Maria

Available light portrait. This photo was taken in the NE corner of a large room with many large windows. The model was positioned diagonally to two of them and had a north window on her right and an east window on her left, hence the highlights in her eyes..

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2589/...9266d40d_o.jpg

I like itm the lighting is good. I would just clone out one of the highlights from the eyes. But that's just a personal preference.

I think this would work better as a b&w, as the colors are not so interesting to begin with. The eye highlights are good, but there's perhaps a bit too much light hitting the model's face directly (making the image seem somewhat flat). Her expression is also a bit tentative rather than natural and relaxed. Hope that helps.

P.S. Love the Jack London quote, by the way.

I like this portrait but it is not sharp enough for me. Took a look at yr Exif data, that's the answer. 1/6 is way too slow for a portrait 99% of the time. 1/60 is my min unless the subject is lying down or leaning OR I have no other choice. Hope that helps - Marko

Thanks! Well back to the drawing board. I need an available light portrait, head and shoulders, but not direct sunlight streaming into a window for the course I am taking. Our main dining room will be closed for the summer soon and it has a nice windows on the north and east plus the walls are a faux marble finish. I just need to line up some victims. :) I have another lens that is a bit faster or my 35mm prime if it comes to that. I can pop the iso up to 800 if necessary so that should give me 2 stops of light right there. Plus I am (required) using a reflector board. So I guess it's just a matter of practice.

I like this portrait and could live with its sharpness. For me there is too much light available in the face ;-) - it looks a bit very white.

Here is that portrait without the photoshop elements. All I did was add a border. When I exported it, it had the same colors as this but after loading to flickr I got the above result.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3409/...3846a1b227.jpg

Check here: http://www.photography.ca/Forums/sho...6439#post26439

Except for the sharpness, I actually liked the first portrait, and I prefer it over the second one (except the second portrait now has sharper eyes).

Lol, this is complicated, huh? Oh well, if things were too simple we would not learn from them. I am going to do some more portraits of her after Stampede. :)