First Real Try At a Photoshoot.

[Designer]

Honestly the biggest challenge for that day was looking through my Evf or viewfinder. Was tough figuring out how the photo came out.

The LCD is unreliable for trying to judge an image. Your camera has generated a small JPEG image for the purposes of display, but things like exposure and colors can be skewed. The histogram is a better tool for judging the exposure. Neither one will be easy to see in direct sunlight.

 

[Granddad]

I meant the live view screen, don't know why I said viewfinder twice.

Get used to it, it gets worse as you get older.

Honestly the biggest challenge for that day was looking through my Evf or viewfinder. Was tough figuring out how the photo came out.

The LCD is unreliable for trying to judge an image. Your camera has generated a small JPEG image for the purposes of display, but things like exposure and colors can be skewed. The histogram is a better tool for judging the exposure. Neither one will be easy to see in direct sunlight.

Agreed 110%. The screen is often deceptive. I've scanned through my shots on that thing before and been devastated because it looked like they were all rubbish and out of focus. When I got them onto my desktop and looked at the RAW images in Lightroom I had a pleasant surprise. Never trust it because it also works the other way!

 

[FITBMX]

I know very little about this stuff, but if you are interested in shoot completely with natural light check out DanOstergren work. He shoot almost exclusively with natural light, and he always gives great information and tips. He really is a great guy!

 

[KmH]

All light is natural light.

Four words that sum up what portrait photography is mostly about:
Light Direction.
Light Quality.
Direction & Quality of Light: Your Key to Better Portrait Photography Anywhere
On-Camera Flash: Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photography
Off-Camera Flash: Techniques for Digital Photographers

The rest is pretty much about posing and staging (make up, hair, clothes, location, props, etc).

 

[DanOstergren]

I'd dump #1, no reasonable amount of post processing will save it.

I disagree. I think it's a great shot and it wouldn't take much editing to fix the issue the model was having with it.

To the OP, could you share the first one without the skin retouching?

 

[Pedro_lopez]

This is before any editing

 

[DanOstergren]

This is before any editing

I understand what she means by not liking the bump in her cheek, which is caused both by her bone structure and the lighting. You can use dodge and burning to reshape the light though.

 

[Pedro_lopez]

Wow that looks so much better, so much smoother.


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[DanOstergren]

Wow that looks so much better, so much smoother.


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

It took about 10 minutes of dodging and burning.

 

[Derrel]

I'm not quite sold on the posing and framing of the above shot...her placement within the frame area is a bit far to the right for the eye direction she has, but she's so, so beautiful! I took your original shot and cropped it a bit, and converted it to a couple similar yet subtly different black and white versions.

Kind of going for an old, 1940's-era feel and look. Part of the 1940's-era look was the use of 4x5 inch film cameras and shallow DOF...your 50mm at f/1.8 shot gives a similar shallow DOF look...and the way the corners of the frame are somehwat blurry, and the DOF that fades fast, from the sharp lips to the OOF ears...those things are sort of 1940's0-style image characteristics.

For some reason, she and this second, more-contrasty B&W look remind me of an old photo that I think I have rattling around in my brain, at a subconscious level. To me, the best things about this ARE the high-sun caused eyelash shadows, her full and perfectly-shaped lips, and the sideways-directed line of gaze that she has.And that lip-shadow on her chin--sublime! The arms behind head, beginning model type pose was not ideal, so, I cropped that out, and tried to focus on the facial shape and the way the light reveals the dimensions of her cheeks, lips, and so on.