Little dancer

[nas-matko]

How does this harmony and composition looks to you now?

 

[wobe]

How does this harmony and composition looks to you now?

I`m certainly no portrait expert but this looks very nice to me.

 

[smoke665]

How does this harmony and composition looks to you now?

Color Scheme -big improvement

Composition - Is better, one thing so many have trouble with is shooting to tight. Back up, give her some breathing room around the edges. Doing so will bring the head closer to the top right intersection on thirds grid, and leave you room later to crop to a different aspect ratio for a standard print. She's still close to the backdrop, moving her away decreases shadows and blurs the background. Wrinkles, wrinkles, the bane of all photographers, I have ironed backdrops over and over only to find &^%^ wrinkles in my shots. Finally my preference to have children engage the camera, rather than looking off frame, but to each their own.

Image & Exposure - The focus is sharp, but it appears it might be underexposed by a full stop. Underexposure especially on skin tends to give it dead look. The epidermis is mostly translucent, with the pigment more in the underlying dermis layer. When you get the light right that layer will pop and make it come alive. It looks like you're only using the one light, I'd suggest a reflector on her left to lighten the shadows.

A pretty little blonde hair, blue eyed girl, is a joy to photograph, have fun.

 

[Woolsocks]

Edit: You asked a simple question and everyone gives you a very long answer, I will keep it short.

I edited in photoshop. Sharper and the color is as it should be with the subject you are shooting.

I think the image looks better without the added blue. You already have blue in the picture, why add more. It's not needed.

There is a problem and no one talked about it. Your girl has some sort of medical problem, her pupils are very large and do not constrict. Unless you lied and did not use a flash on her, the room was dark enough for her pupils to grow large, very large. I would take her to a medical professional immediately. Unless she is already on opiates then that would explain why in front of a flash they are so large.

 

[nas-matko]

ack up, give her some breathing room around the edges.

Original shot is much wider, this is the crop I made, so you prefer more space around subject? I'll give it a try how it looks.
Wrinkles are driving me mad too, but with this kind of fabrick backdrop I am unable to get rid of them

Underexposure especially on skin tends to give it dead look.

I metered the exposure, so it should be correct. I am suspecting what you see is an effect of color grading, background is originally gray. I'll try to color grade again but this time I will exclude subject and we will see how it will come out.

 

[nas-matko]

Your girl has some sort of medical problem, her pupils are very large and do not constrict.

No she doesn't. Room has no special lightning present and shot was taken in the evening so its normal that pupils are dilated. Flash duration is so short, that pupils are unable to respond. If you need constricted pupils, you need strong continuous light.

Unless she is already on opiates then that would explain why in front of a flash they are so large.

Its obvious that you might be a good photographer, but please don't mess with medicine. Opioids are causing pupils to constrict, so quite opposite of what you are suggesting.

 

[Woolsocks]

No she doesn't. Room has no special lightning present and shot was taken in the evening so its normal that pupils are dilated. Flash duration is so short, that pupils are unable to respond. If you need constricted pupils, you need strong continuous light.

Its obvious that you might be a good photographer, but please don't mess with medicine. Opioids are causing pupils to constrict, so quite opposite of what you are suggesting.

Fair enough.

Back to it.

I don't have much experience with cloth back drops in photography. But in video that I do. In the attached cropped image it appears some sort of ghosting or reflection has occurred. As soon as I looked at this image I noticed this. Do you know the reason for this?

Personally I would remove it in photoshop. Can do it if you want. But I wanted to know if you know what causes it.

 

[smoke665]

Original shot is much wider, this is the crop I made, so you prefer more space around subject? I'll give it a try how it looks.
Wrinkles are driving me mad too, but with this kind of fabrick backdrop I am unable to get rid of them

I always shoot loose and reserve cropping to the last step, done in LR. Doing so in a nondestructive manner gives me the option of changing the aspect ratio to match a specific print size. What i was refering to on your image as presented here deals more with frame management. More a personal preference but I prefer centering the eyes on either the top left or top right intersection of the Thirds grid lines. Maybe I'm OCD but it seems to make the frame feel right.

If I'm reading right this was shot with a 17mm, be very careful shooting portraits with a wide angle lens. It will distort features especially as you get closer to the subject. I use that distortion effect with male subjects sometimes to "beef up" muscles, but not a good look on little girls. 85 mm is the gold standard for facial features. Some examples.

metered the exposure, so it should be correct. I am suspecting what you see is an effect of color grading, background is originally gray. I'll try to color grade again but this time I will exclude subject and we will see how it will come out.

Depending on editing methods it can cause a loss of luminance requiring a correction, examining the RAW file would confirm it. My workflow is LR>basic edits (and possibly finish depending on requirements) PS>advanced edits, and finally back to LR>final finish, crop, and soft proof. I try to do as much in LR as possibly to save time, when processing a large set, seconds add up.

A couple books I recommend, "The Book of Photography" by John Hedgecoe and Monte Zucker's "Portrait Photography Handbook". These are old school guys, but the things they teach are timeless.

 

[nas-matko]

But I wanted to know if you know what causes it.

Sorry, thats my bad, while cloning background my mouse obviously slipped a bit without me noticing

 

[nas-matko]

It will distort features especially as you get closer to the subject.

Thank you for pointing this out. I am aware of this, but I simply don't have enough space for full body portrait to take on 85mm. However I notice if I am with lens not at eye level but rather at waist level distortion is negligible.

A couple books I recommend, "The Book of Photography" by John Hedgecoe and Monte Zucker's "Portrait Photography Handbook". These are old school guys, but the things they teach are timeless.

Thank you very much, I'll try to get these books.

 

[paigew]

She was excited about new dress, but she was so focused on the posing, movement of the scarf that excitement in the face is not that obvious.
I understnd what you mean by space, my original picture was like this
View attachment 274501
but after discussion with people I decided to go for tighter crop, its probably more personal preference and feeling.

I was going to say, extend the background...but I would have gone the other way with the negative space. Super cute photo! I'd experiment more with this. Get her to leap, trying to get some motion blur might be cool too!

 

[paigew]

Original shot is much wider, this is the crop I made, so you prefer more space around subject? I'll give it a try how it looks.
Wrinkles are driving me mad too, but with this kind of fabrick backdrop I am unable to get rid of them

I metered the exposure, so it should be correct. I am suspecting what you see is an effect of color grading, background is originally gray. I'll try to color grade again but this time I will exclude subject and we will see how it will come out.

For the wrinkles she needs to be farther away from the background...and you need to shoot a lot wider. How wide does your lens go? I'd shoot wide open.

 

[nas-matko]

This is how is was shot with cloned background, green added, subject excluded.

 

[paigew]

This is how is was shot with cloned background, green added, subject excluded.View attachment 274544

I like your eye and I think you should stop cropping in so much and give your images more room. What about this crop.

 

[paigew]

I pulled it into LR...what do you think? (the edit is not perfect, I just QUICKLY threw my preset on to give an idea of changing the levels/contrast...give it an artsy feel kwim)