Glamour Clammer: C&C

[JackRabbit]

Errr... Yeah. First try at clamshell lighting and glamour style headshots that seem to be popular in fashion magazines as of late. Critiques and comments please.

Strobist Info:
Photoflex Starflash 300 above camera, through softbox, 1/4 power.
Reflector below the camera

[Ads]

[SrBiscuit]

looks nice and even to me.
nice shot!

light above, reflector below...is that what makes it "clamshell"?

the results are great.

[JackRabbit]

Yeah usually the catch lights are clam shaped but my reflectors don't work well enough to create a catch light on the bottom

[Fedaykin]

Yes Biscuit that is correct. This is some good flash work. Only nitpicky thing for me is the little shadows on the corners which I gather are her arm pits. Personally I would either have included more of the shoulders or have done a tighter headshot. Great work! I can't wait to get started with flash.

[Derrel]

Wow, you've come so,so far in your lighting control and the quality of light that you're able to create. The light on the very center of her forehead looks a tad bit too bright about one inch above her eyebrows. It's hard to see much to pick at at such a small size, but overall I'm so impressed with how far you've come and how diligently you have worked at getting better and better results with your off-camera lighting!

[JackRabbit]

Large is here: decluttr | Your Flickr images on white.

Thanks Derrel

[Curt-Kurt]

Love how much the red lips stand out

[Conrad]

I like it. It's just a tad bit too bright for me.

[AlexL]

great results, no hard shadows and light is soft. Great photo!

[Alpha]

I would crop from the bottom. The boob shadows in the bottom corners are too much. The hair also needs some work. Put some product, or even water in it. You missed a few spots in your skin editing- in between the eyebrows and to the right of the bridge of her nose. There's no reason to blow out the skin detail for the sake of smoothing. I actually think this is a much more striking shot if you bring the light down and show some skin detail. It makes her cheek bones much more pronounced and gives her face a lot more shape overall.

Other than that, great work. I don't mean that sarcastically.

Edit: By the way, this is not glamour. It's beauty. Glamour is about sex.

[tommetass]

It's nice indeed.
The red lips really fit well.

What I would maybe do is use a smaller aperture. To get more in focus. To get it "crisp & sharp".
Cause IMO it's a little bit soft. Not the in focus areas, but I would love to see the whole head in focus.

[Moe]

First of all, awesome photo!

The following are extreme nitpicks. I haven't shot these (so I can't give experienced critique), but I'm interested in doing it so I've looked into it quite a bit. I feel she's a bit bright (and I mean just a bit), but I'm not on a calibrated monitor so take that with a grain of salt.

Another thing that I didn't notice at first is the top of the photo is not completely white (I assume you were going for a blown-out BG). I feel like if you pointed the background lights a bit up, it would blow the BG to white at the top. The power of the BG flashes seems great to me. You have just a bit of the wrap-around on her jawlines, which I love.

What did you use for the white background?

Really nice job!

[JackRabbit]

Ugh my white background is terrible. I really need to get myself a roll of paper. Right now I have this Muslin like thing that gets wrinkled to death... Makes these shots sooo difficult. If you are looking into getting a backdrop, DEFINITELY get paper. Don't mess with anything else.

[shmne]

DEFINITELY get paper. Don't mess with anything else.

+1 >_<

You really need to move your lighting in closer and dial down the power a bit. I'm sure it was close already, I'm only talking fractions of an inch, but more importantly that reflector just needs to be a tad closer. Not sure what you're working with, but it is reflecting nicely just seems to be far from the subject for the material of the reflector. I mention this only because of a couple of thoughts:

1. Dial down the exposure ever so slightly, if not a 1/2 stop than a 1/3 stop.
2. The shadow under her chin can be lightened up ever so slightly.
3. Her bottom lip is catching too much light while her upper light is catching barely any (in comparison)
4. Camera right is getting a significantly higher amount of light than camera left, look very carefully and you'll see a significant line of color tone change. Not noticeable to most, but it is surely there.

These all could be related to the distance of the reflector, as well as how it is being held. For all I know, maybe you have the reflector too close and it is causing the same problems. Not very likely, but plausible.

Other than that though this is an excellent shot! I really do love it, than again it is right up my ally. Simple, clean, and powerful.