Abused girl in a park

[Pomo]

Lea, the girl, told me that she was bullied (abused) in a school, and she escaped a school to become dog handler. She said that she never considered herself beautiful, and she was always shy to smile because of malocclusion. In her Instagram very few photos and only 37 subscribers.

Nevertheless, I think she has good potential. I decided to help her and we did this set in a park. If you like this set, you can cheer her up and write her some good words (@ada_stafford). Thank you.

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[tirediron]

1976 called, it wants its shirt & shoes back! There's a lot to like about these images, and overall, they're, IMO, a good, solid start. The one thing they lack is a bit of fill light, especially on the face. The eyes are a bit dull with no distinct catchlights, and in several cases her face is noticeably darker than other parts of her body. The human eye is naturally attracted to light over dark, and as these are portraits, the face, and in particular the eyes, should be the first place we look. A reflector would have worked well, or an off-camera speedlight... As-is, I'm sure some careful post work could improve the issue significantly.

On the plus side, your poses are excellent, and in particular, the second image with the group of people in the background really ties in with the story. Not sure if that was intentional or just lucky, but either way, well done!

 

[Pomo]

1976 called, it wants its shirt & shoes back! There's a lot to like about these images, and overall, they're, IMO, a good, solid start. The one thing they lack is a bit of fill light, especially on the face. The eyes are a bit dull with no distinct catchlights, and in several cases her face is noticeably darker than other parts of her body. The human eye is naturally attracted to light over dark, and as these are portraits, the face, and in particular the eyes, should be the first place we look. A reflector would have worked well, or an off-camera speedlight... As-is, I'm sure some careful post work could improve the issue significantly.

On the plus side, your poses are excellent, and in particular, the second image with the group of people in the background really ties in with the story. Not sure if that was intentional or just lucky, but either way, well done!

Hello tirediron, and thank you for the feedback!

While I'm not a professional photographer, I just used a compact X100T with not reflectors. Next time I'll try to use built in flash to add a fill light.

 

[Derrel]

Overall pretty good environmental portraits showing her within an urban environment. My main concern would be the lack of light in the shadow parts of her face.as was mentioned earlier, some fill lighting from either flash or reflector would probably make these look better as far as the light on her face. Obviously the backgrounds are pretty well lighted.

 

[Pomo]

Overall pretty good environmental portraits showing her within an urban environment. My main concern would be the lack of light in the shadow parts of her face.as was mentioned earlier, some fill lighting from either flash or reflector would probably make these look better as far as the light on her face. Obviously the backgrounds are pretty well lighted.

Thank you Derrel. I'm going to practice more to shoot portraits in a daylight.

 

[Designer]

I wish her success in whatever she decides to to. She can do it!

 

[JonFZ300]

Nice shots. I agree about the fill light. I'm glad she was able to get away from bullying. She's a very cute girl and teeth can be fixed. I can tell she's shy about showing teeth. I'd love to see a big smile some day!! милый!!

 

[JBPhotog]

I am sad to hear she was bullied at school, no one deserves that. BTW, I think she is pretty and carries her self with grace.

Depending on your post processing skill, most of these have potential for improvement for catch light placement and overall face exposure. Of note, the harsh sun photos where the face is in and out of shadow are problematic since the shadow is not placed optimally and watch the highlights catching the tip of the nose.

I am not a big Instagram personality but if that is the goal I may suggest less background and make her the subject of interest, I think vertical crops look best on mobile devices on IG too.

You deserve accolades for assisting her with her profile, good for you.

 

[JonFZ300]

Depending on your post processing skill, most of these have potential for improvement for catch light placement and overall face exposure. Of note, the harsh sun photos where the face is in and out of shadow are problematic since the shadow is not placed optimally and watch the highlights catching the tip of the nose.

I am not a big Instagram personality but if that is the goal I may suggest less background and make her the subject of interest, I think vertical crops look best on mobile devices on IG too.

I totally agree with this. If you shot Raw, you should be able to fix the highlights and shadows. I just saved one and opened it in camera raw and, even working on a jpg, just raising the shadows made a huge difference.

 

[Pomo]

I wish her success in whatever she decides to to. She can do it!

Thank you Designer! I will give her your words.

 

[Pomo]

Nice shots. I agree about the fill light. I'm glad she was able to get away from bullying. She's a very cute girl and teeth can be fixed. I can tell she's shy about showing teeth. I'd love to see a big smile some day!! милый!!

Thank you very much!

 

[Derrel]

If she wants to build her Instagram follower list, then she will have to abide by the well known and understood conventions of building a following on Instagram. It takes a lot of work from what I've read I personally mostly gave up on Instagram about two years ago, and never was all that interested. However After reading about selecting popular hashtags I did a short one week experiment, and by selecting popular hashtags I got about 65 times as many views and likes as I did with no hashtags. So hashtags are really important, as is regular posting,subject matter,and consistently high-quality images.

Over the past two years Instagram's stories feature has really expanded in importance, and users who reported low engagement now report extremely high engagement after having regularly availed themselves Of this new development.

I have been a member of Instagram for many years now, and in the past six months I've seen a marked change in the commercialization of the platform, Now that it has been purchased by Facebook and Facebook has installed their own executives into positions that were formerly held by Instagram starters.

 

[Pomo]

If she wants to build her Instagram follower list, then she will have to abide by the well known and understood conventions of building a following on Instagram. It takes a lot of work from what I've read I personally mostly gave up on Instagram about two years ago, and never was all that interested. However After reading about selecting popular hashtags I did a short one week experiment, and by selecting popular hashtags I got about 65 times as many views and likes as I did with no hashtags. So hashtags are really important, as is regular posting,subject matter,and consistently high-quality images.

Over the past two years Instagram's stories feature has really expanded in importance, and users who reported low engagement now report extremely high engagement after having regularly availed themselves Of this new development.

I have been a member of Instagram for many years now, and in the past six months I've seen a marked change in the commercialization of the platform, Now that it has been purchased by Facebook and Facebook has installed their own executives into positions that were formerly held by Instagram starters.

I'm on Flickr mostly, not at Instagram (because there are a lot of commercial there). But I understand your thoughts about hashtags. If you want to have popular account, you should use 30 tags on each photo, and post every day. There is a lot of competition, definitely.

 

[Pomo]

Depending on your post processing skill, most of these have potential for improvement for catch light placement and overall face exposure. Of note, the harsh sun photos where the face is in and out of shadow are problematic since the shadow is not placed optimally and watch the highlights catching the tip of the nose.

I shot jpg + raw. So, I raised shadows and darkened whites for these raws. But if raise shadows too much, it starts looking like fake HDR (which I do not like).

Thus, I'm thinking to use some fill light next time.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Who cares how many followers anyone has on Instagram? She might be better off to just close it out and find ways in real life to connect with people, social media isn't necessariy the best thing or at least might be better used in a more limited way.

You already got good suggestions. I'd suggest being aware of the time of day, direction of the sun, etc. I often outdoors aim the camera down a bit to meter the scene, then reframe, so the meter is reading where the subject is not where the sun is coming in from behind, etc.

I'd rethink the phrasing of the title so it isn't labeling the subject; that may be something that happened to her and that's she's had to deal with but it isn't who she is.