Kelly

[Craftysnapper]

Kelly a friend of a friend  I did a shoot for who wants to try glamour modeling, no full length shots as my home made backgrounds could not acommadate it,just one light and a shoot through umbrella.

 

[FUJI]

Beautifully taken and beautifully processed, I like the first one especially.

 

FUJI

[ChrisLumix]

#2 is a real winner

[Guest Ron]

For some reason I find her eyes slightly odd in the first one, probably just me.

Ron

[Guest Ron]

I know Judy, I would never doubt Paul and his portrait work, sorry Paul.

Its just that her left eye seems to me to be more raised or open then her right eye and my eyes are drawn to it, probably very natural just ignore me.

Ron

[Guest]

Thanks for the kind comments guys.

[Guest Ron]

Paul, excuse my ignorance but what is a "shoot through umbrella"..?

 

Ron

[Guest]

I know Judy, I would never doubt Paul and his portrait work, sorry Paul.

Its just that her left eye seems to me to be more raised or open then her right eye and my eyes are drawn to it, probably very natural just ignore me.

Ron

​Hey Ron no probs you are entitled to your opinion and you have picked up on something I already knew but it is not the size of the eyes as they are the same size,,measure them.

No Kelly's mouth and jaw tend to drop down on her left side  if you look closely even in the other one and this is giving the effect you think you are seeing in the eye,but my job is to make them look as good as I can.

It is rare to see symmetrical perfection in a face  as usually we have two different halves, just take half a face and flip it to see perfect symmetry and how strange it can look,it's our imperfections that make us different.

[Guest Ron]

I see what you mean Paul, anyway great work as usual.

 

Ron

[Guest]

I see what you mean Paul, anyway great work as usual.

 

Ron

​Thank you Ron. About time we saw some more pics of your Granddaughter.

[Guest Ron]

I know Paul I will try next time she comes over, she was with us a couple of weeks back but the weather was lousy and I didnt manage to get any decent pics.

 

Ron 

[Guest Ron]

Paul, excuse my ignorance but what is a "shoot through umbrella"..?

 

Ron

​Paul you maybe missed this

Ron

[Guest]

It is a white umbrella that is translucent and the light passes through it rather than bounces of it. It has always been my favourite form of studio portrait light similar to a softbox but more versatile as you cann alter the effect of the light by changing how how close the light is to the apex of the brolly.

Saying that I much prefer natural light these days weather it be in or outdoors.

[Guest]

I know Paul I will try next time she comes over, she was with us a couple of weeks back but the weather was lousy and I didnt manage to get any decent pics.

 

Ron 

​No excuse Ron I've had good result indoors with natural light even on a dull winters day, you just need a fast lens.

I did a tutorial on a Olympus forum for outdoor natural light portraits you may find useful,it's done quite well with over 3500 views, I will message you the link if you are interested as I do not wish to take traffic from this site.

[ChrisLumix]

​Hey Ron no probs you are entitled to your opinion and you have picked up on something I already knew but it is not the size of the eyes as they are the same size,,measure them.

 

It is rare to see symmetrical perfection in a face  as usually we have two different halves, just take half a face and flip it to see perfect symmetry and how strange it can look,it's our imperfections that make us different.

​Yes, so true. You might be interested in a Photoshop exercise I once did to demonstrate that - the left hand face is the original, whereas the middle and right pictures respectively take a different half of the original, and flip it to make a full face. You can see - I hope - that the middle and right pictures appear to be closely related, e.g. sisters, but do not seem to be the same person, even though they are.

 

[Guest]

A good example Chris, and Ron might notice in the original her left eye looks bigger.

[Guest Ron]

​No excuse Ron I've had good result indoors with natural light even on a dull winters day, you just need a fast lens.

I did a tutorial on a Olympus forum for outdoor natural light portraits you may find useful,it's done quite well with over 3500 views, I will message you the link if you are interested as I do not wish to take traffic from this site.

​I know Paul no excuses but in my defence she is two years old and if I get her to pose she pulls silly faces, actually I should probably have taken one of those.

Ron

[Guest Ron]

​Yes, so true. You might be interested in a Photoshop exercise I once did to demonstrate that - the left hand face is the original, whereas the middle and right pictures respectively take a different half of the original, and flip it to make a full face. You can see - I hope - that the middle and right pictures appear to be closely related, e.g. sisters, but do not seem to be the same person, even though they are.

 

​Thanks Chris, that is interesting I,ve not seen that done before and as you say three people from one face. When you see it like this it just shows how different each side of our faces are.

 

Ron

[Guest]

​Yes please Paul I would like to see the tutorial.

