one that's in focus, the kid looks cute and there's not obvious horrible crap creeping in to frame. They love it and unless they are super poor they will be sitting down with you and asking the golden question "how much for the lot?". I like the photo, but her left arm is a bit distracting. The hard shadow makes it looks like it's cut in half.
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Mar 13, 2013 20:49
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As a new dad I feel like I would be happy hiring you after seeing this session. I agree that you captured some really nice moments well and that the only things to clean up are things that critics (rather than parents) would notice. Case in point - good capture here, but if everybody had rotated like 30 degrees left, that dumpster wouldn't be hanging out in your background. Seconding that this is dynamite. Shot a 9 month session for my son. Nothing fancy for lighting but it got the job done - SB-700 and a shoot-through umbrella. Thinking I need to be careful with ambient white balance in the future. Thoughts?  Max - 9 Months by voodoorootbeer, on Flickr  Max - 9 Months by voodoorootbeer, on Flickr  Max - 9 Months by voodoorootbeer, on Flickr
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Mar 13, 2013 21:40
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Cute kid! And nice shots. Taking photos of our own kids is great - I think at nine months I was doing a lot of shoulders up portraits trying to capture new facial expressions, shooting wide open with either a 30mm 2.8 or 55mm 1.8 (on a crop body so 45mm and roughly 80mm respectively). I like your photos because you are getting some landmarks with the crawling and standing but if your little dude is doing them, I would try to get a lot of closer shots with eye contact at the camera. Thanks for the advice about the dumpster - editing that I was kicking myself because I saw it too. I was walking backwards as they were walking towards me and I was so focused on framing, focus etc. that I totally didn't see that back there when I was shooting. It is interesting looking back through my the photos I have taken of my daughter in the first year because since I started taking photography shortly before she was born I can see technical competence growing slowly throughout the year, but those real life situations like seeing the dumpster I can still be pretty green some days.
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Mar 13, 2013 22:20
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What about cougars? Alpaca Sighting by geeves, on Flickr
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Mar 14, 2013 00:59
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So, some friends of mine with some very limited DSLR experience have hit some tough times in the job market and have decided that a Facebook photography business is the way to go. They've recently posted a whole bunch of pin-up photographs and.. well.. it's kind-of heart breaking. I want to be supportive of my friends, but at the same time I just wish they were hunting other work rather than dedicating time to this thing that is clearly, never going to take off for them and I'd rather not see them entirely heartbroken. They've taken a bunch photos of friends and honestly just made them look god-awful  Some of the least horrifying results from their latest "shoot". I don't know how to offer any kind of critique anymore.   Gorgeous girl, no idea why the shocked face, or why it's just against the backdrop of the shed.. or anything really.  I don't quite know how to balance being supportive of friends and knowing what to say to them when they find out people simply aren't going to pay for this crap.
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Mar 14, 2013 17:12
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PuntCuncher posted:So, some friends of mine with some very limited DSLR experience have hit some tough times in the job market and have decided that a Facebook photography business is the way to go. Christ. Be honest. Sit them down and tell them these loving suck. Show them quality work compared to theirs.
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Mar 14, 2013 17:31
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PuntCuncher posted:So, some friends of mine with some very limited DSLR experience have hit some tough times in the job market and have decided that a Facebook photography business is the way to go. Its pure poo poo, tell him this. Then cite examples of good pin-up. If hes really set on being good at this, encourage him to learn how to play with lighting and posing. Dont coddle him at all.
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Mar 14, 2013 17:34
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Musket posted:Its pure poo poo, tell him this. Then cite examples of good pin-up. If hes really set on being good at this, encourage him to learn how to play with lighting and posing. Husband and wife .. er.. team. I'm having trouble coming to terms with just how loving awful they're proud they've made some mutual friends look. Exhibits B and C.   It's literally keeping me up at night.
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Mar 14, 2013 18:00
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4 new posts in the portrait thread? Oh boy let's-  It looks like to me they're biting off more than they can chew. Portraiture with props is a pretty difficult thing to do. Pin-up is just that. It would be very awkward to have friends like that in my position, but I agree that honesty is the best policy. Don't sugar coat it but also don't beat them to death with their mistakes. Make sure to sprinkle usable advice in there. A good start would to be to get out of that shed/garage. I don't know what they are trying to do there. Maybe take them on a shoot and explain to them how the process works?
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Mar 14, 2013 18:07
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