If you're using a tripod, use live view and manual focus on the eyes, just to see how it looks if you hit "perfect" focus. You can even start playing with thin DoF portraits that way --- manual focus on only the eyes thru live view, and shoot wide open, though a 35mm isn't going to have as dramatic an effect as a longer lens. Maybe use a long corridor in the house to gain that separation.
For outdoor portraits, you can shoot a wide apertures, but if you're shooting against a wall, stop it down to at least f/5.6 (even with APS-C sensors) --- the wall is not going to be a distraction.
I think the white wall was probably also messing with the auto focus point selection as well --- for portraits, especially at thin DoF, using single point AF is the way to go. The control is far preferable.
With a 35/1.8 (effectively a 52mm), I'd recommend stepping back and showing more of the body --- a 35mm lens would be acceptable for 3/4 length shots (maybe even 1/2 length) without too much facial distortion, provided that you don't shoot at a funky angle, so keep the plane of focus level with the wall.
Try window light first to see how you can create different shadows on faces. The on-board flash, even if diffused, will still create pretty flat lighting, as you can see from the pictures. Also, a $10 reflector will do wonders. Either that, or $3 foam core from the craft store and a roll of aluminum foil...
Yes I was as far back as I could get unfortunately. I had also noticed the flat lighting.. There's very minimal post processing apart from a little noise reduction/sharpening and vignetting (which is not like me!) because I found that there was not a lot of light and shade to play with at all. Next time I'll do it in the living room which will give me more space. I'll also try and utilise some natural light aswell, from an angle.
Now I know what the fuss is all about regarding the beauty dish. When it is used the right way, it will make people glow with radiance and yes, beauty.
This is a bare, undiffused silver beauty dish shot just askew of paramount lighting about 3 feet away from the subject, with a silver reflector filling in the shadows on the underside. Shot with high-speed sync at 1/1000s and wide open at f/2.8 from the 100L macro.
The shot was cleaned up, but with pretty minimal effort.
Ok so its raining here in ole blighty... My photo trip got cancelled
So... I decided to make a little portrait set up in the spare room to snap the Missus and son. Tripod set up with set a couple of house lamps on the floor to try and diffuse shadows from the onboard flash. It's a small room so I had very limited space - couldn't use anything longer than my 35mm 1.8.
Yes bud, I personally don't think its too bad, but I have very limited experience in portraits. Ideally I would have liked to be a bit further back and got more of the body in. Maybe a 50mm (approx 85mm) would be better for just shoulders up on dx.
Yes bud, I personally don't think its too bad, but I have very limited experience in portraits. Ideally I would have liked to be a bit further back and got more of the body in. Maybe a 50mm (approx 85mm) would be better for just shoulders up on dx.
The 50mm or 55mm ends up being a great portrait lens at a good price. The vintage manual focus lenses from the 1980s or 1970s can be found in fast Fstops and have their own magic optical quality. Nikon still makes the old manual lens also if you insist on buying new.
It ends up being an 80mm on DX bodies with smooth out of focus backgrounds, perfect for portraits. Due to the clarity they work well for landscape photography even though it takes a while to get your head around an 80mm landscape lens.
The only trouble is the DOF is small wide open and I have trouble with the focus is low light. Still the image in the view finder is extra bright due to F stop.http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/36977-USA/Nikon_1433_Normal_50mm_f_1_4_AIS.html
Split toning, plus a cinematic crop. Likely 16:9, with letterboxing. Plus some desaturation. I'm not sure if you know what split toning is, so I'll expand. Please don't be offended if you already do. It's basically the color bias of the highlights and shadows. You can individually select whether you want the shadows to be bluish, and the highlights yellowish...or green, or whatever.
Its not an ultra wide, probs a standard zoom at the wide end. To be honest you can get that effect on any digital camera that allows 16:9 jpegs. Or you could simply crop them afterwards with software. Theres not much processing, maybe a tint or temp adjustment towards blue. Not taking anything away from the shots as they are very nice and I can see the appeal
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