I have been trying to take some portrait photography for a while but have been either too nervous to ask anyone or they hide when my camera comes out!
This morning I had a willing subject in Eric who has just begun cycling round the whole coast of Britain,
3,365 miles in all!
It was his first day yesterday & he had ridden from Cheshire. He aims to average around sixty miles a day with one day off in Sunderland to meet his wife.
Tonight he is staying in Ravensglass.
I took his photo with his camera too.
Not that happy with this photo, clear enough but too busy behind......I didn't like to make too much fuss moving him to somewhere more suitable.
Three good things:
1. Our lovely granddaughter Lydia's 19th birthday.
2. Lots of visitors.
3. Lydia was working today but the cake shop opposite delivered her a cupcake with a candle on it.
Always tricky when you are rushing. However you have his face quite well defined and sharp, and caught his eyes looking too. I would like to get some more people shots but as you say it's tricky.
I think this is very well done, considering the time you had to take the shot. I have do do a portrait shoot for some freinds in a few weeks and did some practice yesterday. Even though I had time I noticed background issues one I had them on the computer. There is one that I was pretty happy with and may post later.
@jennywren@stevej
Thank you for your feed back both of you. I was using a prime 45mm 1:1.8 lens which I have had for a while but not used much. The depth of field should have been better I know but a complete rushed shot....must do better! Thanks for your encouragement ! @nicknac
You got past the hardest part .. asking .. way to go! Perhaps a tighter crop would get rid of some of what bothers you? You have great focus and light on his face. With the tilt of his head you could crop some from the left, moving him off center but still with a nice diagonal line formed from his position and perhaps crop the right just a smidgen so the tree formed the edge.
I like to see this background on him as he is a biker and moves on! One of those older people who do like to push themselves with a physical challenge! So many of them have heart attacks! Hope Eric doesn't! His face is nicely in focus and has character.
A great character and interesting face ,a casual look all adds up to this character portrait ---and the background does not distract but adds to the casualness and the story of it all . I prefer this to the cropped one !
Great shot and a fantastic venture. Even the legistics and organising of it all is quite a task. Hope it all goes well for him. Would be nice if he had someone take his photo at each stage.
And Happy Birthday to Lydia! And how lovely to have her little cake delivered. 🎂
I like the processing in this shot, it suits b&w so well. I don't mind the background either as that shows that he is on the road and not in a studio. Now that you have got the confidence to ask people if you can take their photo I look forward to lots more.
Thank you for your feed back both of you. I was using a prime 45mm 1:1.8 lens which I have had for a while but not used much. The depth of field should have been better I know but a complete rushed shot....must do better! Thanks for your encouragement !
@nicknac
And Happy Birthday to Lydia! And how lovely to have her little cake delivered. 🎂
you could edit the shot and do a closer crop to remove the unwanted background