Haylee Senior Portrait

Brinr · Oct 18, 2012

85mm 1.8, 50mm 1.4 and one 580exii and one yunogno something-or-other OFC through a 224" softbox.

1

10_10_12 Halyee Senior 057 by BrinR Photo, on Flickr

2

10_10_12 Halyee Senior 053 by BrinR Photo, on Flickr

3

10_10_12 Halyee Senior 050 by BrinR Photo, on Flickr

4

10_10_12 Halyee Senior 049 by BrinR Photo, on Flickr

5

10_10_12 Halyee Senior 043 by BrinR Photo, on Flickr

6

10_10_12 Halyee Senior 028 by BrinR Photo, on Flickr

tirediron · Oct 19, 2012

A 224" SB? Dude... that's a BIG freakin' modifier!

Nice set; it may be the monitor I'm at right now, but there seems to be a slight green cast to her skin.

shortpballer · Oct 19, 2012

224" softbox is kind of big! especially for a 580exii

Did you do some modifications on your 580 to get it up to 2400 watts? Beyond that, very sharp photos and nice simple and clean editing. Besides some of the highlights in the hair, I don't have anything bad to say.

jwbryson1 · Oct 19, 2012

High school senior? Surely not.

fjrabon · Oct 19, 2012

the issue you'd probably have with a 224" softbox and a speedlight is that it won't actually act like a 224" in softbox, because the speedlight can't really spread that much. You'd be better off with a smaller softbox and just having it farther away.

1) fill is a bit harsh, which killed any depth to her skin. Small bush on the right fully in focus is a distracting element. You could have fixed this, and given a better composition by shifting the frame to the photographer's left, to get more stream and also give her body a place to 'go' by having her at the 1/3rd power line on the right of the frame.

2) not as sure about the crop here. Seems to be a lot of dead space above her head and her knees are sort of awkward just having the kneecaps. Also, I feel like it sort of accentuates the fact that her eyes aren't as symmetrical. WIth girls with slightly less than symmetrical eyes, I tend to want them to always have at least a small bit of head turn one way or the other. That would then push attention away from the angles at her eyes, towards the clarity of her eyes and smile, which are both stunning. Exposure is nearly perfect.

3) Great shot, but you need just a bit more DoF so that her teeth aren't out of focus. Also, just go ahead and photoshop the wrinkles under her eyes. her mascara is really clumpy, but I guess you couldn't do much about that yourself.

4) Technically a good shot, but I don't think looking straight forward dead into the camera is a good look for her for the reasons above. Not 100% sure why this was landscape mode, though it doesn't work terribly as such.

5) love the pose, too much fill

6) This one doesn't seem to have any reason why its landscape, and I think it just serves to de-emphasize the subject here, with no tangible benefit. I'm not anti landscape poses for portraits, I just think you have to have a good reason for doing it. And 'just wanted it different' isn't really a good reason. Pose seems a tiny bit stiff, and again, her eyes head on isn't a great look for her. The lighting is PERFECT though.

Brinr · Oct 19, 2012

Hey thanks for the comments ya'll, ya what I meant by 224" softbox was 24" soxtbox. I'm assuming most of you go that hee hee. Fjrabon, thanks for the xtensive critique, those are few and far between. Agree with most of the fill light comments. As for 3 I was going for the extreme shallow look, maybe that's just a newb mistake or me trying to be a dork. 5, yes too much fill. 6, have a couple portrait views maybe like this?

10_10_12 Halyee Senior 032 by BrinR Photo, on Flickr

fjrabon · Oct 19, 2012

Brinr said:
Hey thanks for the comments ya'll, ya what I meant by 224" softbox was 24" soxtbox. I'm assuming most of you go that hee hee. Fjrabon, thanks for the xtensive critique, those are few and far between. Agree with most of the fill light comments. As for 3 I was going for the extreme shallow look, maybe that's just a newb mistake or me trying to be a dork. 5, yes too much fill. 6, have a couple portrait views maybe like this?

10_10_12 Halyee Senior 032 by BrinR Photo, on Flickr

yes, I saw that one in your flickr account, and had started to comment that it was my favorite of them, but then realized it wasn't included in the post.

I was sort of going along with the joke, even though we do have a couple of softbboxes that might be close to 224" diagonally at our studio (though probably more like 120")

Derrel · Oct 19, 2012

1,4,6...shouldda spun the camera around to tall...these crops make very little sense...of course, you knew I'd say that...

She must be a college senior, 'cause she looks to be like 23 years old...as far as the lighting, the highlights and hair-lighting appears a bit more "flashy" than I prefer...kind of 1980's-like...

MLeeK · Oct 19, 2012

WTH is with the tarantula eyes on these girls??? Good LORD that looks awful. Totally not your fault, but...

I really like the bit of back/rim lighting, but with her hair weren't having frizzies in it! I have nothing of any VALUE to add to what you've gotten. It's a great set!

kathyt · Oct 19, 2012

Overall, I think these are really good. I like your shallow DOF. #2 is my favorite. The composition is off on a couple of these. You need to make sure they relax their hands when you have them in a pose, like in #1, if you say ballet hands they will instantly relax their hands into a soft position. It sounds so cheesy but it works with every pose. Your skin tones are looking pretty good. The consistency of the skin tones starts to change in #5 and #6 to a tad more green. Check your CMYK values on those. I might go in and do a little under eye smoothing but that is just me. Good work.

fjrabon · Oct 19, 2012

oh yeah, the shallow DoF in general is fine. I just don't like teeth being out of focus in 3. THough that may jsut be hard wired training, that I cant undo. First thing I always look at when checking the DoF preview is 'teeth and eyes both in focus?'

Derrel · Oct 19, 2012

MLeeK said:
WTH is with the tarantula eyes on these girls??? Good LORD that looks awful. Totally not your fault, but...

I really like the bit of back/rim lighting, but with her hair weren't having frizzies in it! I have nothing of any VALUE to add to what you've gotten. It's a great set!

That exact type of mascara application SEEMS to be gaining in popularity...I think it is one of those things that looks marginally okay in real life, but on-camera...oh myyyyyy...it looks bad. It's almost like the way "stage makeup" looks good from the fifth row, but when seen in a photo close-up, looks over-the-top. Of course Madame Leek, this is the era of Lady Gaga...so...outlandish eye makeup has become more and more "normative" for today's younger women. But I agree with your old, fuddy-duffy opinion (lol) on this tarantula eye mascara style...not so good...