Shooting portraits/models?

Just wondering how I can get good shots of someone with the gear I have due to my girlfriend's mother knowing I have a good camera (not a P&S anyway) and wanting me to take some decent shots of my girlfriend.
The reason being she (the gf) went to a photoshoot thing a few years ago and they are the only good shots of her and her mother wants some newer ones and rather than spending the money on another photoshoot day and getting 3 pics she wants me to take some.

Obviously I am happy to snap away pics of my girlfriend, but am wondering how I can get some actually good shots.

Below is a shot I took when I got the camera...



Now that's not really anything special (plus I think it's slightly blurred...her fine hair makes it hard to tell), but I'd like some info/to learn how to make good photos of her/people in a photoshoot type of style.

Unfortunately I don't have loads of gear or a decent room for this.
Gear-wise I have my D40X, a 18-55 lens, a 55-200 lens, a naff tripod (but it does hold the camera steady), a flash gun that is something like 10 years old.
Room-wise I have a fairly large relatively square room with plain white walls, but with stuff on them (can take pictures down admittedly), dark blue carpet and a double bed that takes up loads of space which seems like it'd make it hard to make the room well lit and studioish.
Lighting-wise I have halogen ceiling light (which has warm bulbs in (but can be changed for white LED ones) and a 60W sidelamp that's warm light.
Do also have a massive window that lets in plenty of natural light.

I realise that ideally I don't want to impose myself on the photos, as in I should take them as if she's just a model and not my girlfriend, but not sure how to do that.

For reference, here are the shots from her previous, proper shoot...
One
Two
Three
Four

I realise I probably won't get shots like those (for starters I have no dark background ).

I've wanted to do this for a while even just for the experience, but the fact that her mother wants some pictures makes me want to do it as properly as I can.

So yeh, how can I make best use of what I have, or should I just not bother?

I have actually been to London myself for a photoshoot (sisters and mum went and entered my name into a comp to win a free session, I won, so I went), so I've had some experience, but in front of the camera is different from behind, plus mine was about 5 years ago now (if enough requests I may host mine ).

InvG

Lighting is the key to good portraiture. You can sit a girl in the best pose in the world, with the best lens and backdrop but if the lighting is flat and boring, the picture will look flat and boring.

I'm guessing however, you don't have a way of firing that flash of camera do you? In which, strong natural light from a window is your best bet. Forget flash unless you can fire off camera, or are going for a very specific style, else you'll just have too much direct light from the front, eliminating shadows and creating a flat look. Saying that, bouncing it may work, especially if you can turn the flash head to a side and bounce off a wall or make up a white reflector, that'll get you a nicer light. In fact, that's probably the best way to try. Don't bother with desk lamps and halogen ceilings, they'll just destroy the picture. Natural light combined with sideways bounced/reflected flash then.

As for backdrop, do you have a sheet or something you could maybe pin to the wall or hook on something somehow? I think a lighter background would be the best idea and a sheet will provide a softer nicer looking image than a wall will. May be worth utilising that lamp actually, if you did this, either behind the sheet or behind her pointing at the sheet, to lighten it nicely.

Other things, focus on the eyes. Eyes, eyes, eyes, eyes. If you accidentally focus on the tip of the nose for example, it'll just look unengaging. Try and keep the depth of field small though, so the face is generally focused nicely but the shoulders are starting to blur, it'll keep the face the centre of attention.

Lastly, processing skillz. Learn some good portrait processing skillz and use them

Hope some of that helps.

Here are a few quick tips on portraits: http://www.lumitouch.com/benstudiotutorial/rules.html. These should be taken with a pinch of salt and don't be afraid to ignore lots of it. However, there are some good points in there and it's worth a read. There's more if you go on the table of contents at the top of the page.

Read up on high-key and low-key photography if you want to do something slightly different. Try the techniques out on some static subjects first.

Backdrops are easy - a white bedsheet will do fine draped over a rail for a white backdrop. Got any dark bed clothes? Deep maroons etc can make a good backdrop if it's done subtly.

Flash-wise, I'd tend to agree with divine`. Straight flash is unflattering - light needs to be coming from a different angle to get some contrast in the features. Natural light is good, but bright! If you're using natural light for directional light, then fill flash might come in handy. Lighting the backdrop can be done with some desk lamps, but watch your WB. Although there is no real substitute for getting it right in the first place, WB can be corrected very effectively in PS though, so don't lose your mind over it.

divine` said:

Lastly, processing skillz. Learn some good portrait processing skillz and use them

Click to expand...

