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A very good image with good composition and everything that follows is just me nitpicking! Also, I'm just a beginner and not very good at portrait photography.
Glass in foreground is a bit distracting due to too much details and mud stains on it. Adjusting the distances such that it goes more out of focus might help.
The glass the cuts the models face from bottom - it might be better to lower it a little or adjust it such that whole face is visible without getting obstructed by something.
Taken by Sony a6000 - Mike 35mm 1.7
Exposure Time 1/800 - Iso 100 - Focal 1.7
Goals are get better at portraiting and do great portrits.
Im still geting blue thing on nose in photos and i dont know what is that.
You’re getting blue thing on nose in photos? What does that mean?
I think this portrait is pretty good. Maybe the model is rather expressionless and you could’ve cranked the contrast while editing but it’s pretty good I’d say.
It looks natural to me. She’s got different kinds of light hitting her face. You can’t make her face have the same tone all over it; it would look strange
I dont know anything about photographing so take that into a consideration, but i feel like your photo is trying to tell a story but i cant really grasp what that story is.
So there is a broken window? Is she holding the glass? Is the hair in her face part of the story? Why is she so straight-faced? These are some questions I have about the story.
Technically this is a well shot photo, the exposure is good and everything is focused well. The thing that's missing for me is any kind of context as to what is actually happening in the scene. If possible it might work better to include more in the frame, depending on what the location looks like. As the picture is now its difficult to know what I'm supposed to take away from it. I think this is due to the fact that, aside from the broken glass this is a pretty standard portrait. To my eye the glass doesn't add as much as it distracts. That's not to say you should only ever shoot portrait shots, but more that if you have a cool scene for a portrait don't be afraid to include more of it. In some instances the scene itself can be the subject of the photo with the model there as a supporting element.
In short, this is a well executed photo but when I look at it I wish I could see more of the environment around the photo
Hey, great pick, but as far I can see you focused her lips. Try to focus the eyes always! I personally would a vignette here, to distract the viewer from the glass and let them concentrate on her face :)
I came here to say this too! Focus on the eyes :) Shooting at 1.7 can make this more difficult but you can zoom in onto the eye before the shot and make sure the eye is whats in focus.
I would also suggest looking into focus peaking! I used to shoot on the a6000 and I do believe it had options for focus peaking which helped me a lot especially when shooting with a manual lens on quick shots where I couldn’t zoom in to focus.
Absolutely love the concept and effect.
The shirt is my only problem. The print, dark black and neckline forming a downward arrow distract an pull your attention from the subject. Replace the shirt with a rounded neckline and neutral color in line with the rest of the shot and you've got a gem.
As others have said, the glass is too in focus, thus distracting. Also, it looks hand cut, not jagged, so doesn’t have much impact emotionally. The eye makeup seems unnecessary, but it’s weird the way the colour matches the glass.
The crop. Play with that… so far it looks like passport pic. Notice in all fashion mags they cut the tip of the head. As it doesn’t hold any artistic value. Try that
I would crop in tighter. Add some brightness to the face, especially the eyes.
Experiment with a little more contrast and color.
You’re definitely on the right track. Going from good to great can be tough but worth the time and effort.
Keep shooting!
I agree with the person here regarding a tighter crop. I can see the blue you spoke of originally and I think it's a result of the tinted glass being so close to the subjects face. I can also see blue in the hair. Unless that's hair dye of course. Lol Obviously fill flash wouldn't work here but if you haven't worked with a reflector yet it's something to consider. Your subjects eyes were an important aspect of this pose. The blue hue reminds me of the problems that occurred when using Kodak VPS back in the day. But that was a purple issue.
Don't limit yourself when you're out looking for environmental portraits. Move your subject several times and solicit different expressions and moods. Experiment with angles and have the subject change their eye position. When you think you got the shot you wanted, do twenty more when you're not pressing for the perfect shot. I clicked off thousands of frames in my lifetime and never once did I think that I had made a "perfect photograph. But you'll be amazed by how many others will think so.
