Trouble with indoor potraits!

[christie_may]

<p>okay, so I decided to start doing portraits, and i set up a "temporary" studio in my home. I am getting REALLY discouraged, because i don't seem to be getting good resolution and detail. They seem almost "filtered" no real sharpness, and lack of color detail as well.....what am I doing wrong? for a subject that is only aprox. 4-5 ft away what is the best setting? (shutter speed, f-stop etc...) would a 50mm fixed lens help with this?( I have a Sony alpha 230...i know, i need an upgrade, but I have to make-do with it for now) and what would you reccomend as the best paper to print portraits on? matte or gloss? THANKS FOR ANY ADVICE!</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>How are you lighting your subjects? What sort of ISO, shutter speeds, and aperture settings do you find yourself having to use? Scale down an example of what you're getting (to 700 pixels on the long side), and attach it to a comment in this thread, so that folks can see what you're getting. <br /><br />Most of the time, problems like this come from using inadequate light and/or letting the camera try to guess how the exposure should be set. When you're shooting portraits, you need to be in charge of the exposure, so that the camera doesn't misread the situation. It doesn't know what's supposed to be white, what's supposed to be black, and what's supposed to be in between ... so it tends to expose for the middle. You, on the other hand, know when you're over or under (based on what you're seeing), and can go into a manual exposure mode (or use exposure comensation) to force the camera to let in more, or less light.<br /><br />You might also be fighting with white balance issues. Get that part right, based on the actualy source of light that's lighting the scene. Use your camera's custom white balance feature to get your color temperature just right for the conditions you're in - that will help to make things look more natural.</p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>If using diffused light from a nearby window or fluorescent CFL or tube will cause the camera to hunt for a focus plane that you will have to control. You may think you've focused on the eyes but find out later in post the sharpest spot is either on the tip of the nose or top of the ear. Wide open apertures usually create such a narrow Depth Of Field that one slight 1/4 inch lean in or lean back will throw the focus plane off from its intended target.</p>

<p>Also diffused light will reduce contrast which plays a major role in influencing the perception of sharpness. 100% zoomed view editing in post will make this more evident.</p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Here's an example of how soft my self portrait can get under CFL, ISO 800, handheld and how contrast, clarity and sharpening fixes changes the perception of sharpness and eventually finds the hidden focus plane which was my eyebrows. </p>

<p>It's best to try to get it right in front of the camera instead of in post like I often have to do.</p><div></div>

[mariosforsos]

<p>Without any more information, I would imagine it's just a matter of using appropriate lighting. Think about it: your portrait starts life as a middle grey image which you must then sculpt with light. It usually begins by adding a main light and seeing what shadows that creates. Depending on how deep or sharp or soft you want your shadows, then you add another light and see how that works and so on and so on. Most effective and beautiful indoor portraits are taken with a minimum of two (more frequently three) lights. It's not just sitting someone on a stool and hoping for the best...</p>

[plasma181]

<p>That some impressive sharpening. What software did you use? </p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Robert, I used Adobe Camera Raw 4.6 which comes with Adobe CS3. ACR's contrast, clarity and sharpening sliders did most of the heavy lifting.</p>

<p>No Photoshop was used and of course I shot that portrait in Raw and processed in 16 bit ProPhotoRGB color space.</p>