Ron

​Messages you the Url Ron.

[Guest]

Ron thats fine the 50mm on a crop sensor has the angle of view of a 75mm lens which is near the ideal portrait length. 

This was taken with the Nikon 50mm at f/1.8 as was the other one I posted here a few weeks ago Ron.

[ChrisLumix]

Thank you for the tutorial Paul, very good and easy to understand and follow I will try and put into practice.

You mentioned using a fast lens when natural light is not too good, my Sony 50mm is f1.8 so that should be ok but is a 50mm a good portrait lens..?

I was wondering if there is an ideal all rounder lens for portrait work and if so what would that be.

Ron

P.S. I have noticed on Ebay a couple of Minolta AF 50mm f1.7 lenses which are described as "Portrait Lens" if that is correct would they have different characteristics to a "standard" 50mm. Minolta of course would fit the Sony.

 

 

​The Minolta 50mm AF (MD ?) is a standard lens for 35mm film cameras. It is NOT a portrait lens! You want something in the range 70mm - 105mm equivalent for that.

[Guest]

Chris perspective depends only on your position. It has nothing to do with your lens.

Shorter or longer lenses don't change perspective, they just make framing tighter or looser.

Different lenses require you to move closer or farther way to get the framing you want, but it's the change in position that alters perspective, not the lens.

If you want a tight head shot, you have to do it from too close for comfort with a 50mm lens, making a 50mm lens a poor choice for head shots.

But when you use a 50mm lens on a crop sensor you have to move back to get the same framing as on a 35mm therefore the perspective (not focal length) changes to a 75mm.

Which is why the micro fourthirds 45mm is considered a portrait lens 45 x2 crop factor = 90mm.

.

[ChrisLumix]

Chris perspective depends only on your position. It has nothing to do with your lens.

Shorter or longer lenses don't change perspective, they just make framing tighter or looser.

Different lenses require you to move closer or farther way to get the framing you want, but it's the change in position that alters perspective, not the lens.

If you want a tight head shot, you have to do it from too close for comfort with a 50mm lens, making a 50mm lens a poor choice for head shots.

But when you use a 50mm lens on a crop sensor you have to move back to get the same framing as on a 35mm therefore the perspective (not focal length) changes to a 75mm.

Which is why the micro fourthirds 45mm is considered a portrait lens 45 x2 crop factor = 90mm.

.

​Hi Paul

I agree with your last point - if a 50mm Minolta lens (35mm format) is used on a m4/3 system,then it WILL of course be a portrait lens! Though I'm not sure the original question mentioned the change in format?

But I must respectfully disagree with your position on perspective. I did once see an online article which showed the effects of different lenses when used to frame a portrait to make it exactly the same size. The wide angle lens compared to the extreme telephoto lens, showed very different interpretations of the same face! In the wideangle shots, the nose was exaggerated (i.e., seemed nearer), while the eyes were further apart. The relative position of the ears, and even the shape of the face, were subtly different. 

I think it's something to do with the 'compression' of foreground and background which increases as you go more telephoto? (In relation to the same field of view).

[Guest]

 

​

 

 

Hi Chris,

Yes it was mentioned about it being a crop sensor by me.

This is true when the framing is same, but is is how close you are to the subject that changes perspective, wide angles just allow you to get nearer.

By the same token if you take a portrait with a 28mm and 90mm at the same distance then crop the 28mm shot to the same size as the 90mm there is no nose exaggeration because perspective is virtually the same, it's the distance from the subject as well as the focal length that dictates perspective. In Ron's case with the equal of a 75mm f/1.8 on his Sony and that 24mp sensor he can move back a few more feet and afford to crop in which will give him the same perspective as 100mm lens.

[ChrisLumix]

 

Hi Chris,

Yes it was mentioned about it being a crop sensor by me.

This is true when the framing is same, but is is how close you are to the subject that changes perspective, wide angles just allow you to get nearer.

By the same token if you take a portrait with a 28mm and 90mm at the same distance then crop the 28mm shot to the same size as the 90mm there is no nose exaggeration because perspective is virtually the same, it's the distance from the subject as well as the focal length that dictates perspective. In Ron's case with the equal of a 75mm f/1.8 on his Sony and that 24mp sensor he can move back a few more feet and afford to crop in which will give him the same perspective as 100mm lens.

​Yes, I understand what you're saying. A 50mm FF lens used on m4/3 will allow for framing at a greater distance than with FF (i.e. about double the equivalent focal length) thus giving more compression of the subject if framed the same way, and therefore a more flattering portrait (working on the assumption that the more wide-angle the perspective, the less flattering the portrait!).