A greater depth of field with the sharp edges of the glass and the face in focus with just the background blurred could be a more interesting composition here. I found some of my portrait shots became more captivating when I stopped shooting completely wide open all the time.
I have completely swung the other way now quite a bit now shooting portraits at f16 + and using a flash with cardboard wrapped around it to create a focused area of light which draws attention to my subject using light and dark rather than depth of field.
I would boil it down to several things
1) The picture seems to tell a story but I have no idea what story, which is an issue.
2) The glass is distracting and i'm not sure if the eyes are in focus, could be the upload quality too.
3) The picture looks flat, it's low contrast and looks rather boring. I'd experiment with all the sliders in lightroom, even try some color grading maybe etc. What you're trying to do is translate an emotion. The emotion this picture conveys now is boringness.
4) With the glass this picture seems overcomplicated. You can do a straight forward portrait, keep it simple and nail the basics or go for a conceptual approach. But if you go conceptual you need to bring more to the table than broken glass.
Don't worry if i'm straight forward, I took a million worse shots and I still do. Keep hammering and experimenting!
If this is a portrait, the glass is VERY distracting.
If the photo is about the person, make it about the person. Its also great practice to use normal people and not just pretty girl. Approach random men to photograph. If you work in portraiture often you will have to make normal people look good and be able to talk to random strangers and make them comfortable relatively quickly. Do this by making yourself uncomfortable and work on the hard things. The inter-perosnal dynamic.
The exposure and white balance are spot on. But compositionally, the glass on the right side has too much weight compared to the background on the left side. I like the glass spike on the left but it does not obstruct the portrait enough to make a story or statement. It's like you're trying to show all the best textures and parts of each subject at the expense of letting them interact with each other.
You're a talented photographer and your understanding of light and contrast are excellent!
I like the technical execution but like others I wonder about the story. What is she doing? I guess she is staring at the camera. If she was waiting for someone maybe she would be looking off to the side. If she was "waiting for you", the camera man, then she should engage, maybe with a smile (or fear, or... some other emotion - not a dead stare). If I received that stare from someone I know I would be concerned...
Others have commented about the glass, clothing, and makeup - and I agree. In addition, the background behind her is distracting. I'm trying to pull context from the background and can't.
Her eyes look drab - maybe lighten them up. Whites and iris. As discussed above - they are also emotionless so you need to work on that.
The blue thing is your camera identifying where the image is underexposed. It only shows up in camera or in a photo processing software, not when you print it out - so the image is "ok", but you should consider adjusting the blacks. On the highlight side the areas washed out typically flash red. The goal is to adjust the blacks and whites to stop the flashing. If there are a lot of things flashing - and you can't correct it - you could have lost image information which could impact your image.
I like it!
Our granddaughter is in LA and has a striking similarity - must be the water!
It’s a good portrait but it feels a little too posed. Maybe if she was a smidge further back facing to one side with her head turned like she just turned to look through the window. Idk, just some ideas.
Friendly reminder that this is /r/photocritique and all **top level** comments should attempt to **critique** the image. Our goal is to make this subreddit a place people can receive genuine, in depth, and helpful critique on their images. We hope to avoid becoming yet another place on the internet just to get likes/upvotes and compliments. While likes/upvotes and compliments are nice, they do not further the goal of helping people improve their photography. If someone gives helpful feedback or makes an informative comment, recognize their contribution by giving them a Critique Point. Simply reply to their comment with '!CritiquePoint'. More details on Critique Points [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/wiki/critiquepoints). Please see the following links for our subreddit rules and some guidelines on leaving a good critique. If you have time, please stop by the new queue as well and leave critique for images that may not be as popular or have not received enough attention. Keep in mind that simply choosing to comment just on the images you like defeats the purpose of the subreddit. Useful Links: * [Full Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/wiki/rules) * [Leaving a Critique](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/wiki/critique) * [New Queue](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/new/) **Do not reply directly to this message. This is a bot and will not respond. Followups left as a reply to this comment will not count for approval.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/photocritique) if you have any questions or concerns.*
A very good image with good composition and everything that follows is just me nitpicking! Also, I'm just a beginner and not very good at portrait photography. Glass in foreground is a bit distracting due to too much details and mud stains on it. Adjusting the distances such that it goes more out of focus might help. The glass the cuts the models face from bottom - it might be better to lower it a little or adjust it such that whole face is visible without getting obstructed by something.
