Informal (C&C Please)

michael9000000 · Jun 25, 2013

I was out to dinner with me friend. She looked lovely and the lighting seemed optimal, so I snapped a quick headshot right at the table. Your thoughts? (I know it's a very 'vanilla' photo, but I'd like C&C anyway. Thanks.)

cynicaster · Jun 25, 2013

Very nice impromptu shot, and a pretty lady.

ronlane · Jun 25, 2013

Lovely. Maybe you should consider two things; 1 do a session with her and 2 make her more than a friend.

alexzobi · Jun 25, 2013

I'm not an advanced photographer by any means, but there are three things that catch my eye.

1. lighting: The shadows on her face don't seem to compliment her. she's very naturally beautiful, but there seems to be something strange going on there.
2. style: This is completely a matter of opinion, but this pic looks like she's posing for a yearbook, rather than being out to dinner with a friend.
3. expression: This kind of goes hand in hand with the last one, but she looks all business and the pose seems forced. Again, a matter of opinion. Personally, when I photograph out, I prefer the unexpected moments. I just did a shoot for a 33 yr old musician friend of mine the other day and the best shots I got happened by cracking a joke and catching her off guard. Gives the viewer more of an emotional connection with the model, I feel. But again, I recognize that this is all opinion based, so to each his/her own. I'm not on my comp with the photos, but when I am, I'll post one to kind of elaborate on what I mean.

ShooterJ · Jun 25, 2013

I think for a spur of the moment decision you got a nice shot.

cgipson1 · Jun 25, 2013

She seems very young... assuming that is you in your avatar? She does look like she is posing for a high-school yearbook, as mentioned above! Like you said.. an impromptu snapshot.

michael9000000 · Jun 25, 2013

cgipson1 said:
She seems very young... assuming that is you in your avatar? She does look like she is posing for a high-school yearbook, as mentioned above! Like you said.. an impromptu snapshot.

Yup... That's me in my avatar. I'm 39. She's 24. We get along nicely, but it's nothing romantic.

bunny99123 · Jun 25, 2013

I like it. A lot of people don't want a camera pointed in their face, so you did good.

michael9000000 · Jun 25, 2013

ronlane said:
Lovely. Maybe you should consider two things; 1 do a session with her and 2 make her more than a friend.

1. We're shooting a session on Sunday.

2. My wife would not appreciate that one bit.

michael9000000 · Jun 25, 2013

alexzobi said:
I'm not an advanced photographer by any means, but there are three things that catch my eye.

1. lighting: The shadows on her face don't seem to compliment her. she's very naturally beautiful, but there seems to be something strange going on there.

What's strange about the lighting? Could you elaborate? (I'm not arguing your opinion... I'm just not sure what seems off to you.)

Derrel · Jun 25, 2013

It looks like maybe a bit more processing than needed on the image. Her forehead seems a bit too light, and it looks like some stray hairs at the hairline have been cloned out...either that or she snipped them off with scissors. Her expression looks like a practiced "picture face expression" that many people have. My niece's husband does that in EVERY single photo he poses for...same expression, no matter how inappropriate it might be for the situation.

The "picture face expression" is my biggest issue with this otherwise nice look at her; it just does not communicate any authentic emotion that I can pinpoint definitively.

amolitor · Jun 25, 2013

What's his name, Errol Morris, talks about this Picture Face in his book Believing is Seeing. There's something about the eyes that makes it pretty distinctive, once you know what to look for, but most people kind of feel like something's not quite right.

It's what people, especially westerners, do when the camera is pointed at this, and it's one of the reasons portraiture is hard, I think.

JoeLeBean · Jun 25, 2013

I think it is a nice shot and your friend looks pretty.
I would crop for a better composition and as Derrel mentionned I would photoshop the stray of hair in the top left. I would also saturate the colors a touch to give a punch and maybe saturate a bit more her eyes.
I did a quick crop and a light saturation. This are just suggestions.

alexzobi · Jun 26, 2013

michael9000000 said:
alexzobi said:

I'm not an advanced photographer by any means, but there are three things that catch my eye.

1. lighting: The shadows on her face don't seem to compliment her. she's very naturally beautiful, but there seems to be something strange going on there.

Click to expand...

What's strange about the lighting? Could you elaborate? (I'm not arguing your opinion... I'm just not sure what seems off to you.)

It's the way the shadows fall on her face and the hard light to her right and the lack of light to her left. I'm not sure there's really anything you can do about it since you're shooting at dinner and the lights in the restaurant were probably far too dim, but just out of curiosity, were you using a light diffuser of any sort? Like a gary fong dome type of thing? This honestly is for my own learning, so pardon me for leeching off your post haha.