Portrait - young man, decayed door

Alcazar · 07-18-2008, 07:57 AM

Thanks for critique!
Micha

NewportPreacher · 07-18-2008, 10:01 AM

No critique (criticism) needed! That's an awesome portrait. His eyes go so well with the door & the muted green in his shirt works with it, too. I always want to put the subject to the right of center, but that's just me.

That's an excellent portrait, in my opinion.

Gooshin · 07-18-2008, 12:19 PM

visually the image is perfect

technically however,

the Nikon D200 can shoot at ISO100, you shot at 200. Unless 200 is the native ISO, the image would have had a slightly better dynamic range and detail levels at 100.

a 1/80th of a shutter on a 60mm lens means hand shake and subject movement could have had a tiny effect on the final image, particulary in the realm of sharpness, was a tripod used?

finaly F7.1 is a really weird number... i think F4 or F5.6 could have done the job better in this case.

is the lens its sharpest at F7.1? what lens was this?

so again, visually the image is perfect, technically, it could have been shot with more detail and sharpness, but then again.. this is good enough already.

*Ash* · 07-18-2008, 03:06 PM

I'd agree this image is brilliant.
Nice contrast and lighting.
Looks reasonably sharp, but a 100% crop would bring that out more...
Gooshin, I too would use f/4 or so for such a portrait, but f/7.1 here ensured all of the subject is sharp.

Judging by the background, there is quite a shallow DOF, which may have called for some stopping down to have a fully sharp subject.

On the other hand, as you've mentioned, the shutter speed had to be compromised. If f/7.1 was intentional, perhaps ISO 400 may have been warranted. Otherwise, f/5.6 would have been adequate at ISO 200 under these conditions.

But well done Micha.

Alcazar · 07-20-2008, 01:58 PM

Originally Posted by Gooshin

visually the image is perfect

technically however,

the Nikon D200 can shoot at ISO100, you shot at 200. Unless 200 is the native ISO, the image would have had a slightly better dynamic range and detail levels at 100.

a 1/80th of a shutter on a 60mm lens means hand shake and subject movement could have had a tiny effect on the final image, particulary in the realm of sharpness, was a tripod used?

finaly F7.1 is a really weird number... i think F4 or F5.6 could have done the job better in this case.

is the lens its sharpest at F7.1? what lens was this?

so again, visually the image is perfect, technically, it could have been shot with more detail and sharpness, but then again.. this is good enough already.

You're right, all this should have been considered!
However, the situation was that i had to shoot with a camera and lens i did never use before (Nikon D200, Nikkor 18-70mm), and sometimes even that was swapped with a D300, or the lens was swapped with a 18-200mm...
It was a workshop, and i couldn't use my own camera (it was a Nikon workshop, lenses were swapped, radio triggers used, and i was the only one without a Nikon, so to be compatible, i was given one by the workshop photographer).
Also, while i'm usually quite experienced with the technical side of photography, i'm not so much with working with models, so i was quite stressed just by communicating with the model and getting the composition right...
I think the lens (the 18-70mm) was ok but sharpness could be better. Next time i'll use my familiar Pentax and a portrait prime lens.

Thanks for your kind words and criticism!

Here's another one from the same shoot:

Gooshin · 07-21-2008, 07:57 AM

curious as to why you were not allowed to use your own camera.

Alcazar · 07-22-2008, 04:16 AM

Originally Posted by Gooshin

curious as to why you were not allowed to use your own camera.

We didn't know (and didn't want waste time finding out) if the radio triggers for the studio flash was compatible with my camera.
Also, the workshop photographer wanted to be able to quickly show us how to do something on our cameras, check if we were using them right etc
and i was ok with that, didn't mind to try out a Nikon

Alcazar · 07-22-2008, 04:18 AM

The last one i'll post from this shoot, i promise :-)

Big I · 08-12-2008, 07:56 AM

Your original post photo is 95% perfect IMHO. The light, the pose, the background, the colors, they are all perfect. And his eyes match the color of the green-ish paint, which is awesome. The only thing that could make that picture better is if you would have moved the camera down just a tiny bit, so all of his neck shows.

95%-98% perfect on all of them, if you ask me.

Well done!