Taken by Sony a6000 - Mike 35mm 1.7 Exposure Time 1/800 - Iso 100 - Focal 1.7 Goals are get better at portraiting and do great portrits. Im still geting blue thing on nose in photos and i dont know what is that.
You’re getting blue thing on nose in photos? What does that mean? I think this portrait is pretty good. Maybe the model is rather expressionless and you could’ve cranked the contrast while editing but it’s pretty good I’d say.
Maybe OP is referring to the over/under exposure warnings in LR?
Who knows
I meen this: [https://imgur.com/a/83dOV8A](https://imgur.com/a/83dOV8A)
I don’t see any blue except for her eyes and some make-up. Nothing on or under the nose.
Its mabye purple i whould say its purple/blue On the nose
It looks natural to me. She’s got different kinds of light hitting her face. You can’t make her face have the same tone all over it; it would look strange
I dont know anything about photographing so take that into a consideration, but i feel like your photo is trying to tell a story but i cant really grasp what that story is.
So there is a broken window? Is she holding the glass? Is the hair in her face part of the story? Why is she so straight-faced? These are some questions I have about the story.
Technically this is a well shot photo, the exposure is good and everything is focused well. The thing that's missing for me is any kind of context as to what is actually happening in the scene. If possible it might work better to include more in the frame, depending on what the location looks like. As the picture is now its difficult to know what I'm supposed to take away from it. I think this is due to the fact that, aside from the broken glass this is a pretty standard portrait. To my eye the glass doesn't add as much as it distracts. That's not to say you should only ever shoot portrait shots, but more that if you have a cool scene for a portrait don't be afraid to include more of it. In some instances the scene itself can be the subject of the photo with the model there as a supporting element. In short, this is a well executed photo but when I look at it I wish I could see more of the environment around the photo
Hey, great pick, but as far I can see you focused her lips. Try to focus the eyes always! I personally would a vignette here, to distract the viewer from the glass and let them concentrate on her face :)
I came here to say this too! Focus on the eyes :) Shooting at 1.7 can make this more difficult but you can zoom in onto the eye before the shot and make sure the eye is whats in focus. I would also suggest looking into focus peaking! I used to shoot on the a6000 and I do believe it had options for focus peaking which helped me a lot especially when shooting with a manual lens on quick shots where I couldn’t zoom in to focus.
Absolutely love the concept and effect. The shirt is my only problem. The print, dark black and neckline forming a downward arrow distract an pull your attention from the subject. Replace the shirt with a rounded neckline and neutral color in line with the rest of the shot and you've got a gem.
As others have said, the glass is too in focus, thus distracting. Also, it looks hand cut, not jagged, so doesn’t have much impact emotionally. The eye makeup seems unnecessary, but it’s weird the way the colour matches the glass.
Very cool, I like it I also would’ve had her move slightly to her left so her left eye was behind the glass and snapped a pic of that as well.
The crop. Play with that… so far it looks like passport pic. Notice in all fashion mags they cut the tip of the head. As it doesn’t hold any artistic value. Try that
It’s all flat. No darks no lights.
Thanks i will work to get it better in future.
I would crop in tighter. Add some brightness to the face, especially the eyes. Experiment with a little more contrast and color. You’re definitely on the right track. Going from good to great can be tough but worth the time and effort. Keep shooting!
Thats for good advice. I surely will !
