Moonrise & Aurora

Moonrise & Aurora

by Jakub

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I am about to get into portrait photography and here is my first try:

portrait

I know, it is has over exposure, but I think that it matches to the person, so it does not matter for me. So, I need some general tips to improve my portraits, I use a Nikon D90 with Nikkor AF 50mm 1:1.8

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1  
Could you be more specific about what you'd like to achieve? Photo critique is regarded off-topic for this site - see meta.photo.stackexchange.com/questions/150/… – Imre Sep 2 '11 at 8:07
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I have to admit, I struggle to see how this question can be answered here. It's a really big topic, as written, and I think it would be much better for you to start and then ask specific questions about the things you learn. There are tons of portrait related questions here, many of which will likely answer some of the questions you probably already have. – John Cavan♦ Sep 2 '11 at 13:51
Agree with @Imre - ask a more specific question and it'll be more supported by the community. What aspect of the photo would you like to improve first? The lighting? The composition? etc... – rfusca♦ Sep 2 '11 at 16:24

closed as not a real question by mattdm, Itai, John Cavan♦, rfusca♦, Imre Sep 2 '11 at 16:28

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

Look at works of great masters. Anton Corbjin, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Richard Avedon and Bill Brandt are few of the names that pop into my mind.

Then, keep in mind that portraying people and taking photographs are two orthogonal aspects of portrait photography. Practice them separately as well as together.

If to take your first try as an example, it is inferior (=boring) in both ways - it is overexposed, blurry and composition does not have any reasoning behind it. Also, it tells us nothing about the person other than that he has long curly hair, likes to wear black and probably owns a Nikon DSLR.

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up vote 1 down vote

Fill the frame more, kills a bit more of the background. Make sure it's sharp on their eyes over anything else, overexposure can be used creatively but it's also made this image quite flat which takes the life out of it so you need to be wary of it.

Most important, learn people. Learn how to get something out of them and how you can capture that single moment.

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I think is pretty good, just make a cut. For example, camera shouldn't be just a part on the picture, so cut it out altogether.

  1. Choose neutral background - solid color.
  2. Manually adjust exposure to avoid uverexposed photos. Aditional ligting is crucial for profesional portatit photography.
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