Help me please... (C&C)

[michael9000000]

View attachment 16365





I feel like these photos are not living up to their full potential. I'd like suggestions on how to improve them.

By the way, I know that the model has scrapes on her knees. I'll easily edit them out after I figure out any changes to be made to the overall look of the photos.

Also, the photos were posted from my iPad, so the clarity is not the best. I can assure you it looks much sharper in full resolution.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[PhotoWrangler]

The scrapes on her knees are the least of your worries. The poses look completely unnatural and uncomfortable.

 

[michael9000000]

The scrapes on her knees are the least of your worries. The poses look completely unnatural and uncomfortable.

Okay... I respect your opinion, even though I disagree. Either way, I can't change the pose now. I'm wondering what I can do in post to maximize the quality of the image. I should've made that clearer in the original post. Any suggestions?

 

[PhotoWrangler]

Look at her neck in both of the first images, particularly the second. That large neck muscle on her right side makes it look like she's straining to hold that pose.


But if you can't redo these, I'd start by warming them up a little. From where I'm looking at them, they appear very cold. You might try a little more saturation or color treatment as well. They just have a 'blah' color appearance - not exactly desaturated, not exactly bright and 'beachy'.

 

[Granddad]

The scrapes on her knees are the least of your worries. The poses look completely unnatural and uncomfortable.

That's very harsh! I've seen much worse poses in top magazines.
I'd say the 1 and 3 don't deserve such criticism. OP recognises that they need something to bring out their potential. I'd play with the light and the wb and see what happens; you'll probably get some useful specific tips from more experienced photoshoppers than me.

 

[LaFoto]

Not that I'd know much about posed portrait photography and lighting and any such things, but my feeling says that the bright sky in the background is majorly distracting in all of these, which may give you this feeling of unease and of the photos "not living up to their potential" - just the dune grass as background and a good lighting would have made these better, I think.

 

[AaronLLockhart]

The scrapes on her knees are the least of your worries. The poses look completely unnatural and uncomfortable.

The neck position in all of them looks harsh, but the only really uncomfortable looking pose is the second one IMO.

I think the poses overall are ok. I have seen a lot worse.

The details of the image bring too much attention to me. The background is very distracting. I'm thinking you would have been better off with your subject being the majority of the frame.

I'm not the best at people processing, as I am brand new to shooting people, but I also find her stomach very distracting (not that it's ugly or that she is in bad shape, because she isn't). However, I do find that the natural "rolls" from her sitting position draw my eye away from her features and to them. Is there not a way to fix this?

 

[PhotoWrangler]

That's very harsh! I've seen much worse poses in top magazines.

Its not harsh, but it is very much my opinion. He can take it or leave it. He asked, I answered.

 

[michael9000000]

Its not harsh, but it is very much my opinion. He can take it or leave it. He asked, I answered.

I'm not offended by anything you said. It's all good.

 

[pixmedic1 1]

I think all three pictures would benefit from the model taking her top off.

 

[MLeeK]

Whatever you are doing for skin smoothing-stop. It's ruining your shots and giving you that cheap glamor glow look. It's also making the focus seem off on your subject compared to the background.

Your lighting is a little harsh in these and looks to be nearly straight on. Plus it doesn't seem to be doing much good seeing how your sky is blown.
You need more separation between the subject and your background grass for a few reasons...
Had you moved her further in front of the grasses and used a low aperture you would have minimized the bits and pieces of crap in the grass and on the sand and the halo of grass growing out of her head.
You chose a location that was minimal, but you kind of failed the location with your posing, positioning and aperture/DOF.
You actually have a lot of distractions going on here. THere is the grass and the bits of leaves and crap, then you have the rocks, the dock, the red light or whatever on that dock thing and the far shore.

She's also very conscious of APPEARING to have belly fat and is holding her abs to minimize that. It's not helping. No matter how thin someone is that pose is not going to be a good one without liquify and don't do that with the stomach, it is harder to trim up in post.

 

[paigew]

I agree that she doesn't look very relaxed in these. Not only her neck but it looks as if she is sucking in/tightening her tummy too much. I also think her feet should be showing and not buried in the sand. #3 is my favorite, she seems the most comfortable in that pose. In the future if girls are doing that weird suck-tummy-in thing maybe find a better pose to do. Something that flattens the tummy naturally (lying down perhaps?)