some crit please folks!

byteagig

byteagig

byteagig

Associate
Joined
29 Jun 2005
Posts
614
Location
york
this is my first pic post on ocuk :D I have been trying to use natural lighting to do portraits and would like some help really, ie- does the pic work and what i could do differently to make it better ect. shot in raw, processed in rawshooter, tweaked in psp x and resised for web

IMG_0769-01lewis.jpg


Camera model: Canon EOS 20D + 50mm f1.8 mk2
Flash used: No
Focal length: 50.0mm
CCD width: 6.24mm
Exposure time: 0.0006 s (1/1600)
Aperture: f/2.5
ISO equiv.: 400
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)
 
Sorry byteagig but it doesn't do anything for me unless you were trying to make him look like Damian!

The lack of contrast in his eyes coupled with the shadows under his eyes, nose, lips and chin, as well as the shadow over the whole of the right side make him look very creepy.

I appreciate that you're trying to make it hard for yourself by not using directed lighting, so you're bound to get shadows, but even with natural light you can eliminate the worst of it using reflective panels (even a bit of tin-foil wrapped over cardboard would work). It wouldn't overpower the shot with light the way a flash would, but it would bring in enough light so that the boy doesn't look like he's come from the underworld.

Probably not what you wanted to hear but the others may disagree with me.
You must have a grasp on the subject if you're prepared to do natural light portraits, so post up some of your other work :)

Panzer
 
hi thanks panzer what you said is exactly what i want to hear so thanks for your advice i will certainly take it onboard.
what i was trying to achieve with this shot is a more real life/gritty image rather than the standard happy, bright, images that everyone does(including me) just trying something different.
any one else have any thoughts?
 
Try a tiny bit of fill in flash bounced of the cieling maybe? If you have a 430 or 580, then pointed straight up, at minimum power might just remove enough of the shadow to stop it looking so evil.

I really like the narrow DoF tho, with the eye bang on focus. Bottom inch of the photo seems to be wasted tho. Would a slightly tighter crop removing this, and making the photo square help?
 
I actually think you've got the lighting spot on for what you're trying to do. I've seen hundreds of shots like the effect you're going for, and the only thing that's wrong is that the person in the shot needs to look up slightly. The lighting would be fine then I'd have thought.
 
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