First real attempt at portraiture - Few Questions

[guitar_j]

I got myself some lights and I've been playing, tonight I tried to

take a picture of myself... I've got a question... I don't know if

this will showup in the picture I upload or not, but I notice that

where the highlights bleed into the shadow, I guess it would be from

the broadside of my face to the narrow side (most noticable across my

forehead) I see an increase in the red tones. The key light is about

1.5 - 2 feet to my left, White fill card on my right, I'm using a

shoot through umbrella.

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Is this because of a crappy digicam? (I'm playing with a Canon A65

on ISO 50, f8.0, Don't want to waste film/processing cost on this

yet) or is it because the light is too bright / harsh or a

combination? If I shot this same picture on ISO50 film would I see

the same thing?

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Also feel free to point out any other technical flaws you see fit...

This is just a learning experience for me...

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thanks

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-Josh

[johnmarkpainter]

On my monitor, you are overexposed by at leat one full stop. The Highlights on your face

and on your shirt are completely blank white.

 

While there aren't any real rules in portraiture (unless you are shooting for the Military or

for Olan Mills) you might start off by using a less drastic angle for the lighting.

 

There are loads of websites that show diagrams for traditional lighting and it will give you

some ideas.

 

jmp

[johnmarkpainter]

Oh yeah....

 

Don't 'waste' Film just yet. Though you will find that Film responds to light quite

differently than Digital. Positive Film responds differently than Negative and B&W

responds differently than Color....

 

jmp

[guitar_j]

Thanks John, I agree on the overexposure, though I kinda like the overexposed look...I do want to not overexpose... I wonder if a)my meter is whacked or b)the fstop on the camera isn't exactly correct. I set the camera for exactly what the meter said and metered several times throughout to makesure nothing had changed. But I do seem to notice consistently that the images are brighter than they should be.

 

<p>-Thanks

<p>Josh

[chris_leck]

Good picture, overall. Good job in avoiding reflections in the eyeglasses.

 

Your image shows a general reddish cast, which may be a white balance issue. The reason that the highlights don't look so red may be because of the very high values there. You also have relatively high lighting contrast that may be fooling you into thinking that the red is only in the midtones and lower.

 

Although just a beginner at portraiture myself, I have some suggestions (some a matter of taste):

1. The red is not that extreme (and better than cyan or blue!). This may be corrected with the white balance or afterwards with curves.

2. Get the key light closer to soften the contrast a bit

3. Get the fill card closer for more fill and to lower contrast. Sometimes reflectors don't seem to add as much light as you want or need (although you may not want the lower contrast as I am suggesting).

4. The key light is a bit far to the camera right. This is increasing your apparent contrast and making the red issue appear worse. Moving the light left can put a catchlight into the right eye. You also might want to raise the height slightly.

5. Try swapping the light and the fill card for short lighting, which I think might look better for several reasons.

6. Stereotypically, men are encouraged to hold their heads straight up, at least for classic portraiture.

[sc21]

I'm new to portraiture, too, but from what I've seen, one good technique to go by is "don't light the ear." Meaning that whichever way the face is pointing, the light should be coming from that direction, so that the ear that we see isn't lit by the main light.

 

I'm sure this is what was referred to as "short lighting" above.

 

Good job on getting the right focus and framing, and have fun with it.

[sc21]

To educate myself, I did a search on "'short lighting' portraits" and found some good information on lighting.

 

http://64.78.42.182/sweethaven/MiscTech/Photog01/default.asp?unNum=7&lesNum=4

 

http://www.photographers.co.uk/html/improve-your-portrait-photography.cfm

 

http://home.earthlink.net/~terryleedawson/dcnotes/portraits.htm

[sc21]

Here's another's try at the same kind of shot, with pointers.

 

http://forums.photographyreview.com/showthread.php?t=6022

[twmeyer]

if you like the over-exposed look but don't like the artifacts, try exposing correctly (within the histogram) and then taking it up to where you like it with post-production techniques... t<div></div>