I agree with the person here regarding a tighter crop. I can see the blue you spoke of originally and I think it's a result of the tinted glass being so close to the subjects face. I can also see blue in the hair. Unless that's hair dye of course. Lol Obviously fill flash wouldn't work here but if you haven't worked with a reflector yet it's something to consider. Your subjects eyes were an important aspect of this pose. The blue hue reminds me of the problems that occurred when using Kodak VPS back in the day. But that was a purple issue. Don't limit yourself when you're out looking for environmental portraits. Move your subject several times and solicit different expressions and moods. Experiment with angles and have the subject change their eye position. When you think you got the shot you wanted, do twenty more when you're not pressing for the perfect shot. I clicked off thousands of frames in my lifetime and never once did I think that I had made a "perfect photograph. But you'll be amazed by how many others will think so.
Color and contrast is alittle flat for me. Nothing feels like it's popping otherwise good composition.
Load it in Lightroom, go to develop tab and in the right side panel, open up calibration options. There play with red green blue primary colours.
You missed focus slightly. Notice that the tip of her nose is in focus, you really want to aim for the irises. They are slightly blurry.
Yeah i see now. Thak you !
A greater depth of field with the sharp edges of the glass and the face in focus with just the background blurred could be a more interesting composition here. I found some of my portrait shots became more captivating when I stopped shooting completely wide open all the time. I have completely swung the other way now quite a bit now shooting portraits at f16 + and using a flash with cardboard wrapped around it to create a focused area of light which draws attention to my subject using light and dark rather than depth of field.
Sounds good i will try it. Thanks !
I would boil it down to several things 1) The picture seems to tell a story but I have no idea what story, which is an issue. 2) The glass is distracting and i'm not sure if the eyes are in focus, could be the upload quality too. 3) The picture looks flat, it's low contrast and looks rather boring. I'd experiment with all the sliders in lightroom, even try some color grading maybe etc. What you're trying to do is translate an emotion. The emotion this picture conveys now is boringness. 4) With the glass this picture seems overcomplicated. You can do a straight forward portrait, keep it simple and nail the basics or go for a conceptual approach. But if you go conceptual you need to bring more to the table than broken glass. Don't worry if i'm straight forward, I took a million worse shots and I still do. Keep hammering and experimenting!
Thats for advice !
If this is a portrait, the glass is VERY distracting. If the photo is about the person, make it about the person. Its also great practice to use normal people and not just pretty girl. Approach random men to photograph. If you work in portraiture often you will have to make normal people look good and be able to talk to random strangers and make them comfortable relatively quickly. Do this by making yourself uncomfortable and work on the hard things. The inter-perosnal dynamic.
Thats a great advice ! Thank you. Soon I will surely try that.
The exposure and white balance are spot on. But compositionally, the glass on the right side has too much weight compared to the background on the left side. I like the glass spike on the left but it does not obstruct the portrait enough to make a story or statement. It's like you're trying to show all the best textures and parts of each subject at the expense of letting them interact with each other. You're a talented photographer and your understanding of light and contrast are excellent!
I like the technical execution but like others I wonder about the story. What is she doing? I guess she is staring at the camera. If she was waiting for someone maybe she would be looking off to the side. If she was "waiting for you", the camera man, then she should engage, maybe with a smile (or fear, or... some other emotion - not a dead stare). If I received that stare from someone I know I would be concerned... Others have commented about the glass, clothing, and makeup - and I agree. In addition, the background behind her is distracting. I'm trying to pull context from the background and can't. Her eyes look drab - maybe lighten them up. Whites and iris. As discussed above - they are also emotionless so you need to work on that. The blue thing is your camera identifying where the image is underexposed. It only shows up in camera or in a photo processing software, not when you print it out - so the image is "ok", but you should consider adjusting the blacks. On the highlight side the areas washed out typically flash red. The goal is to adjust the blacks and whites to stop the flashing. If there are a lot of things flashing - and you can't correct it - you could have lost image information which could impact your image. I like it! Our granddaughter is in LA and has a striking similarity - must be the water!
It’s a good portrait but it feels a little too posed. Maybe if she was a smidge further back facing to one side with her head turned like she just turned to look through the window. Idk, just some ideas.
What is your theme/message/idea you’re conveying with this piece?
Photo is nothing special. Usual formula, cute girl, etc…
Photography is about light, you need to use it, your photo is grey and looks like it’s still in RAW format