C&C New Portrait

DanielOhana · Aug 23, 2014

Hello everyone,
I've been in the photography world for 2 month and this is my new work.
please give me any C&C so I can grow.

Thank U!

TreeofLifeStairs · Aug 23, 2014

Looks good for the most part. Any reason for shooting down in her? What focal length were you using? I feel like her head is slightly larger proportionally to her body.

tirediron · Aug 23, 2014

^^What he said!^^ There's a lot to like about this, but also I feel a few fundamental problems. The lighting is decent, 'though her face appears slightly under-exposed. Fill light is your friend, and a simple reflector would have really made a difference here. Your choice of lens is good, but your shooting aspect, maybe not ideal. As mentioned, because of her pose and your relative position, you've made it appear as if her head is about 1/3 larger than it really is. Unless you're deliberately wanting to put the subject into a subservient position, shooting at their eye level is generally considered the best choice. All of that said, I think a reshoot (or several) is in order!

Derrel · Aug 23, 2014

DanielOhana said:
Hello everyone,
I've been in the photography world for 2 month and this is my new work.
please give me any C&C so I can grow.
View attachment 82760
Thank U!

Her head does look very large in relation to her shoulders and upper body. It seems like maybe you were a bit too close to her, which is causing this perspective distortion. She is a lovely subject, and her hair and makeup have a very 1990's feel, which is an era I always liked. I noticed that the shadows appear very heavy, very blocked up. I lifted the curves upward and exported it in the profile it came to me, AdobeRGB. She is a very beautiful woman, but I wonder if her nose is actually that large in relation to the rest of her features? I see this was shot from pretty close with an 85mm lens at wide-open, so good focusing! very good focus placement on such a tight shot!

TreeofLifeStairs · Aug 23, 2014

Looks like you essentially gave it some fill light.

chuasam · Aug 23, 2014

Not bad. Excessively smoothening on the skin though.
Any reason for the strange angle?
Would like to see more.

Derrel · Aug 23, 2014

TreeofLifeStairs said:
Looks like you essentially gave it some fill light.

Well, I just took the curves and lifted the curve up a little bit below the mod-point, which did "lift" the mid-tones. I'm used to editing images with pre-"fill-light" methods, like the curves tool. I thought the darkest tones were the ones that needed more light. The thing about using the curves tool is that it's very easy to add back the loss of contrast that comes from the newer "digital fill light" or the new "highlight/shadows" adjustment options that were invented within the last ten years. But yeah, I can understand what you mean when you say it looks like I added fill light, but that's not quite what I did, in one manner of speaking. But in another way of looking at it, yes, it's very similar to adding fill light. So, six of one, half dozen of the other I suppose.