Random portraits thread

[DibblyDobbler]

leedogg3 said:

One that didn't make the cut!! by Spaceman photography, on Flickr

Never work with kids or animals......my three trying to pose for a christmas pic.

I think that's fab

[LongQ]

XKjimmy said:

Hi all,

My first contribution to the thread, lovely images on here.

I purchased a Canon EX430II speedlite recently.

While trying out different settings and seeing what difference bouncing the flash of various surfaces made I captured this photograph of my father which I was quite pleased with.

I've still got to do some processing to it.



C+C welcome

Well, second time lucky. Seems the appliction didn't lke a couple of small sitting in the same folder and kept crashing having soaked up all available memory trying to do something with them - not sure what.

Anyway, edited again. I keep seeing lots of little bits to go at and I'm not totally convinced about the skin tone which seems to get a litle more florid with each new output and move from one storage location to teh next. Heaven knows what will happen when linked through PH and then displayed on whatever browser people are using but ... no time to play around at that level at the moment.

So try this...

[XKjimmy]

Hi longQ

Thanks for doing the edit, certainly looks good to me using safari.

I like what you've done, coupled with the crop it looks better to me, skin tones are more realistic to what I saw on the day too. Many thanks again

James.

[LongQ]

XKjimmy said:

Hi longQ

Thanks for doing the edit, certainly looks good to me using safari.

I like what you've done, coupled with the crop it looks better to me, skin tones are more realistic to what I saw on the day too. Many thanks again

James.

Hi James,

Thanks. I'm not entirely convinced by the skin tones but working from the full size uncompressed original file should allow better, smoother results so I stopped myself from experimenting endlessly!

If you really get into it there are some challenges with incandescent light (yellowish) on the left and flash (whiteish) on the right and balancing the two. It can be done but starts to be more effort than seemed justifiable. At that level of detail it's not so much the colour shift one is looking at as the shift combined with some shadow effects and that adds to the work necessary - assuming one decided to take it on. I could see a case for leaving it as a more natural look in the settings but others may strongly disagree.

I'm not 100% for the crop either but I couldn't quite get it to be what I was looking for. Some more serious image tweaking would probably do it - a little stretching and cloning probably. Not my forté.

[leedogg3]

BW Flowers by Spaceman photography, on Flickr

My youngest.

[JSS 911]

Sweeney Todd by sinky 911, on Flickr

[RobbieKB]

^ Nice.

I always look at this thread but then forget to post anything.

This was actually pretty candid. It's their 60 year wedding anniversary and they were just messing around and as the light was excellent I grabbed the camera.

[davidd]

More of a random snap

[rottie102]

LongQ said:

Well, second time lucky. Seems the appliction didn't lke a couple of small sitting in the same folder and kept crashing having soaked up all available memory trying to do something with them - not sure what.

Anyway, edited again. I keep seeing lots of little bits to go at and I'm not totally convinced about the skin tone which seems to get a litle more florid with each new output and move from one storage location to teh next. Heaven knows what will happen when linked through PH and then displayed on whatever browser people are using but ... no time to play around at that level at the moment.

So try this...

I like the editing but the piece of the picture frame is distracting from the main subject. I would either crop it even more or leave wide.

[PGD5]

A re-edit of an old shot

[londonagent]

Went to a friends wedding on Saturday, this was shot wide open at f/1.8, I probably should have taken it at f/4 to get the groom more in focus, however I was quite pleased with the final outcome as it shifts the focus more onto the bride.

[rottie102]

londonagent said:

Went to a friends wedding on Saturday, this was shot wide open at f/1.8, I probably should have taken it at f/4 to get the groom more in focus, however I was quite pleased with the final outcome as it shifts the focus more onto the bride.

Nice photo!

I would desaturate/change the colour of that no entry sign, it really grabs your attention.

[LongQ]

rottie102 said:

londonagent said:

Went to a friends wedding on Saturday, this was shot wide open at f/1.8, I probably should have taken it at f/4 to get the groom more in focus, however I was quite pleased with the final outcome as it shifts the focus more onto the bride.

Nice photo!

I would desaturate/change the colour of that no entry sign, it really grabs your attention.

I think the focus effect is fine. Not uncommon to see that used in wedding shots. Agree about the desaturation of the sign. Maybe even clone out but could be tricky.

[LongQ]

rottie102 said:

LongQ said:

Well, second time lucky. Seems the appliction didn't lke a couple of small sitting in the same folder and kept crashing having soaked up all available memory trying to do something with them - not sure what.

Anyway, edited again. I keep seeing lots of little bits to go at and I'm not totally convinced about the skin tone which seems to get a litle more florid with each new output and move from one storage location to teh next. Heaven knows what will happen when linked through PH and then displayed on whatever browser people are using but ... no time to play around at that level at the moment.

So try this...

I like the editing but the piece of the picture frame is distracting from the main subject. I would either crop it even more or leave wide.

I looked at that but decided that there were enough other challenging elements that I would leave it to retain some sort of overall "thirds balance" without cropping too much vertically. Ideally it might be nice to leave the full picture mostly in the frame for additional character definition but it didn't quite work without other changes. If working from an original and using PS or similar it might be worth considering cloning out the picture and also the frame on the back wall as well as its reflection in the glass of the cabinet. More skill required than my meagre graphics editing knowledge allowed!

As I understand it it was a grab shot. However with little effort the same location, tweaked to suit, could make for a really interesting pre-planned portrait.

[RobbieKB]

This certainly should meet the 'random' criterion:

[Dogsey]

RobbieKB said:

This certainly should meet the 'random' criterion:

Add I said on Twitter that is absolutely brilliant Robbie. (Well apart from the bit of cheating anyway. ).

[RobbieKB]

Dogsey said:

RobbieKB said:

This certainly should meet the 'random' criterion:

Add I said on Twitter that is absolutely brilliant Robbie. (Well apart from the bit of cheating anyway. ).

You! Out!

[Ed_P]

I organise the local Camera Club. Using one of the members as a "model", this was to show how a reasonable portrait can be obtained using a single on-camera flashgun (bounced obliquely off a rear wall in this instance).


MMCC by Ed Phillips 01, on Flickr

[XKjimmy]

Hi all,

Recently purchased some Elnchrom D lite 4's. My nieces are down at the moment so they let me photograph them
This is my first attempt at using them, as the room was not that large I had to have them close to the background.
The shots have had some PP, mainly contrast and cropping

here are the shots

[LongQ]

XKjimmy said:

Hi all,

Recently purchased some Elnchrom D lite 4's. My nieces are down at the moment so they let me photograph them
This is my first attempt at using them, as the room was not that large I had to have them close to the background.
The shots have had some PP, mainly contrast and cropping

here are the shots

So does that mean that when your neices are UP they will not need the stimulus of a studio photo session?

Looks like nice lighting control for an early learning session with the new lights.

However the models are clearly out of hand in a diva sense....

Cool stuff. Give the models róle play. Tell then they are Kate Moss or, better, some actress who has to perform on stage for hours at a time - faultlessly - and gain control. If you can persuade them that the camera is running a very important time-lapse sequence for a few hours (in which they star of course) you may get quite a peaceful Xmas.

Just a thought.

Edited by LongQ on Thursday 20th December 23:12