First Portriat Shoot

[ShotwellPhotography]

These are of my sister, they are her senior portraits. All taken with natural light, since I do not have any lighting equipment yet.

 

[NateWagner]

Alright, first of all, if you number your pics then C&C is much easier
secondly, the biggest thing by far. The skin smoothing is wayyy overdone.
Third watch your white balance. and skin tones for example #4 is red, but then the last one is almost yellowish

in #2 the elbow sticking out is a little odd for me, but I love the catchlights in her eyes. Also, nice and sharp

I like the last one ok, you did a pretty decent job PSing the background out, not a fan of the border though.

In general I think this is definitely not a bad job for a first shoot, but I would definitely try to not crop everything quite this close. They are mostly headshots, and I think that some of them are begging for more in the frame.

 

[Billhyco]

i'm a newb so take this with a grain of salt. but i personally like the last photo and the framing. not a big fan of the range of contrast on her face but i like the composition. Its different, i like different to a degree. The one with her arms crossed I would crop just above her elbows, but i'm not a fan of crossed arms in a photo. crop it once to see what ya think of it. the second one wasn't to bad for me either, but her arm up on the ledge is definately disctracting.

 

[lisa_13]

skin smoothing? i dont see much of that, if any at all.
ive got mostly the same comments as the user above, but maybe some more shots where shes looking at the camera? also, great use of natural lighting
keep it up! everything looks great

 

[Photog]

I don't see much skin-smoothing apart from #3. Not a big fan of the frame in the last one, seems odd that it cuts through the top of her head.

 

[NateWagner]

there is definitely a fair amount of skin smoothing going on, not quite to the point of a halo, but definitely more than needed.

it's strong with 1,2, and 4 and maybe maybe not on 6. Although you can still see the freckles there is very little detail or texture to the face.

the other thing to watch out for is the blown highlights on 1 & 6 and partially on 4

 

[ShotwellPhotography]

in #2 the elbow sticking out is a little odd for me, but I love the catchlights in her eyes. Also, nice and sharp

I like the last one ok, you did a pretty decent job PSing the background out, not a fan of the border though.

In general I think this is definitely not a bad job for a first shoot, but I would definitely try to not crop everything quite this close. They are mostly headshots, and I think that some of them are begging for more in the frame.

Thanks for the input. Since these are for my sisters senior photos, I did what she wanted, and she did not want the typical senior portrait and she also wanted to show more personality.

The elbows sticking out in the 2nd pic show the personaility a bit. She has a very loud personality.

The background in the last one is actually a white background, not PSed out. I'm guessing it has the photoshopped look because i have no lights for proper lighting.

And they are mostly head shots because that is also what my sister wanted. Once again not wanting the usual senior photo with the whole body, leaning up against the graduation year.

 

[NateWagner]

so the last shot was just on a white wall or something?

for #2 it's fine that it has the elbows sticking out, the weird part about it is that for me at least it took a while to figure out what it was. It just looks odd, and in general creases on the body such as the insides of elbows and the insides of knees aren't ideal to show.

anyway, these are just my .02 YMMV

 

[ShotwellPhotography]

so the last shot was just on a white wall or something?

for #2 it's fine that it has the elbows sticking out, the weird part about it is that for me at least it took a while to figure out what it was. It just looks odd, and in general creases on the body such as the insides of elbows and the insides of knees aren't ideal to show.

anyway, these are just my .02 YMMV

The white background is a white poster board. I dont have any equipment other than my camera and tripod, so i had to use what I could find. And since I was kinda put on the spot to do these photos that day, thats the best i could do.

It seems so obvious reading that creases int he body are not good to show, but i guess I need to consider the obvious more while taking the photos.

Thanks for the input, I will defiantly take it all in.

Also, other than the last one, why do you say there is too much skin softening. I know I softened the skin, but i really don't even see it that much. In the last one I do, but that shot actually had a poor exposure, and since my sister loved her expression and the lighting, I had to m ake it work.

 

[Rere]

Pretty good especially since you are new to this. I think you did a good job of cropping. These look like pics of a model with the tight cropping. I've done some client/model photography, and from what I see you are on your way if this is what you want.

If you are doing regular formal portrait photography then you would not crop so tightly.