First Model Photo Shoot - CC Welcome

[Heather Koch]

I'll link my original thread here for people who want to see it for information...
Advice - Model Photographing... | Photography Forum

We went out today around 3:30 PM and it was an overcast day, with some sun. The lighting was perfect.

Here are some shots I took, will post more as I edit them. Let me know your thoughts and critiques

 

[KmH]

For me the skin softening is over done.
Her eyes, nose, and lips look OOF.

Her skin tone looks un-natural in all but the bottom photo.

I like the composition with her sitting on the ground, but the standing pose with her hand behind the pipe seems somehow 'off'.

 

[Rick50]

I like #2 best but the background is distracting. The pose and exposure looks good. Maybe a wider aperture to blur those windows a bit. Your edit helps here. My eye goes to the light. I like the fact she is looking into the camera.
On the bottom 2 I don't like staring off into space but that's probably just me. Again a bit busy background.

 

[Heather Koch]

For me the skin softening is over done.
Her eyes, nose, and lips look OOF.

Her skin tone looks un-natural in all but the bottom photo.

I like the composition with her sitting on the ground, but the standing pose with her hand behind the pipe seems somehow 'off'.

I did upload with Photobucket because I don't have flickr anymore since they stopped letting you use gmail account. In the actual picture is looks ten times better, but I see what you are saying. I only softened the skin 15-20% opacity because her skin is already really smooth. As for the skin tone, I guess that would come from the edits I tried, the more natural edit is the one you mentioned that looked the most natural for the skin tone, which makes sense. All the poses were natural, I didn't have any ideas so we kind of just went with the flow, I told her do something that is natural to you and thats what she did, I just snapped what looked good, or at least what I thought looked best

Thanks for the C&C

 

[Heather Koch]

I like #2 best but the background is distracting. The pose and exposure looks good. Maybe a wider aperture to blur those windows a bit. Your edit helps here. My eye goes to the light. I like the fact she is looking into the camera.
On the bottom 2 I don't like staring off into space but that's probably just me. Again a bit busy background.

I was debating on if I wanted to blur the background more or not, I guess I should have just to see the difference. A wider aperture is what I was missing, I did so much research and I could only remember so much lol... Next time I will adjust that as well.

THANKS!

 

[tirediron]

With respect to the first image, you've (unintentionally) created perhaps the best bad example of 'disembodied limb' syndrome I've seen in a long time. If you "step back" from the image and look at it, the fingers we see coming around the "front" of the pipe don't immediately appear to belong to the model. There are two reasons for this: (1) Because her shrirt sleeve goes almost to the pipe, and we don't see any bare arm leading up to it for our eye to follow through the pipe; and (2) because the angle of her hand as it appears to the viewer makes it appear as if her arm should be going out parallel to the ground. If you wanted to position her arm behind the pipe, you should have (IMO) had more bare arm visible (rolled her sleeve up higher) and angled her fingers so that our eye could "draw in" the missing arm at the correct angle.

 

[Heather Koch]

Heres a couple more poses... Created a flickr account

DET_1693oldpolar by heather.koch43, on Flickr

DET_1693memory by heather.koch43, on Flickr

DET_1614oldpolar by heather.koch43, on Flickr

 

[Heather Koch]

With respect to the first image, you've (unintentionally) created perhaps the best bad example of 'disembodied limb' syndrome I've seen in a long time. If you "step back" from the image and look at it, the fingers we see coming around the "front" of the pipe don't immediately appear to belong to the model. There are two reasons for this: (1) Because her shrirt sleeve goes almost to the pipe, and we don't see any bare arm leading up to it for our eye to follow through the pipe; and (2) because the angle of her hand as it appears to the viewer makes it appear as if her arm should be going out parallel to the ground. If you wanted to position her arm behind the pipe, you should have (IMO) had more bare arm visible (rolled her sleeve up higher) and angled her fingers so that our eye could "draw in" the missing arm at the correct angle.

I see exactly what you are saying, I was definitely not focused on her arm while taking this, there is so much to consider when shooting someone. Thank you for your critique!

 

[Derrel]

All of these except the last one like they are back-focused. In post #7, the first image, she is way out of focus. I am not sure what's going on with the two poses in the first post; she looks out of focus and the background looks more in focus. She does not need ANY skin smoothing. Whatever you have done on these is ruining the images...your girl looks gorgeous! Buuuuut, she's out of focus in appearance.

 

[Heather Koch]

All of these except the last one like they are back-focused. In post #7, the first image, she is way out of focus. I am not sure what's going on with the two poses in the first post; she looks out of focus and the background looks more in focus. She does not need ANY skin smoothing. Whatever you have done on these is ruining the images...your girl looks gorgeous! Buuuuut, she's out of focus in appearance.

Yes I agree about post #7, I had to crop that one quite a bit because it was even more distracting. What would you suggest about the edit? What don't/do you like? If I may ask...

 

[xzyragon]

pretty good for a first attempt (and I'm not an expert so take my advice with a grain of salt), but...

1: she is too dark, her skin tone is grey-ish and the light of the windows is distracting
2: over-saturated so she looks oompa-loompa ish, and the light of the windows still overpowers her
3: waaay to over-saturated, but is at least brighter. Maybe tone down the oranges and increase their luminance, then bump down the highlights
4: the leaves and her sweater are brighter than her face, but I like the composition and the pose
5: it's really gray, probably from toning back on the highlights or whites.

Just my 2 cents. If she's a friend, you should have no trouble using her to practice more and more with portraiture.

 

[Heather Koch]

pretty good for a first attempt (and I'm not an expert so take my advice with a grain of salt), but...

1: she is too dark, her skin tone is grey-ish and the light of the windows is distracting
2: over-saturated so she looks oompa-loompa ish, and the light of the windows still overpowers her
3: waaay to over-saturated, but is at least brighter. Maybe tone down the oranges and increase their luminance, then bump down the highlights
4: the leaves and her sweater are brighter than her face, but I like the composition and the pose
5: it's really gray, probably from toning back on the highlights or whites.

Just my 2 cents. If she's a friend, you should have no trouble using her to practice more and more with portraiture.

Thank you, yes we will be going out way more to practice. We both are new at this, so we each have a lot to learn.

Thanks again for the kind critique!

 

[Heather Koch]

How is this one? This is my favorite thus far.

DET_1555orig by heather.koch43, on Flickr

 

[xzyragon]

How is this one? This is my favorite thus far.

DET_1555orig by heather.koch43, on Flickr

I'm not sure how I feel about the contrast between the wood and the brick, but otherwise she's exposed great. Good skin tones (maybe a touch grey), but you can still see the detail in her sweater. The pose is a little flat though.

 

[Heather Koch]

Well that barn has a special place in my heart, so I absolutely love that contrast. Also into interior design and love it more. But with this photo, it wasn't on our radar as much as the others, I literally went to my folder, quickly grabbed one that stood out to me right there and didn't play with the colors at all. I have a tendency to sit and stare at a photo for a good hour and play with it, I think my eyes start to trick me, I need to learn to edit them easier and quicker and pleasing to the eye. If that makes sense.