Portrait Shots (show us your best)

[Every Miles A Memory]

I was honored to photograph each of the members of the 2012 Team USA Paralympic rugby team heading to London. Hardcore, high impact sport. Fun bunch to be around.

White seamless background with a piece of plexiglass sitting on the floor?? How many lights and in what position were they? Really nice shot

 

[john101477]

Wow that is an impressive shot Loren!!!!
Also interested inthe setup on this one!

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

This was just a quick snapshot while she was piloting the boat and I was shooting. But I thought her glasses gave a cool reflection of what I was seeing

 

[grimbo]

Shot of my son at the aquarium, he was mesmerized by the seals

 

[Clark White]

Ustadza took some dance classes this weekend, and Saturday night some of the teachers got up and did a show. I hadn't come prepared to photograph a show (latterly I'd planned on one or two shots of desert rains, nothing more) so I had no flash (which the dancers were probably happy for), only a small memory card, and only an f4 lens. They turned off most of the lights in the studio (not a real stage) so the lighting was beyond horrible, but I think I managed to get some winners despite my bumbling!




These two are of Ava Flemming. Funny story, I sat there and talked to her on and off for about two hours before it finally dawned on me that it was the same Ava that was awarded Belly Dancer of the Universe...yep, I'm just that smooth...




And these are of Ruby Beh, one of the Belly Dance Superstars (I think, don't flog me if I got that wrong!)




Needless to say it was a pretty good show. I decided to put them all in Photoshop and run some actions on them rather then just using Lightroom because at ISO6400 the quality was a little lacking and they were insanely noisy, but even at 6400 I only had 1/100 shutter at f4, so there really wasn't much more I could do about it.

Clark

 

[taco2go]

Very nice-clark. That camera and lens setup definitely seemed to like the subjects

 

[loren85022]

White seamless background with a piece of plexiglass sitting on the floor?? How many lights and in what position were they? Really nice shot

The setup was based on Zach Aries low budget suggestions. I tried Home Depot's tile board ($10) but I didn't like the color or the shine. Ended up buying 2 pieces of 1/8th 4x8 white plexiglasss ($100 ea). Pricey but they held up great.

On each side I have a light pointed at the white cloth background. It's 2 stops over my key light. In review one light didn't blowout the background for all the guys. Not sure if it failed, or got moved. I bought two bi-fold closet doors off of Craigslist to control the light getting on the athletes. Basically they block the light. It's all aimed at the background.

The key is a Paul Puff Einstien with beauty dish and a sock. It's at f8. I'm using a pretty cheap 'cowboy' brand boom to get the light right over their head.

Camera is D800 with 70-200mm. Most were at 100mm at f8,1/160th,iso100.

Using Lightroom, I'm bumping the clarity moderately, and a bit of saturation. I'm adding highlight to fix the less than blow out backgrounds.

If I really needed a perfect image, I'd have some photoshopping to do. And I still want to improve the floor. It wasn't as pure white as I wanted.




Sent from my iToaster

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

Thanks for the detailed explanation Loren. A studio that I borrowed while shooting a client for senior portraits in Michigan had big sheets of white plexi they had purchased at Home Depot in the Bathroom Section ( I guess its a white plastic used to cover walls in showers and bathrooms ) that we would lay down on the floor over top of the white seamless background. That gave us the glossy, wet look with the right reflection.

I think we were using four lights. Two to hit the background and two to light the model. One behind her for a rim light, and one large one high and to the camera left that was in a big Rotolux Softbox.

Lighting Set-Up for those who are interested

Finished Image

 

[dorton]

Here are a couple of my little girl from a couple days ago.

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

Great smile in that first one!!

 

[loren85022]

Same set up, 'cept I used a beautydish rather than softbox. Actual plexi has a slightly better reflection which I thought was important for the metal chair. Now I just need the same setup 4x bigger so I can roll a van in. Although an hour with Photoshop is easier and an more reflective.

Thanks for the detailed explanation Loren. A studio that I borrowed while shooting a client for senior portraits in Michigan had big sheets of white plexi they had purchased at Home Depot in the Bathroom Section ( I guess its a white plastic used to cover walls in showers and bathrooms ) that we would lay down on the floor over top of the white seamless background. That gave us the glossy, wet look with the right reflection.

I think we were using four lights. Two to hit the background and two to light the model. One behind her for a rim light, and one large one high and to the camera left that was in a big Rotolux Softbox.

Lighting Set-Up for those who are interested

 

[DorB]

I think this one can pass as(s) kind of portrait..

 

[bob91yj]

Very amateur photographer playing with a new lens, I liked these shots of my grandson Gage.

 

[stevenr]

Here are some portraits of Hamilton. He just graduated from a 2 year program from Goodwill for service training. He knows over 90 commands that include opening drawers turning on and off lights to taking clothes out of a dryer and finding help on command. These shots are for an editorial piece for one of the magazines that I work for shot in studio.

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

I guess portrait shots of a dog work too :elkgrin: