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SteveEllis

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Hi,

I posted this in the general B&W gallery and didnt get the feedback that I wanted, I posted it there as I hadnt seen this section.

I've reposted it here as I'm after some critical analysis, its the first time I attempted this type of shot.

I had my wife sat in a dark room, took a .5 second photo and produced the flash off camera using the test button on my strobe. The strobe had a 10" cardboard snoot to direct all the light onto my wifes face.

I'm really pleased with the results but am very interested to hear others thoughts.

selzbw.jpg


Thanks,
Steve.
 
Way too much dead space. It's distracting, and the high contrast ratio's on her face with the monotone give it an almost horror movie look.

You don't have to be in a very dark room to do portraits like this, you just use a tight aperture, turn up the power on your strobe and have a fast enough shutter speed that syncs and blocks out the natural light. Also, get a sync cord or radio trigger so you don't have to have long exposures, it saves time, energy, and makes things less stressful for you, and the model.

Next time, when you have those items available, put a white card close to her face for fill light, or add another strobe behind for a kicker. Also, put your key light higher so it's not eye level with her. It gives a more convincing look.
 
Way too much dead space. It's distracting, and the high contrast ratio's on her face with the monotone give it an almost horror movie look.

You don't have to be in a very dark room to do portraits like this, you just use a tight aperture, turn up the power on your strobe and have a fast enough shutter speed that syncs and blocks out the natural light. Also, get a sync cord or radio trigger so you don't have to have long exposures, it saves time, energy, and makes things less stressful for you, and the model.

Next time, when you have those items available, put a white card close to her face for fill light, or add another strobe behind for a kicker. Also, put your key light higher so it's not eye level with her. It gives a more convincing look.
What if she got white walls? Turning up the aperture could get rid of natural light, but not the light reflected off walls from the strobe itself. Gobos around her?
 
It's a cool type of shot, I should try one of those myself someday. I have to agree with Switch, there's too much dead space and the shadows offer a horror film look; nothing wrong with that, but considering the expression on her face I don't think that's what you were going for. Anyways, good luck with the shooting.
 
i quite like the dead space makes it look interesting.
i think if you cropped it it would be a bit uninteresting.

i like the dead space cause it makes me think 'mmmm whats she looking at'
 
Yeah...the dead space...tis a wee tad too much.

Reduce it by one quarter to one third...she´ll still be looking into a space, but it´ll be better balanced.
 
i quite like the dead space makes it look interesting.
i think if you cropped it it would be a bit uninteresting.

i like the dead space cause it makes me think 'mmmm whats she looking at'

Why think in terms of salvaging?
Think re-shoot.
 

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