Please Provide Constructive Criticism

athena

I've been a long time photography enthusiast and just recently got my T3i with a 50mm f/1.8
(as I'm mainly interested in portrait photography). I've also been trying to learn as much as I can since day one and have been trying to be as creative with very limited gear. I haven't had anybody who has experience in photography check on my composition, which they say is the most difficult skill to acquire. I'm hoping to get as many comments as possible so I can add a wow factor to my shots in the future.


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8222/8336020139_8f8d2e3a91.jpg

amigo

Hi Athena,

That's a very nice shot. The light source on the left is a little distracting. I would suggest you try to leave light sources out of the frame as much as possible. You can achieve this just by moving a little to the left. The left light source would be out of the frame, and the light source on the right would be behind the subject's back.

The grass on the bottom right has some blown out hightlights.

In portrait photography, the center of attention should be the person's face. Don't be afraid to fill the frame with the subject.

Of course, every photographer has his/her own style. Personally, I rarely shoot below the hips. I keep only as much of the background as necessary to tell the story.

For example, I cropped your picture so as to eliminate the light source on the left and bring the attention of the viewer to the eyes of the subject:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UjwzopP2O4o/UO2RyhwzWzI/AAAAAAAAAOc/f41NOOnR8MU/w251-h369-p-k/Athena_02.jpg

athena

Thanks amigo for the pointers. I'm starting to get a better understanding of what portrait photography is about, as well as proper composition. I've heard from other photographers that the subject is underexposed, is it true? To be honest I'm still strugling on this area of photography. I thank you for your comment and I'm sure that other beginers would also learn from your comments.

amigo

Yes, the subject is underexposed.

Your main light sources are behind the subject and are visible. This causes the camera to underexpose the face of the subject in order to avoid having too much blown out highlights such as is the case of the grass on the lower right corner of the picture.

The camera tries to make the image an average brightness. It doesn't know which part of the frame is important to you.

By moving the light sources out of the frame, the camera won't be blinded by them and your the subject's face won't be underexposed anymore.

You did the right thing by using the flash as fill light.

In cases where you know the background will be significantly brighter than the subject, such as people in the shade against a bright, sunny sky, you can set your camera to aperture priority and manually compensate the exposure maybe two stops (+2). You can take pictures with 0 compensation, +1, +1.5 and +2 and when you get home to review your pictures, and see which one gave you the best results.

athena

Thanks again, this has been an enlightening experience. None of the people I've talked to explained it better than you did. That should help me visualize what I need to improve on in the future. :)