Beauty/Boudoir of my Fiance

brandonbpm · Nov 26, 2012

Weariness in Mixed Lighting by BrandonBPM, on Flickr

A Softer Side of Boudoir by BrandonBPM, on Flickr

The color balance on the first two photos is intentional, and I suspect that many may not be a fan of the adjustment, but it was a personal choice of preference for me.

DiskoJoe · Nov 26, 2012

Good for you!

Derrel · Nov 26, 2012

Congratulations Brandon, she's a very beautiful young woman, and she photographs splendidly! Good luck in your marriage. Glad to see you here on TPF!!!

jl1975 · Nov 26, 2012

Good job on those pictures. They look great.

Mully · Nov 26, 2012

Nice photographs.... you are a lucky man ....treat her right!

brian_f2.8 · Nov 26, 2012

i love the pp on the first two, did you do this custom or use a plug in/filter?

aboats · Nov 26, 2012

Very nice!!

kathyt · Nov 26, 2012

These are stunning and so tastefully done. I like your edits on #1 and #2, but I prefer a clean edit like #3 just because it is easier to keep consistant. My only critique is that I would clone out the bed post in the top of image #3. Great job though.

JLMILLS · Nov 26, 2012

kathythorson said:
These are stunning and so tastefully done. I like your edits on #1 and #2, but I prefer a clean edit like #3 just because it is easier to keep consistant. My only critique is that I would clone out the bed post in the top of image #3. Great job though.

Good eye. I didn't notice but now it's all I can see.

kundalini · Nov 26, 2012

The difference between hair color of #1 & 2 versus #3 is pretty dramatic.

I'm not particularly fond of your cropping of the appendages. Each example shows an error of in-camera framing or post editing.

brandonbpm · Nov 26, 2012

Thank you all so much for the feedback and the kind words! Also, I think you are right about cloning out the bed in the third photo, it'll just make the shot that much cleaner and more free from distractions.

brian_f2.8 said:
i love the pp on the first two, did you do this custom or use a plug in/filter?

These adjustments were custom, but very simple. I used the split toning option in lightroom to add some yellow to the highlights, and a little bit of blue to the shadows. For the second one I used a violet/purple hue for the shadows instead. You don't need to use Lightroom to acheive a similar effect though, you can just tweak the highlights, midtones and shadows of the individual color channels (Red, Blue, Green) to do the same effect.

brandonbpm · Nov 26, 2012

kundalini said:
The difference between hair color of #1 & 2 versus #3 is pretty dramatic.

I'm not particularly fond of your cropping of the appendages. Each example shows an error of in-camera framing or post editing.

Thank you for your feedback kundalini. I appreciate your critique but I have to respectfully disagree though I'm obviously biased. You are 100% correct about the difference in hair color, but as I stated before that was intentional because of my color balance adjustments. If you were to see each picture by itself, with no reference point of the subject or other pictures next to it, this argument would not be very valid. As for the cropping of appendages, that was also intentional because unless I am deliberately using negative space, I like to fill the frame to at least a reasonable extent. And having fingers and elbows etc. JUST in frame, at the edge of a frame is extremely aesthetically unattractive to me. Almost "cookie-cutter" if that makes sense. For example, if I extended the crop of her elbow in the first crop and stopped just past the tip of her elbow with some space in-between, it would look a little cheesy to me, and I would want to extend the crop even more past the elbow for more negative space provided the backdrop was either interesting enough or uniform enough (in this case I might find myself doing more work by cloning the bed to fill the rest of the frame).

But like I said, I am biased about this, being the one who took the shots, because the results reflect my own personal style. I suspect many will have different preferences about the color balance (I actually have about 5 different copies of each when it comes to white balance and color toning) but color differences aside, does anyone else find such a significant problem with the composition and cropping of the shots? I don't want to have tunnel vision and want to know if what I find aesthetically/artistically pleasing varies so much from what others find acceptable and effective.

ewick · Nov 26, 2012

I like them but in shot number 2 her neck looks awkward but I like the feel to it. IMO you should have followed the same edit on the third one as well.

brandonbpm · Nov 26, 2012

thanks! And yes her neck is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to photos, but taking pictures of her helps me to learn how to work with different features of people. For example, in this shot, I sort of embraced her neck, and you can really see just how long it is here: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/people-photography/307156-wonder-against-gray-seamless.html

brian_f2.8 · Nov 27, 2012

brandonbpm said:
Thank you all so much for the feedback and the kind words! Also, I think you are right about cloning out the bed in the third photo, it'll just make the shot that much cleaner and more free from distractions.

brian_f2.8 said:

i love the pp on the first two, did you do this custom or use a plug in/filter?

Click to expand...

These adjustments were custom, but very simple. I used the split toning option in lightroom to add some yellow to the highlights, and a little bit of blue to the shadows. For the second one I used a violet/purple hue for the shadows instead. You don't need to use Lightroom to acheive a similar effect though, you can just tweak the highlights, midtones and shadows of the individual color channels (Red, Blue, Green) to do the same effect.