I have seen this gentleman around City Hall on several occasions and I always thought he would be interesting to photograph...
today as I was sitting around watching a highschool band gathering to play in the sqaure he came and sat down beside me and asked me to take his picture! (he wanted to hold up the coke can!).
Anyway, I am not good with portraits but this is something I would really like to get better at, so would appreciate feedback on what I could have done better to get this shot... I am thinking of doing the flickr 100 Strangers project (see link below), and while I originally thought talking to strangers would be the hardest part, I am thinking now that photographing them will be... yikes!
The only thing perhaps is maybe the background is a bit busy, shallower dof would be good here. He looks a bit odd holding that coke, but hey if he wanted to promote it, then what can you do? He looks like a very interesting character and I would maybe would have filled up the frame a bit more with his interesting face. I am not an expert by any means (as you well know) but I love doing portraits when I can.
I think it's a great shot, really. I can see the sunlight is strong in the background, so even if you didn't think about it yourself, you still got a very good light on your subject.
i like his face. it's interesting!
I did a photo workshop and took a class in portraits. i will look and see if i can find any info online from the school who hosted it. it was good, basic info that might be helpful to you.
i've never been on flickr. i hear lots about it, guess i need to check it out.
Not bad! It sounds like he took control of the situation and he didn't make a bad job of it! I think a shallower depth of field would improve it. Don't know what is the widest aperture of your lens; I see you have it set at F4.5. A 50mm F1.4 lens would serve you well here. With my lenses I would choose a 70mm (the widest available to me would be F2.8). That focal length is ideal for portraits, allowing you to get a little further away. A short focal length and getting in closer could lead to distortion. You could lose the person behind his rt. shoulder but the pole is more of a problem. But what do I know, apart from a bit of theory? I'm useless at the more formal portraits! I haven't got the patter to make them feel relaxed!
I agree, lower the aperture for a greater depth of field. Also crop it in a bit tighter to make it more about his face - at the moment the bottom of his vest is a little distracting. I would probably crop to just below his hand.
Black and white also brings out the character of the person a little more.
@monika64 tx Monika... yeah, i was thinking i need to crop more... but was distracted by the flashing lights on his vest (seriously... they flashed!)... my current lens only dials down to f/5.6 (altho' sometimes it goes as low as f/4 on its own in very bright light)... i had myself talked into buying a prime lens today... one of the stupidly annoying things that happened is that when i rushed out to get it after work i had to wait 15 minutes at the store only to be told they were out of stock... prolly just as well, as i came home to be told by the nanny that the van battery had failed and so had to rush out to get that replaced... xp
I did a photo workshop and took a class in portraits. i will look and see if i can find any info online from the school who hosted it. it was good, basic info that might be helpful to you.
i've never been on flickr. i hear lots about it, guess i need to check it out.
Black and white also brings out the character of the person a little more.
Heres how I would portrait him: http://365project.org/monika64/behind-the-scen/2012-05-18
I am no expert but I do love portraits.