Last Night's Shoot - C&C

[MissCream]

Can you post an original, I want to try my hand at editing it if you don't mind

 

[etnad0]

Can you post an original, I want to try my hand at editing it if you don't mind

The green screen shot is the original.

 

[MissCream]

Yeah but on the flikr account it's only viewable at that size which is too small to edit.

 

[etnad0]

Yeah but on the flikr account it's only viewable at that size which is too small to edit.

Oh ok, I'm registering a new website tonight. Send me a PM and I'll upload the file to the server for editing.

 

[RebeccaAPhotography]

Oh ok, I'm registering a new website tonight. Send me a PM and I'll upload the file to the server for editing.

You can upload originals to flickr. That's what a good chunk of us do. Maybe it's the file size you uploaded?

 

[MLeeK]

It's really underexposed and you haven't really fixed that problem in the post processing of it.

Still have to get light room, but I'll definitely add more light next time. Everything looked over exposed to me at the time of shooting. I'm not sure, but under exposure seems to be more forgiving than over exposure in post, but I may be wrong. I'll keep working on getting it right.

What does LightRoom have to do with it? You obviously used something to post process, but didn't actually fix the poor exposure. Before you get to do the creative stuff you have to have the image in good standards. Then you play to your heart's content.

Why on Earth would you not raise your ISO on this? You could have gotten good exposure easily AND gotten it without having to use such a ridiculously low shutter speed which would have resulted in much better focus.

Now that I know I'll definitely keep that in mind for next time.




I'm still learning the technical stuff. Remember, I just upgraded to a DSLR on December 1. It's been just over 30 days and my previous camera was a point and shoot for the most part. This is also my first photo shoot with a full manual camera, so I'm making mistakes, which I'll learn from. Other than it looking right in the live view, I can't really say why I chose it. I went with the combination that looked right.
Stop looking at the image on the screen. Turn it off if you must. ONLY read the histogram and the highlight warnings. If you expose to the point before you have a blow out you will have great results to work with in post. You will also not have a major noise issue-probably ever. If you underexpose you will have more issues boosting in post process. It will really bring out any noise that is present and even add more. Not to mention that it can really skew your colors when you raise in post. Here is some good reading on ETTR http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml


Had to LOL when I read this. She is thick. She's a plus size model, but she only does it as a hobby. She's smaller than most plus size models and definitely bigger than the usual size models.

Plus size model or not, your JOB as a photographer is to accentuate her to the fullest. Not make her look fuller than she is. Don't excuse the error because she's a plus size model. It's an error on your part flat out and something you MUST learn or a regular client will NOT be happy.

You need to have some of the belly to give a better perspective and make her look less thick. The fact that the arm in the foreground points toward the camera makes it also appear much thicker than it should. Look at the parts of her body here. That arm is HUGE compared to the rest of her. Much larger than her head even.
The positioning of the face is good overall in having that little bit of the other side of her face. I'd prefer she were looking toward camera left so that the far eye's iris wasn't attached to the nose so much.

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind for future shoots. Now that I know better I can do better.

the position of the far arm is good-the head is hiding any thickness there and allowing you to hide some of the arm. I'd still probably liquify some of the arm at the bottom towards the shoulder and that little bit of fat roll/muscle roll between the far bra strap and the arm. It's natural even on the thinnest of women, but it's something a woman would see and immediately say it looks like "I'm fat" when they aren't.

She doesn't mind looking "fat". She actually embraces it, but I do get your point. