I’ve been practicing more portrait photography lately and wanted to check in and see what I could be doing better. Looking forward to your replies!
I can’t see any technical mistakes (which is a worthy thing), and you’ve got the lights so as to show the shadows of the bone structure nicely, so you are really in the zone of “Do I like this photo?”, and it’s you and the sitter’s liking of the photo (or is it a self portrait?) which are the most important things.
Possible things to change if they don’t appeal to you (but you may like them):
- You’ve reflected light in the eyes - do you want them at all, and/or in those positions
- The sunglasses are slightly off-centre - are you happy with how they balance the image (you may well like how they balance the pocket)
- There’s wisps of hair on the forehead - but that could easily be because that’s how the sitter expects to be (a model would be furious, but that’s not what this portrait is of!)
- The hair just fades into the background - which is a valid choice, but did you consider alternatives, such as a minor amount of backlighting?
I appreciate your insight!
I will give some thought about some backlight for next time.
You look like my old friend Randy from church.
Hope Randy was a nice guy!
He was my best friend. Then he moved to Idaho with his family and I only ever saw him once after that. I wonder what he’s up to.