Portrait help

[lesleyr]

Hi Fiona - 11.20 and have just edited a few of my shots today of Tammy.

Will put one or two in my gallery tonight for you to have a look at and see what you think. Will be probably after midnight before I put it in, though.

Let me know.

Lesley

[Gidders]

Originally Posted by finlaw

Ok Here is one of the shots I got. Turns out my neice is a natural in front of the camera.

You're right about her being a natural.

I'm not sure what your lighting set up was here - natural light through a window or flash, but you need to watch your exposure to avoid burning out the highlights. When taking portraits, I always use manual exposure to give me the control I need. If that means reducing the exposure for the highlights to the extent that the face is in too much shaddow, try using either a reflector to bounce the light back, or fill in flash. In the case of the later I would suggest that it helps to bounce if off something to avoid sharp shadows.

To judge your overall exposure, try buying an 18% grey card from you local photographic shop (it shouldn't be too expensive - I got one from Jessops for £5.99). Take a test shot just of the card and look at the histogram. If the exposure is correct, you should have a spike right in the middle

Regards

[finlaw]

Thanks for the tip about the grey card Clive. I'll be getting one asap.

I have no specific studio lighting. It was Natural Light diffussed through a Neutral blind. I also had the ceiling light on and a desk lamp to try and fill in the shadow. I think next time I'll move her further away from the window and see if this helps.


Lesley I like the photos of Tammy. Very Nice. The wedding went good today and I learnt loads, your right about it being hard work!! I got some really nice shots and the Photographer asked if he could give them to the Bride and Groom. I'm well happy. My photo's aren't quite consistent enough to do a wedding myself and know that I'll get all the important ones but I've learnt so much today and for the most part know where I went wrong. I'll get some up in the next day or two.

Fiona