[stl09]

Just had my first opportunity to do a model shoot. Like I said I've never taken portrait photos before, but here are a few shots that I thought were pretty good!

I would appreciate any suggestions...remarks. I have several more shoots coming up and the insight from others will be very helpful.

I should also state that these are some of first photo's from my new K-5.

The camera caught the attention of the other photographer's in the room and they were asking a lot of questions. They were amazed at how fast it was clicking away and quiet the shutter was. They didn't know Pentax had anything this professional on the market.

---

Last edited by stl09; 04-29-2016 at 02:07 PM.

[Ash]

You got her posing nicely, and she's engaged well with the photographer.
It appears that on a couple of shots, the focus is just off target (more on the clothes than on her eyes/face) and lighting does appear to be a little flat rendering the subject a little featurelessly.
Otherwise good results.

[stl09]

Thanks Ash,

I caught myself several times when I wasn't focused on the face and was more concerned with the pose and snapped pictures. The lighting was provided by an outside source so had no control over that.
If I could ask what you have done to improve the lighting?

[Rupert]

I like the shots and the poses....you have a lot to learn, and I know that because I have a lot to learn myself! I won't add to Ash's comments, he is very good at this, maybe the best here and has been a big help to me.
I will warn you that once you head down this path, addiction comes quickly...and so does the expense. I haven't been in my little "Studio" in two weeks due to a busy schedule, and it is like a smoker that is out of cigarettes.
Have fun, enjoy, get better with every shoot, and get Pizza and Hot Wings for the girls and they will always be available!
Best Regards!
Rupert

[Ash]

Rupert, thanks for the ego boost, but I definitely won't claim any expertise - just happy to help.
As for lighting stl, to me it's all about getting the balance of your lights right. If all lights (two main lights for the subject and one for the background) are all of the same intensity, then there will be a very evenly distributed exposure, which lights everything up OK, but leaves no room for rendering texture and creating contrast, which does help in portraiture.

My suggestion would be to experiment with your lights - firstly by trying to reduce your background lights to half the intensity, snooting it (to create more of a vignetting effect on the background), then either increasing one main light or decreasing the other with perhaps a change of angle to the reduced light to create more of a fill/kick light effect rather than another main light. For examples of how this works the maestro on this forum is devisor - check out his portraiture and see how his images are produced.

[twitch]

Nice poses. The images look very very soft to me though dispite using very sharp lenses. I see you used 1/15 shutter speed, ouch. That is way way too slow. You shutter needs to be at sync speed (1/180) at least. f5.6 is a very "safe" f stop too, it would be worth also trying wider apertures, you certainly have the lenses that will be sharp even at f2.8.

[Parallax]

Those would be fantastic pictures if the eyes were sharp. Touch that up in PP and you have some really great shots.