First teenager C&C, please.

[Granddad]

Last week I got my first teenage customer as the result of offering a shoot as a raffle prize. Grandma won and decided she wanted some shots of her granddaughter. This young lady arrived with her mum and was terrified. After about 20 minutes she started to relax and we got some really nice shots. C&C on these two would be much appreciated.
Number 2 has facial shadows from the hat and also on her right cheek, I tried to avoid this by using Rembrandt lighting to her left and a reflector to her right. The shadow from the hat seems to be acceptable but how can I avoid the hard shadow on the cheek in future? I think it was from her hair and the reflector.

Other comments and suggestions for future reference are always welcome.

1

2

 

[Designer]

Hi, Mark. Just off the top of my head, I think you might try moving the hair back a little. Just ask the model to hold, and (to avoid unnecessary personal contact), use the back of a pencil or some other inanimate object to nudge the hair back out of the sidelight. If that doesn't work, then you may have to move some lighting equipment.

I'm sure others will offer a much more refined methodology.

 

[Jaemie]

These seem a little flat and overexposed, or maybe the lighting is just too harsh. Her shirt disappears into the background in #1, and in #2 it appears too bright.

I like her poses; she looks confident and intelligent. Her hair is beautiful and her eyes are nice and strong.

 

[Ernicus]

I am with Jaemie on the lighting/overexposed look, her shirt does dissapear, on my screen anyway. However, what strikes me most, and bear with me as I have not even shot people yet, but the puffiness under her eyes in shot 1. It seems that the lighting is making it stand out more vs. hiding it. In my mind, I would want to try to hide it with the lighting or edit it accordingly...or is that something that is not generally worried about?

 

[Jaemie]

I noticed that slight puffiness under the eyes, also, but I think it's probably normal for her. She has a sort of puffy face - I think it's really very cute and I wouldn't change it.

 

[Granddad]

I must say that I think Jaemie has a point. Lighting is a bit of a struggle for me as I use my dining room as a studio and I'm limited on space. I think I need a room that's a little longer but that's not going to happen. I shall keep trying and attempt to find a solution, possibly a heavier difuser in/on my softbox or a larger softbox. On these I used lightroom and brought the exposure up using the histogram as a guide rather than my eye (following advice I'd read, or at least my interpretation of advice). I guess I overdid it. I'll go back to the originals and see what I can do. To be fair to myself the young lady's T shirt was very washed out in reality.

I hadn't noticed the shadow on the cheek before I got them on the computer. I'll have to rethink my use of the reflector.

As for the puffiness under the eyes, Jaemie has it right again. That's just the way she is. I could have PS'd it but I wanted her to look natural. She also has a couple of small scars which we decided I should leave alone.

On the flatness, thinking about it, on the first shot I used a back light onto the backdrop as well as the rembrandt light. That may be too much for the space I have available; could that be the problem?

Glad you like the poses, at least some of my efforts came through.

 

[Granddad]

With the comments above in mind I went back to the original NEF files and re-edited from scratch.

2

It looks to me as if my problem was more with my ham fisted processing than my lighting (shadows aside).

 

[Jaemie]

Nice. #1 looks much better with that slightly darker background. I'm not sure about the vignette in #2 - I think I like the solid background better. I'd probably crop out that kink in her shirt at the bottom left, too. Otherwise, the subject looks splendid in both.

There is some distortion all around the subject in #1 - I've pointed to some of the most obvious areas. In #2, there are at least 3 dark blobs.

 

[Granddad]

Valid points, Jaemie, I was in too much of a hurry to re-edit and was careless. I couldn't see the distortions or the vignetting until I moved the screen angle. I'll fix those before I send them to the customer. Much appreciated.

 

[Jaemie]

I'm sure she will be very happy! Nice work.

 

[Granddad]

The distortion on the background of #1 was caused by using a mask and gausian blur in an old programme to eliminate wrinkles and colour variations in the back cloth. I went back and used the healing brush in PS instead (it's also obviously time to wash the back cloth). #2 I sorted with the burn brush. There's still a little darkness on her left arm but I think that's shutter lag, it was one of the last of the batch and I think the batteries in my wireless receiver must have been getting low.

Feedback like this helps me to analyse my errors and learn