First Senior Shoot (C&C Please)

[Wfpinky]

I did my first ever Senior shoot for a friend who graduated from college a few weeks ago, these are just a few of her (and mine) favorites. I would love some feedback!

 

[tirediron]

Well, we almost got through the set without the ubiquitous 'pretty girl leaning against a brick wall', but not quite... Overall, they're a nice set, good focus, good exposure, and suitable poses. Two points come to mind: (1) These images tell us nothing about the person; what she did, what her interests are, etc. I find this sort of imagery far more appealing when we have clues to the subject's personality; and (2) your cropping/framing leaves something to be desired. In #1, she's crammed to the left of the frame, with her body pointed out. Generally, we want to see people moving into the frame rather than out of it. In #2, you've got her dead center in the frame, with a large, blown area, image left. I would prefer to see her off-set to one side and as much of the blown area as possible cropped away. The human eye is always attracted to bright over dark, so that simply serves to pull the eye away from the subject. #3 wouldn't normally work since posing subjects, especially young women square to the camera ("Football shoulders") is considered a no-no, but IMO, I think the wire and her arms make this a nice image. I would crop one side to get her off-center. Don't forget that your camera works equally well when tilted 90 degrees to the left/right ("Portrait" orientation).

 

[Derrel]

Good demonstration of your ability to exhibit reflection control on the eyeglasses, especially in shot 1! In the second shot she's riding wayyy low in the horizontal frame, so demerits on composition; her eyes are level with the mid-line height of the frame, and her chin is way low...turn the camera to a tall, and this might make some sense, but with the head that low and that much head space above her, it's not a good composition, due to her body being clipped. Compare where her head is placed in shot two versus the following shot, where she's standing up, and has elevated hands as she clasps the odd bars. I would crop out that vertical green pole at the left side of shot #2 and see if it looks better with it or without it.

In shot three, the horizontal framing works well because the bars themselves are an element AND the camera is far enough away to actually show something interesting. The face is high up in the frame and the camera is low enough to give a feeling of her being powerful and confident. My main issue with three is more styling than anything; the big, baggy, gray sweatshirt makes her look extremely chunky and blocky. A clip or two, positioned properly on the back side of the shirt would have given her a slimmer silhouette, and could easily have been made to reveal a waistline. The baggy shirt really hurts this shot. Just a bit of taper to it would have really elevated this shot. Again, this is a wardrobe/styling issue.

I think you did an excellent job on framing/camera placement this brick wall shot, by doing what's called skimming, meaning shooting down the length of the wall, with out of focus foreground on the wall creating a nice sense of reality, of depth, a focus transition from OOF to the focus plane. I would suggest cloning out that protruding object above her head.

 

[Wfpinky]

Well, we almost got through the set without the ubiquitous 'pretty girl leaning against a brick wall', but not quite... Overall, they're a nice set, good focus, good exposure, and suitable poses. Two points come to mind: (1) These images tell us nothing about the person; what she did, what her interests are, etc. I find this sort of imagery far more appealing when we have clues to the subject's personality; and (2) your cropping/framing leaves something to be desired. In #1, she's crammed to the left of the frame, with her body pointed out. Generally, we want to see people moving into the frame rather than out of it. In #2, you've got her dead center in the frame, with a large, blown area, image left. I would prefer to see her off-set to one side and as much of the blown area as possible cropped away. The human eye is always attracted to bright over dark, so that simply serves to pull the eye away from the subject. #3 wouldn't normally work since posing subjects, especially young women square to the camera ("Football shoulders") is considered a no-no, but IMO, I think the wire and her arms make this a nice image. I would crop one side to get her off-center. Don't forget that your camera works equally well when tilted 90 degrees to the left/right ("Portrait" orientation).

Excellent points, thank you! She wasn't one for props and, since this was my second paid shoot ever, I didn't want to press the issue. I will say this entire shoot was done with 50mph winds and a windchill of 39 degrees (that was the only day she was available), so that definitely challenged me a bit lol!

 

[Wfpinky]

Good demonstration of your ability to exhibit reflection control on the eyeglasses, especially in shot 1! In the second shot she's riding wayyy low in the horizontal frame, so demerits on composition; her eyes are level with the mid-line height of the frame, and her chin is way low...turn the camera to a tall, and this might make some sense, but with the head that low and that much head space above her, it's not a good composition, due to her body being clipped. Compare where her head is placed in shot two versus the following shot, where she's standing up, and has elevated hands as she clasps the odd bars. I would crop out that vertical green pole at the left side of shot #2 and see if it looks better with it or without it.

In shot three, the horizontal framing works well because the bars themselves are an element AND the camera is far enough away to actually show something interesting. The face is high up in the frame and the camera is low enough to give a feeling of her being powerful and confident. My main issue with three is more styling than anything; the big, baggy, gray sweatshirt makes her look extremely chunky and blocky. A clip or two, positioned properly on the back side of the shirt would have given her a slimmer silhouette, and could easily have been made to reveal a waistline. The baggy shirt really hurts this shot. Just a bit of taper to it would have really elevated this shot. Again, this is a wardrobe/styling issue.

I think you did an excellent job on framing/camera placement this brick wall shot, by doing what's called skimming, meaning shooting down the length of the wall, with out of focus foreground on the wall creating a nice sense of reality, of depth, a focus transition from OOF to the focus plane. I would suggest cloning out that protruding object above her head.

Thanks for the feedback! I purposely set the shot up that way in #2 due to the color scheme, oddly enough that shot is one of the ones she used on her announcements and the one her family liked the most. Good idea on the clips in #3, I'll have to try that next time! She was really insistent on wearing the university pullover.

 

[Derrel]

I'm not surprised her family would like the shot. She looks pleasant in it, but it's a weak composition unless you've left all that dead space in order to be able to overlay text into. Keep in mind, family will "like" images, even "love" images that show their loved one in a flattering expression, or in a pleasing manner, even if the composition might be poor, of if the focus is a little soft, or even if the shot has multiple technical faults, flaws, or weaknesess, which is a great thing about pleasing family members...they do not evaluate photos the way experienced photographers do, or the way professional imaging people do!

Wearing the university pullover makes total sense, but not making it fit a bit tighter at the waist and the lower torso area, and then posing her full-face AND body straight ahead to the camera, those three decisions together adds about 50 visual pounds to her, visually, especially with the dominant, football shoulder type of straight-on posing. If you don't have clips, you can always try tucking it in tightly into the waistband in the back, or using gaffer tape. This is a portraiture basic: avoid photographing a person with an obvious clothing flaw of multiple types: necklaces crooked, rings with the gemstone off-centered or hidden, pants unflatteringly bunched up, collars askew, belt buckle off centered, with shirts or blouses looking poofed out oddly,etc,etc..