Post Your Best Portrait Shots!

[Sean Setters]

BW just doesn't do much for the lighting in this shot either.

You know, that's something I've come to realize--delicate strobist lighting doesn't always translate well to black & white. Sometimes the color of the light (as in a gelled background or mainlight) significantly helps draw the viewers eyes to specific elements within the frame. Every now and then, though, I like a picture better in black and white. Take this one, for example, from the same shoot:





The color version simply wasn't working for me because her shirt was actually a light blue. However, when I converted it toB&W and applied a red filter in post, the shirt became darker and the picture worked better. You might want to try the same technique.

[Dave Johnston]

@ Keith... that IS some good lighting... but I agree that the green background is not the most appealing.


@Sean.. Love the railroad shot. There are very nice lines and an intriguing pose selection, I can see that black and white really would do more for the shot than color.


Took this according to the strobist idea of shooting with white balance set on tungsten with a CTO gelled flash.


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Canon 50D + 70-200 f4L @ 70mm f11 1/100" ISO-100. One 580exII camera right full power shot through roscoluxfull CTO gel and 6" DIY paper snoot.

[Rodger]

Sean, love the railroad picture!


Dave, Nice catchlights!! Personally I'm not sure how I feel about both warm tones and cool tones on her face. But that's personally, very nice shot!


Finished up some more senior pictures:











C&C welcome, right off the bat, I should have taken a serious pose face on the third image. I'm not sure if the lower perspective of the third image lends itself to a happy-go-lucky type of expression.


I'm starting to realize I really like shooting portraits. Or at least "people pictures". They're more interesting to me than Cranberry, PA landscapes haha.


-Rodger

[devsalvi]

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[Chuck Lee]

BW just doesn't do much for the lighting in this shot either.

You know, that's something I've come to realize--delicate strobist lighting doesn't always translate well to black & white. Sometimes the color of the light (as in a gelled background or mainlight) significantly helps draw the viewers eyes to specific elements within the frame. Every now and then, though, I like a picture better in black and white. Take this one, for example, from the same shoot:


[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/budrowilson/4092006604/][/url]


The color version simply wasn't working for me because her shirt was actually a light blue. However, when I converted it toB&W and applied a red filter in post, the shirt became darker and the picture worked better. You might want to try the same technique.
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Dang Sean...


That shot is awesome. Not just the lighting but the composition is phenomenal.


Kieth,


I like your messing around portrait. The colors aren't that bad. The lighting is soft and very natural. It sorta looks like you took the shot while she was watching TV. I agree with Sean, mess around with black and white filters, you'd be suprised at what can come out. Picasa 3 has a very good filtered black and white converter. I play with the white balance and color deflection in Silkypix when converting from RAW to B&amp;W.

[Sean Setters]

Dang Sean...


That shot is awesome. Not just the lighting but the composition is phenomenal.

Thanks Chuck. I like it too. It's kind of surprising how much I like it because I skipped over it in my initial review of the images. I didn't catch it until the next day when I took a look at them on my home machine (I had originally gone through them on my girlfriend's laptop). In fact, it had the honor of being the first photo I ever printed on my new Pixma Pro9000. ;-)

[Chuck Lee]

That's cool....How's that new printer...we expect a good thorough Sean Setters review....[] in a seperate thread...of course

[twistedphrame]

That's a great shot Sean.





Here's a self-portrait I did the other night while bored. I wanted to get shadows from the tree in the front yard but couldn't make it work so I just switched up my flash placement


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[Chuck Lee]

Very cool one-light there, twisted. Nice comp.

[Sean Setters]

I agree, nice shot. I like the restricted light area (like when using a grid or snoot), and it works well with your framing.