Seeking your thoughts (C&C)

ryanwaff

No longer a newbie, moving up!
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Hello! Been a long time since I've posted here. Been slowly moving into shooting more portraits in the interim and am looking to get your thoughts on two of my most recent images. C&C is greatly appreciated! :)

1)
Photo2.jpg


2)
Photo 1.jpg


My thoughts:

1)
While I like the lighting, I'm not too keen on the pose. In hindsight, I should have asked her to turn slight more away from me.

Also, having downloaded the images I noticed that the focus point was slightly in-front of her eyes, but not too far that it made the image unusable.

Again, only afterwards noticed she had a hairband on her wrist. Next time will make a note to check outfit before shooting.

The leaves in the bottom left of the image are also slightly distracting - but cant really be helped. Cropping would cut the hand.

2)

This is by far my favorite image of the two. Struggling to find anything that bugs me with this one. What do you guys think?
 
The second one to me isn't too bad as is. There are others that can look and offer suggestions on it.

On the first one, if you don't like the pose and the hairband, then I would go with something like this. It may be a little under exposed as well but I didn't notice that until I posted the crop. Also check the white balance on it.

Photo2.jpg
 
Those pants are so unflattering they should be illegal. Coupled with the shirt and pose she looks like she has no torso and huge oversized arms.

The second is lovely, nice lighting on both.

using tapatalk.
 
I think the second one is the winner. I would have to agree that a crop on the first one is in order. The second one almost has a cool kind of fairytale look to it. I really like the second one, but the pose and the outfit in the first one, in my opinion only, don't flatter the model. Keep shooting!
 
Hi Ryan,

You have a photogenic model but, as you already noted, the pose in the first shot is definitely not serving her well. It's not showing off her figure and because there is no negative space between her limbs, it's making her look larger than she actually is. I too am not a fan of the high waist jeans as they can make the abdomen look bloated even when it's not. They kind of remind me of the what fat old men wear lol. Hipster/Low cut waist bands are much sexier. Much better would be a really pretty dress, that has some movement to it. Introduce an "S" curve into her stance, have her stand more side on to reveal her shape. Male/Masculine poses tend to be shot straight on. This shows the width of the shoulders and is a more dominant pose.

Women, when you want to make them look feminine and elegant, tend to be shot more side on. This decreases the profile of their body and reveals the curves of the breasts and buttocks. She has lovely long hair. Make use of it. Have her flip it all onto one side to reveal her neck. Make use of her arms and hands. They can be as expressive as the face. If a model is tense, it tends to manifest itself in the hands, so if you do introduce them into the frame more, makes sure they appear natural, relaxed and preferably side on too.

It also appears she was leaning backwards from the camera. When you do this, whatever is further away will appear smaller and whatever is nearer the lens will appear larger. Shooting from a low angle and leaning backwards in this manner will make the legs look larger and the head smaller, which isn't a particularly flattering look.

I'm assuming you used flash with these images? If you're going to mix it with natural light, it's advisable to gel it with a warming tone, or use a gold reflective umbrella. In the first picture you have some warmer light in the background. Conversely the light illuminating her from the front is cold in comparison.
 
#2 is fantastic. Well done.
 
Thanks for all the feedback! I definitely agree with the two crops done. Definitely need to work on making sure the models wardrobe is more flattering in future.

Thanks for the indepth feedback Akuk, I'm going to take what you have said and put it to practice in my next shoot :)
And yeah, I did you flash on both of them. Was wondering about how one would gel a studio flash head with an octobox on? Been wanting to do it,
 
Aside from all the stuff above, I think the black point is too high (giving everything that leaden grey color), and blues to0 strong and reds suppressed.

Photo2lll.jpg
 
The second is the winner. It's a pretty good photo, actually. The first one is treacherous. I can't tell if it's just too soft, or if you missed focus. Also, even if it may be a casual shoot, I think it's a photographer's priority to have their subjects look exceptional. The almost frontal pose with what she is wearing makes her look boxy and otherwise, shapeless. If she lacks curves, create them by posing her to have what little she has pronounced and taking the photos from different angels.

If this was a dating site, I would give the profile a look based on the second photos. It's a complete pass on the first. Shallow but just sayin'.
 

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