Winter colours

[katalen]

what are your thoughts on this photo, what needs improving?

[Marko]

I'm afraid this would be a redo for me. It looks like a direct flash shot that was copied and pasted onto a background. Is it? can you describe the lighting setup here?

[katalen]

lol do u not like me or something? you seem to have nothing nice to say at all , no the background is digital green screen and i dont have high expensive equipment to use so yes it was the cameras flash that was used, but really is it just that totally bad that there's nothing good about it? i mean if your right then im all for it but i just do not see it as something totally a loss, but if everyone else thinks its back to the drawing board then im all for it (and no im not mad just trying to understand)

[Marko]

I'm just an honest critic and I've been around a while and taken many portraits. I always make an effort to be nice but when an image needs a lot of help it may come across as less nice I guess.
you can get a great setup for 500 or less. No expensive equipment needed. Window light is free and when used well produces fabulous portraits. used bounced flashes can be had for 50 bucks.

In this case for this image....You needed to separate the subject from the background. This subject looks glued to your green screen - she should have been at least 6 feet in front of the screen... and a white wall or neutral coloured wall is far better and free. You do need nice light and exposure. Direct flash with no supplementary light is normally the worst light because it gives no shape to an image - it just blasts the subject with light from the center of the camera. Feet are too close to the bottom of the image so the proportions look off. I'd recommend finding portraits you love end emulating those portraits.
Hope that wasn't too harsh.

[Iguanasan]

I've never been a fan of digital backgrounds but maybe that's just me - compositing is so very hard to do well. There's no perspective in a digital background so it looks like the person is kind of floating in space which feels awkward to me. The pose looks relatively comfortable which I like but as Marko mentioned the front facing flash or lighting takes away the shadows and makes the whole image look very 2D rather than 3D. Try a few yourself by moving the flash off to a bit of an angle and I think you'll see what we're talking about. If all you have is on camera flash try it with a bright lamp with a higher ISO or even a nice bright window light. I use Yongnuo flashes which you can pick up for about $50 depending upon the model which will give you the ability to angle your flash a bit even if you can't get it off camera. Triggers from Yongnuo are quite inexpensive as well. (and no, I'm not affiliate with the company in any way). I just photograph on a budget and I've found their products to be inexpensive and work reasonably well.

I hope that helps.

[katalen]

thank you for the info , i find it hard to work with the digital backgrounds as well but i have nothing else to work with in the winter months and with bad weather i tend to work outside on nice days, as for the camera flash its a pain, i find if i have a window or light in the photo it turns the photo really dark and i havnt found a setting to stop it from doing that my camera that i have now is new so i dont really know a ton about how it works yet