Beautiful portraits or too scandelous? (NSFW?)

Dubious Drewski · May 23, 2008

Well it turns out I was fairly distracted that night while shooting (Naturally) And I didn't get nearly as many usable shots as I had hoped. But I still got some really nice ones!

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

What do you all think? Do any of these go too far? Are they too risque?

EDIT: Man, imageshack really compresses your photos alot. These shots are all much sharper than this. Really, they are.

kellylindseyphotography · May 23, 2008

to me, 2, 3, 4 and 6 all have some kind of technical problem (lighting, exposure, or focus issues). I like 1 and 5 though.

Palyriot · May 23, 2008

I like them all. I don't think any of them are too much. They all look artistic to me.

Sunflower Photography · May 23, 2008

Some beautiful work here. I think the only one I may say could be seen as promiscuious is no. 3. It's very flattering, and taken from a vulnerable position. They are all very good shots, however.

That One Guy · May 23, 2008

i like these.

#1 i feel it could use more light on the model, but that may just be me.

#2 i really like this. i dunno what it is about it (other than the attractive model), but i keep coming back to this one.

#3 i think of vargas girl....

#4 this could stand a bit more light on their faces.

#5 not a fan of the pose on this one. sorry.

#6 i don't like the lighting in this one. not enough light on her face.

overall i think you did very well.

rufus5150 · May 23, 2008

Are they too risque?

Not at all.

Renair · May 24, 2008

#1 #5 Best ones. #3 Looks great, wonderful natural smile. On 1/5, I would clone out the nose stud, it looks a little distracting and could be mistaken for a pimple or something.....

Alex_B · May 24, 2008

to answer the question without talking about technicalities: I was looking at them for quite a while, trying to figure out what you could have considered scandalous or risky. And I really had a hard time finding any hint

OK, 3 and 5 have a faint sexual touch, but that is it. No problem at all!

tirediron · May 24, 2008

-The nose stud needs to go

#1 - I would like to see just a little more lighting on the lower side of her face.

#2 - Technically very good, not sure about the expression.

#3 - I like very much; I assume the soft focus was intentional?

#4 - Nice composition, but the harsh light/blown highlights on the left-hand model detract from it.

#5 - Excellent!

#6 - Again, harsh lighting and blown hightlights, but a great pose!

AverageJoe · May 24, 2008

I think they are all tastefully done, maybe #3 pushes it a little too far. Nice job on all though.

PhotoDonkey · May 25, 2008

The only thing I'd add is that her skin looks kind of shiney in #3. Otherwise, great shots.

Dubious Drewski · May 25, 2008

Sorry for the delay with my reply, everyone. It's been a crazy week.

Kellylindsey, thank you, but could you be a little more specific about what's wrong with 2, 3, 4, and 6? I'll guess: 2 has flat lighting, and from too low maybe? 3 and 4 are too soft (But that's something that I did by adding the bloom and can be reversed if it's too strong an effect). Imageshack also softens up the images ALOT. With 6 I can clearly see the lighting problem. I was trying for a silhouette, and I got one. But in post, I decided to pull her face out of the shadows via levels because I thought it looked better that way. Maybe I should plan my shots a little more thoroughly, hehe.

That One Guy, I see you addressed some of the same issues with the photos as well. though I find it interesting that you like #2 and dislike #5 (That's totally ok, it's your opinion, but) on my Flickr it's the opposite, with #5 getting all the attention and #2 with no comments and low views. Heh.

And what's this I keep hearing about the nose piercing? Nobody thinks it should have been in the shot? Thanks for letting me know this guys. Here I thought (And still think, really) that it looks perfectly fine and not like a pimple or anything. But that's the nature of perception, I guess. While shooting #1 and #5 I was even commenting to her "That piercing's gonna look neat in the shots. People will like it." Hehe, whoops!

tirediron, I agree about the blown highlights. I should have been shooting raw. I usually have such control over my lighting in the studio that I never do, but this shoot was very difficult, with things happening very fast. So my lighting wasn't always set correctly and I was forced to fix alot in post. (For those of you wondering, the firmware upgrade must have fixed the K10's supposedly blurry jpgs, because I have pixel poked in photoshop and the K10's Jpgs are beautiful, not unsharp at all and have great tonality.