Janaína - better luck next time...

[Austin Greene]

Another impromptu shoot meant testing out a site I hadn't used, or even been to before. Ultimately, I wasn't very happy the results or the site whatsoever. The field had plenty of mustard seed flowers, but was entirely loose, lumpy dirt, which meant I couldn't put my model on the ground as I had hoped.

Anyways, I usually avoid lens flare, but I thought I'd give it a go for the first time. What do you all think? As mentioned, I'm not really happy with any of the photos, but I figured I might as well take it as a learning experience and ask you all to rip them to shreds. I'm just happy it wasn't a paid shoot, it was an off day.

Best,
Austin

1.

Janaina by TogaLive, on Flickr
Why I didn't take the time to fix her fly-away hair, I have no idea. I was not on my game. The two vertical "stripes" across her upper forehead kill it for me.

2.

Janaina by TogaLive, on Flickr
I'm really not sure what to make of this one. I'm not a fan of the composition (landscape, with her off-center), and the background is distracting to my eyes. Maybe I'm being too harsh? Tried to get her low into the flowers, but without dress meeting dirt it just wasn't possible to get a good posture.

Oh well, better luck next time!

 

[Austin Greene]

Oh goodness, 3 days in and no replies. I must have bombed this one like I thought.

Dare I say it, but...bump?

I know I was off, but hearing what you think might be off as well would still help.

 

[SpikeyJohnson]

I think the 1st photo has some potential if you were to do a little bit of editing of the flare. Maybe tone it down a little bit so her face doesn't look so washed out?

EDIT: also I don't find the bottom one to be too bad either. I like the concept, maybe you could take some of the saturation out of the color's around her to emphasize her more. Something like the selective color in this article: Selective Color ? Possibly The Best Tool For Photographers .

 

[Derrel]

I sometimes really,really like lens flare, but the way it turned out in frame 1 is not "pretty" flare. It looks very rigid; the multiple vertical lines, and then the strong diagonal flare on her hair...just "ouch!"...it's not appealing flare...it almost looks like flare caused by a filter...it looks "straight" and not "organic"...I dunno how else to say it, but it is ugly flare. Was there a filter on the lens? What lens was used?

Second one looks very cool in terms of the light from the umbrella, especially compared against the very nice, warm light in shot #1. The second shot looks very "flashy", as in umbrella flash outdoors, with the foreground light much lighter and brighter than the background light level. Her expression confronts the viewer directly. Her eyes seem to be projecting a friendly attitude, but her lips appear pursed, and tight, which is the opposite of what they eyes are saying, so her expression is not natural, not a feel-good one. IN the first shot, her expression seems a bit more confident and welcoming, and from what I can see, would have been very alluring, but the flare has really made itself the main star of the shot.

WHat you are doing is challenging, and I think this is really great practice and learning. Shooting informal sets of non-models, real,regular people, is often challenging. There's so much to worry about! Light,location,posing,expression, technical issues, backgrounds, focusing, DOF decision, on and on.