First session doing portraits

[aheiden]

 

[MWC2]

I really like #2. The lighting is good and her skin tone looks almost spot on, the christmas light string wrapped around the hand rail is a bit distracting, but over all it's a wonderful image. I also realy like #4. She's very pretty and and has a wonderful smile.

 

[The_Traveler]

Nice bunch. All these in in good focus, except where noted, and the technicals are pretty good.
On the whole, great start.

Everything that follows is only my opinion. Feel absolutely free to ignore some or all.
Having been married 3 times, I'm used to it.




Impressive for first shot at it.

Short comments on each one.
1) There is so much color being reflected from the brick wall that her skin tones are irrevocably off. I don't think this isn't white balance issue but merely color contamination.

2 Interesting quirky pose but she seems a little uneasy. Also image perhaps a bit over-exposed. My guess is the little scrunchy expression comes from bright light. A problem with this is that her hands are partially concealed by the dress and the rail isn't so obvious. Get her where she is and looks comfortable and doesn't need to clutch something to stay in place. Also way too loosely cropped.

3. In silhouettes, the background should be interesting and then the silhouette adds some information. Not happening here. This is a miss.

4. IMO, the best of this set. Pretty nice pose and framing but over-exposed a bit. Use a curve layer and pull down the mid-point to add some character to the wall and color to her skin. The underside of her left arm is too starkly pale, pulls the eye and looks awkward. Her hand should have been turned over to show the upper side of her arm. Still no opening to the eyes, a major flaw.

5. very awkward pose, big bulbous shoulder, no good detail. I would toss this one.

My guess is that this model has beautiful brown eyes and great, clear skin. I would find an environment where the light is softer and get closer and go for a head and shoulders but with a longer lens. 35 mm will give some distortion up close. 90% of these photos are stuff that isn't interesting - dress, wall, arms. Get the face well done, good detail, eyes open with a comfortable pose and maximize her best points which are skin, hair and eyes.

 

[Studio7Four]

I agree with most of The_Traveler's comments, so no need to rehash. I will add that when shooting portraits it's a good idea to keep in mind the relevant chunks of color (such as hair or dress) and how they interact with the background. In these, notice how her hair gets lost in the first and last shots but stands out well in the second and (particularly) fourth shots.

I don't know how much more post processing effort you plan to put into these, but if you do want to spend a little time I'd take a look at the skin around her clavicle piercings. It looks a little red, as though the piercings are new (most visible in the fourth shot). If you can even out the skin tone there it will give the images a somewhat more timeless feel (well, as least as far as "they were taken in her early 20's" versus "they were taken a week after getting pierced").

By the way, not sure if it was your choice or hers, but I like the rather conservative outfit. I like the contrast between the floral dress and the piercings/ear gauges.

 

[aheiden]

The dress was her idea, actually I think the only reason she wanted her picture taken was because she just got the dress.

I'll definitely need to learn more about PS and post processing in general as I'm not very good at it. These photos were pretty much taken straight from the camera and set to auto white balance and tone in LR.

Thanks for all the great feedback, it will be put to use.