I certainly need to do that...at the moment my best PS ability is the clone tool.

I have sheets (well, can steal from mum's cupboard...handy being at home from uni ), and did think about using them for a better background than the wall, but was unsure if it was needed.

Unfortunately the flash I have is only useable on the camera. It has a tilt head so can fire at ceiling etc. (ceiling is also white, so can reflect well off that), but can't turn side-to-side. So you think I should create a reflector to fire the flash to the side?

Certainly some helpful stuff there, hope others will contribute.

I'll read that site now A.N.Other, thanks.

InvG

In that case, like A.N.Other suggested, it may be best to use that as a fill flash, if at all.

What will help you would be a reflector, a nice big circle (say 25"+ diameter) of whatever, paper, fabric but that's white and will reflect light. If you have her near a window to give strong directional light, position the reflector to reflect some of that light back from the other side to soften the shadows a bit and it should look quite nice.

The risk you run adding too many light sources is just totally filling everything and causing a very flat image again. Keep it simple. One main source, second source to fill a bit and that should do.

divine` said:

The risk you run adding too many light sources is just totally filling everything and causing a very flat image again. Keep it simple. One main source, second source to fill a bit and that should do.

Click to expand...

Amen. Again there's a decent bit on studio lighting on the site I linked if you go through the top menu. Obviously you don't have all that kit, but it gives you some ideas and information about the strength of lighting especially.

A cardboard box cut up and covered with A4 or baking foil will make a good cheap reflector.

A.N.Other said:

A cardboard box cut up and covered with A4 or baking foil will make a good cheap reflector.

Click to expand...

Yup, or a cheap pillowcase, some wire coat hangers and a pair of pliers could do the trick nicely.

Bah to hell with settings. Learn how to communicate with her and the shots will come naturally.

Once a basic lighting situation is obtained (mainly bounced flash for a good overall exposure) the only thing you need to do is get her to open up and show her natural side. Most portraits problems is that they look too forced.

Communicate / spot the moment = keepers.

I'm thinking I'll need to move the bed out of the way too, I think the best wall to use for having backdrops etc. is the one that the bed is on...



Mostly due to not having to take down some HUGE pictures my brother has put up. But also because it's next to the window, so can gain some light from there and have a reflector thingy on the wall/in the room opposite the window (maybe use this mirror as reflector?).

I don't have much in the way of props etc. bar a wooden chair and the bed though, but should be able to use them to my advantage should I need something other than wall/floor.

I'm planning on doing this at the weekend, at least for a trial run to get me some experience and work out where I need to improve.

InvG

Fstop11 said:

Bah to hell with settings. Learn how to communicate with her and the shots will come naturally.

Once a basic lighting situation is obtained (mainly bounced flash for a good overall exposure) the only thing you need to do is get her to open up and show her natural side. Most portraits problems is that they look too forced.

Communicate / spot the moment = keepers.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm hoping that the fact she's done it before and does want to do it will make her more at ease with doing it, but I do realise that the first few shots will be bad, due to being uncomfortable with it, but I'm sure she'll get used to it and become more relaxed as I work my way through my memory cards.

InvG

InvaderGIR said:

Yeah, I'm hoping that the fact she's done it before and does want to do it will make her more at ease with doing it, but I do realise that the first few shots will be bad, due to being uncomfortable with it, but I'm sure she'll get used to it and become more relaxed as I work my way through my memory cards.

InvG

Click to expand...

You really should just talk and get established in a funny conversation and slowly introduce the camera to her a good few mins into the convo when shes happy. Take one photo and slowly work from there. Keep the conversation going until the shoot is over or in rare cases, until she takes it upon herself to pose naturally (taking the shoot into her control)

Hope this helps.

I've got quite a lot of natural shots, so I'm more after the studio type shots (obviously quite hard to achieve decent ones with my limited gear/place of shooting) as that's what her mother wants...and she can be fussy.

I will obviously try to get her to be natural about it as well though because I don't want her to be rigid and uncomfortable with it because it'll spoil the images.

InvG