C+C on this shot

Rebekah5280 · Apr 22, 2012

Ok, I'll take a stab.. (numbering the pictures would make this a little easier..)

#1 - the best out of the bunch.

Skin looks nice, exposure seem right on. Smile looks natural.

#2 - over-exposed, and her skin is looking a little yellow. I'm all for bright shots!

#3 - Is not attractive. I don't know whats going on with her eyes.. her skin is orangey and her hair is life-less.

#4 - Ummmm... not good at all. I'm trying to critique the shot, not the models, but here, you just shouldn't have taken this shot. Its not good. The girl on the left is posing in-up style, the middle girl looks terrified, and the girl on the right just looks awkward.. If you were going to have the girls pose with the car, I would try to get the whole car in the picture, OR maybe have the door of the car open and place he models around the open door to make it more interesting.. Oh, and I would be sure to backlight pictures taken in the evening or on dark backgrounds. Especially with dark-haired models, they kind of melt into the background otherwise.

Anyways, thats just my opinion.

Bogs · Apr 23, 2012

yeah i agree with the above.. they are beautiful models and are somewhat experienced but you still need to arrange them in the photo and tell them what you want to see.

second, it looks like your flash was mounted on the camera and it was the only source of light. that makes the whole photo look like it's high res point-and-shoot sort of deal. ideally you would have a hair light behind the models, key light and also fill light...

and third, yeah i think models need to interact with the environment, namely the car, and that's why you would need to include more of the car in the frame. try playing with perspective and show a bit of the side and the front of the car...

jfrabat · Apr 23, 2012

Rebekah5280 said:
Ok, I'll take a stab.. (numbering the pictures would make this a little easier..)

#1 - the best out of the bunch. Skin looks nice, exposure seem right on. Smile looks natural.

#2 - over-exposed, and her skin is looking a little yellow. I'm all for bright shots!

#3 - Is not attractive. I don't know whats going on with her eyes.. her skin is orangey and her hair is life-less.

#4 - Ummmm... not good at all. I'm trying to critique the shot, not the models, but here, you just shouldn't have taken this shot. Its not good. The girl on the left is posing in-up style, the middle girl looks terrified, and the girl on the right just looks awkward.. If you were going to have the girls pose with the car, I would try to get the whole car in the picture, OR maybe have the door of the car open and place he models around the open door to make it more interesting.. Oh, and I would be sure to backlight pictures taken in the evening or on dark backgrounds. Especially with dark-haired models, they kind of melt into the background otherwise.

Anyways, thats just my opinion.

Thanks, Rebekah; this is the type of C+C I am looking for. I don't mind if you do not like a photo as long as you tell me WHY so that I can learn. Unfortunately, I was not in control of the models, as there were many photographers there (it as an event sponsored by Soho, Honda, and Sony, and those with Sony Alpha cameras were allowed to have some time with the models). in the outside shot, the lighting was horrible (there were some potlights, and no real portable lights were setup because of a slight drizzle). But now that you mentioned the posing, I have to say I agree... My favorites are defenelty #1 and #2 (to me, the lightness makes it feel a bit dreamy).

I like your advice on the car; I should have asked one of them to sit in and have another lean in as if they were talking or something... To be honest, i am not even sure if the car was unlocked, but it was worth a try.

Bogs said:
yeah i agree with the above.. they are beautiful models and are somewhat experienced but you still need to arrange them in the photo and tell them what you want to see.

second, it looks like your flash was mounted on the camera and it was the only source of light. that makes the whole photo look like it's high res point-and-shoot sort of deal. ideally you would have a hair light behind the models, key light and also fill light...

and third, yeah i think models need to interact with the environment, namely the car, and that's why you would need to include more of the car in the frame. try playing with perspective and show a bit of the side and the front of the car...

Except for the first girl (first 2 pics; this is a true SoHo model, and was also Miss Hawaiian Tropic Costa Rica), the models are aspiring models, not pros, which is why it shows a bit on the photos... But I agree that more car should have been included. The problem was the spotlights were ruining that opportunity, so I tried to work with what I could. Anyway, thanks for the comments!

Rebekah5280 · Apr 23, 2012

You can get a "dreamy" look with proper exposure. Its just processing a processing technique.

Rebekah5280 · Apr 23, 2012

I quickly tweaked it to show what I meant about getting that dreamy look without having to over expose.

jfrabat · Apr 23, 2012

So what did you do to it? (I want to learn, so I need not only the what, but the how as well)

12sndsgood · Apr 23, 2012

the most recent shots are definatly less distracting then the first one.

and the last shot you cut her elbow off. would have been nicer if she had been standing closer to the other two. Ive been using portrait professional as well and as said you really gotta go easy on it. with mine once it shows me the image it produces i usually end up taking the slider down further to keep it more natural looking. and you can go to youtube to find some skin smoothing tutorials. most are only 10 minutes long and after a few tries playing with it you can pick it up pretty quickly.

these

jfrabat · Apr 23, 2012

Just wanted to state that I did not use portrait professionalism on the second set... Well, I think the last pic I did, but only on one girl.

Rebekah5280 · Apr 23, 2012

OK, so I dis a slight gaussian (sp?) blur and masked out the eyes, and lips. I then I messed with the levels to make the darker colors darker (which also accentuated the highlights) and then boosted saturation a teeny bit. Then i masked out her chest and neck and removed some of the yellow so that her skin tones evened out a bit.

I think thats what I did, or something pretty similar to that. I think I sharpened the eyes a bit, but the eyes were a little strange, no detail in the iris, I've never seen that before. So I think I removed the sharpening. Oh, and there are weird viens on her lower lip too that I was going to clean up, but somehow missed it before I saved and posted it here..

It seems like a lot, but really, it only took me about 2 minutes.

I lost some of the shile in her hair though, which is great, so if I were to do again I would mask out the hair when I blurred.