A couple different things (NSFW)

[SoulfulRecover]

A few photos from this weekend. Took the advice you guys gave me last time and tried it out. I think it was quite successful:

Untitled by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr

Untitled by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr

Untitled by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr

Starting a series of ~10 photos similar to this. She was my guinea pig to see if I could even get close to what I was seeing in my mind:

Untitled by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr

Also got to go watch my brother-in-law perform last night finally. Ive never attempted to shoot a concert so this is very much just a snap. Ended up being a 3 photo composite due to missed focus. Is it pretty bad? Hahaha

Untitled by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr

I would love to hear any CC or thoughts.

 

[Derrel]

I like the drama of the lighting in the three-quarter view of her face in the third photo, but I think the camera is too close to her, and it is making her nose look unusually large and prominent. But the makeup, and the lighting is really lovely in that one. The purple lip color is exquisitely beautiful! Wow! I normally do not like these extreme makeup shots, but these coordinate so well, since her hair is also multi colored, and so it seems logical if you will, to have gone with this extreme makeup.

The B&W noir-type full face shot is pleasing as well. The flower + derriere shot is fun and whimsical. I still like texture overlays. I'd like to see a slight + exposure dodge on the right hand side of her figure, at some place, just for a bit more separation, but whole still keeping it nice and low-key.

I stopped by her IG page, and I'd have to say, she's been doing a lot of modeling as of late,and your work is right up at the top of the stuff she's modeled for the last few months. It seems to me that you're really getting dialed in in your current shooting set-up.

Your last shot was a composite? I would not have realized that. Not bad.

 

[SoulfulRecover]

Should I shoot further away and crop?

Yeah the last is a composite. I liked this pose from one image, the crowd from another and I had to use a third to fill in areas with missing info. Wish I had a fourth with more ceiling in it though but my own fault for not having a wide enough lens really. All the images were more or less the same, from the same spot, just caught him in different positions or was shooting portrait rather than landscape.

 

[Derrel]

Should I shoot further away and crop?

Yes, I think that would make things look just a little bit more natural in terms of the nose's size on-film or on-sensor. There's a pretty big difference in the rendered size of a nose even between six feet and seven feet, especially if the focal length is in the normal- to shortish range. I can't get any EXIF info off the two shots in color, but it just seems like the nose is rendered rather large in appearance in the 3/4 face shot, and I think that maybe it was from just a little bit too close of a distance. Not a lot, but a bit. You've got this setup down quite well, so refinements now are just fine tuning the finer details.

If the lens focal length is long, as in around 2x the normal lens length, it starts to visibly magnify things in the background. By 3x normal, the lens starts to really magnify the size of things, like the ears, and it flattens the face. You could check your EXIF information on these shots and compare the measured distance between the first full-face image and the 3/4 face image, and that might give you a point of reference. If your lens focal length is too short, then even moving the camera position as little as another foot back could make a visible difference.

These have beautiful processing and enough detail and texture to make her look REAL, not like a plastic mannequin.

You now are the owner of a d-slr that can stand a good deal of cropping-in on a studio-lighted portrait shot...which is so so cool! I saw some of your images on IG.

 

[SoulfulRecover]

They were both shot with the 85mm prime at f/16 and probably 200 or 250th of a sec. The 3/4 one I'm pretty sure I was as close as the camera would let me get and still focus. It's slightly cropped from leveling the photo. The direct on one I shot a little further back and ended up cropping a little because I didn't like the top of the shirt she was wearing peaking into the shot. That one is posted on IG still so you can see the difference if you go back and forth.

I haven't gotten the film developed yet from this. I think I only shot like 4-5 frames from this. The rest was from a short hike (flowers and crap) from today.

 

[Derrel]

You made a very smart decision to shoot at f/16 at such close ranges. At minimum focusing distance on an 85mm lens, you want a good deal of depth of field to keep as much in good focus as you can! I looked at the IG version and this one...both are good. You did a great job of keeping it very formal and equally balanced...cropping off the straps of her shirt where they joined the body of her tank makes a lot of sense. Both the original and the slightly cropped versions work.

 

[SoulfulRecover]

Last time I shot with the RZ, I had it at f/16 and it was still too shallow so I swapped to a 250mm lens and was going to shoot at f/32 or f/45 but my light wasnt powerful enough haha. Shot again at f/16 but backed off a little so Im curious to see if it still came out too shallow. Also curious to see how the colors are rendered on E6 film

 

[FITBMX]

Really great set! I really like the overlay, I am starting to really love this fine art stuff!

 

[Granddad]

I can't C&C as eloquently or technically as Derrel so I'll just say that I think this is a really nice set. Love the make-up, lighting and the processing on the young lady and I can't see the lens distortion (it's not that obvious to the untrained eye).
On the performance shot I can't see the blending.

Good work!

 

[SoulfulRecover]

Really great set! I really like the overlay, I am starting to really love this fine art stuff!

Thank you! hopefully there will be quite a few more.

I can't C&C as eloquently or technically as Derrel so I'll just say that I think this is a really nice set. Love the make-up, lighting and the processing on the young lady and I can't see the lens distortion (it's not that obvious to the untrained eye).
On the performance shot I can't see the blending.

Good work!

Ive found black & white to be very forgiving when it comes to blending