Portrait' Critique Please

[BBJ]

Hi All, Well dull day at home no work and brought some muslin cloth and some dye and made a backdrop so i can have something better than a plain wall to take pics of the kids. Well i did my usual and forgot to check the ISO and was set at 800 ' DER!!! and well i will try some more later but here is 1 i did and apllied some vignetting in PS and framed in PSP 9.
Oh yeh 50mm 1.8, lightsphere bounced of ceiling.
Ex: manual, F8, 1/500.
Cheers
John

Thanks

[yeocsa]

Hi BBJ,

Excellent portrait shot there. This is what we typical call "Beauty shots". Frontal shots, flat lighting with 1 light source.

Tact sharp and good skin tone rendition (a hallmark of Nikon lens). Sigma would be a little too warm and Canon's too cool (blueish).

regards,

Arthur

[mudder]

Terrific portrait John, least you didn't have to pan to keep up with this one

Nice natural colours...

[BBJ]

Arthur Thanks mate, i have just done some more at uhhm ISO 200 instead of 800 and yes these are good as well, yes it's a good lens. Well i had to try it, i like to try different things when there is no work on and now will make some more backdrops with different colours.

Andrew, mate dont bet on it 1 bloody cow cant stand still if she tried let alone act normal as having the camera pointed her way normally ends up with the tongue sticking out or eyes closed.
Oh well i will play more after have to shut down shortly and put a 200 gig hard drive in,ahh lots more pics then.
Cheers
John

[robboh]

Very nice John! Great pic! Very nice skin-tones and crystal clear! Also a nice catch-light in their eyes, along with nicely captured expressions/smiles.

What white balance setting did you use, or did you set it manually??

What do you think of the LightSphere? Looks like it gives a very nice flattering light to me!!

Only other thought would be that the background is too sharply in focus and too obvious (for my taste). Id move them out a bit from the cloth or else open up a little.

The 50mm 1.8 is a great portraiture lens on the D70 I reckon!

Cheers
Rob.

[BBJ]

Rob, I had the white balance set on auto -2 so seems to be ok with most pics i take. Ok on the background i will have to try that next time as i didn't have a lot of room in the lounge here unless i move the lounge out, but i will look at a better place to setup and give me some room.

The Lightsphere worked well ias i had the half dome and bounced off the ceiling and as i shoot RAW it didn't matter if i was a bit under exposed but i think it works well. Ok for the SB800 on cam so yeh turned out well.

I did have this picture printed today and looks great, so i am going to make some different colour back drops now and looks like i will be doing a lot of family pics. LOL Oh well always fun to try different things.

Cheers
John
BBJ

[ozimax]

Really nice portraits John, (I would iron the backdrop maybe?)
great colour, I'm thinking about purchasing the 50mm 1.8, good lens in your opinion?? By all accounts it seems to be the most reasonable priced quality portrait lens out there. I wonder what price Birdie???

Max

[BBJ]

Hey Max i got this from Birdy for around couple hundred smackas and is a good lil lens. On the backdrop bit they say well i have read that the more it is scrunched up the better, but i only dyed it yesterday so it needs a sowing job done to it soon. I am going to make some though, you know to buy these things made properly is $170 odd bucks.

Anyhow is all fun to play with, just have to experiment more when i get around to it.
Cheers
John

[SoCal Steve]

Good job, John. Lots of good in it. I echo what was said about increasing the distance between the subjects and the backdrop. It also feels like you were just a little bit too close to the kids with the camera. It feels a little cramped.
It looks like you've got a talent for this one too.

[ozimax]

Maybe my missus could start producing them? She pretty good on the old Singer....

I think when it comes to portraits it takes me about 12-15 shots to get the exposure somewhere near right, then bracketing is handy.

Max

[BBJ]

Thanks Stave for comments, i will try it a bit different next time i find a better spot to hang the backdrop so i have miore room to play with.

Max yeh well Lisa said she could if she had a sewing machine so i am not that sure if that is a hint or not, but have a few friends who will do it for me anyhow so ni biggy, once i sort out how to hang this thing.
Cheers