Outdoor Senior Girl Portrait II

[Christie Photo]

BTW... I keep several Hefty brand trash bags in my case. They're black and come folded. I use when posing people seated on the ground to prevent dirt and grass stains. I do a lot of "tucking" just before I shoot.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

The Don Peterson? Why didn't you say so to begin with?
Don Peterson, Master Photographer. That guy is a legend! :hail:

 

[Tally Ho]

BTW... I keep several Hefty brand trash bags in my case. They're black and come folded. I use when posing people seated on the ground to prevent dirt and grass stains. I do a lot of "tucking" just before I shoot.

I used to use trash bags, but this little piece of carpet wiorks really well and isn't glossy. If it shows up too much I simply Photoshop it out, I didn't in this shot however because I didn't even notice it!

Tally Ho

 

[Mike Jordan]

There are a lot of rules, tips, suggestions, etc., in photography... but it's how they are interpretertated and implemented that counts.

You might not have broken any rules (at least the ones you go by), but how you interpreted them, unfortunately, does not flatter this girl. As others have pointed out, she just doesn't look comfortable. You have her body facing to far away from the camera, which causes her to have to turn her head too much. In portriture you want the subject to look comfortable and natural. This is not a natural position for the human body. On another list of rules, there is one about which leg should be down and which one up... it's usually perferable (and more polite) to have the closes leg to the camera up.

The lighting isn't as bad as some of the others pointed out... I think shadow detail was probably lost in the compression of the image for display. The image does seem to need rotating clock wise a tad bit though.

Keep in mind that other photographers (even if they go by different rules) are going to see things in an image that non-photographers won't see. If they, the senior and the mom (who probably has the check book) like it and buy lots of copies, who cares what the rest of us think. But even non-photographers can look at an image and know something isn't right... they might not know what or why they don't like it, but they do. So they don't buy or they buy the minimum and never have you do their portraits again and don't pass the word around about you.

You have had some others that looked pretty good. To me (and it appeares to some others) this one doesn't work as well as it could. But then, not all of what we shoot does. That's why we keep working at it.

I'll lay odds that in 6 months, those rules you mentioned will read different to you than they do now and 6 mohths after that they will be different still. Things just take on a whole different light the more we practice and learn.

Mike