Portrait of a Young Photographer

[Monza76]

What do you do to get a picture of you and your camera for a photography website, you ask an old teacher to bring along his Pentax! A former student (who is also a budding photographer) asked if I would use his studio set up to shoot some portraits for his website and business literature. He has two Alien Bees 800 lights (one shooting through an umbrella and the other with a small softbox), and a very powerful flash aimed at the background. The Sigma dedicated flash to the left of the image is slaved to fire at a reflector overhead to add some hair highlights, that is why you can see the flash.I used the DS with the Sigma 24-135mm. I shot all in RAW (about 100 shots all together) and this is just one example. (Please note that I do not have my usual software set up yet (first day with a new computer) so the original files are very sharp, not oversharpened and filled with artifacts like this sample)

Any comments are appreciated.

Ira

BTW his equipment is a Canon 20D with battery grip, a Manfrotto tripod with quick grip ball head, a Sigma 18-125mm. a Sigma 70-210mm f2.8 and a Sigma flash (500 series I believe) and a Mac Powerbook G4

[robar]

ira!!!
this is ABSOLUTELY a great shot!!!
this should bring in MANY a customer.......

roy

[David French]

I find it to be uncomfortable and effeminate.

[bilybianca]

I think you're starting for a second career here. Any spare rooms to convert to a studio at home?

Kjell

[tdotho]

Hi Ira,

I like the concept of the shot with all the equipment, lighting and the mac laptop!

I find the pose to be a little bit uncomfortable and not as natural as it could be.
I'm not too sure how you feel about the colouring or the purpose of your picture, but I found the overall colouring of the photograph to be dull with the subject wearing grey pants and shirt, grey background, grey computer, and grey floor with black photo gear. Maybe you can try to turn it to black and white, see how it turns out.

One more thing is the position of the hands, maybe you can reposition the subject's hands so it doesn;t appear as stubby. Perhaps have him hold the camera which is also big.

Just my 2 cents.

Thanh

[Peacekeeper]

Ira

I won't discuss lighting and so forth as I have never worked studio lighting, but for subject composition I agree with tdotho. :|


It is almost like the tripod is at the wrong height for him to lean on.

Personally I would have gone for the shot where the subject is standing with his equipment like he was interrupted in the middle of one of HIS shoots. The shot might illustrate his equipment/profession and if set up correctly would hopefuly show his natural friendly side for his clients.

I hope you don't mind the criticism... :O

[Monza76]

I agree that the pose here a awkward, I will look through the set and see if there is something better.

Thanks

Ira

Here is a shot that shows some of the setup.

[Monza76]

David French wrote:

I find it to be uncomfortable and effeminate.

Hey David, plugging for a job in the diplomatic corps!

[Monza76]

Here is another shot. (And don't worry Crash, I need all of the constructive criticism I can get, I have another wedding in June and this one is something special so any practice that can improve my portrait skills is important)

Ira

[Monza76]

tdotho wrote:

Hi Ira,

I like the concept of the shot with all the equipment, lighting and the mac laptop!

I find the pose to be a little bit uncomfortable and not as natural as it could be.
I'm not too sure how you feel about the colouring or the purpose of your picture, but I found the overall colouring of the photograph to be dull with the subject wearing grey pants and shirt, grey background, grey computer, and grey floor with black photo gear. Maybe you can try to turn it to black and white, see how it turns out.

One more thing is the position of the hands, maybe you can reposition the subject's hands so it doesn;t appear as stubby. Perhaps have him hold the camera which is also big.

Just my 2 cents.

Thanh

Thanks Thanh, I can see what you mean about the general monotone colour scheme, the other shots were a little more formal with more contrast (as you can see by my last post). The pose was awkward, we tried it a couple of different ways but couldn't get it right. A combination of my inexperience and a little self consciousness on his part possibly. Glad you pointed out the hands, that was not something I had noticed so you have given me something else to concentrate on.

Ira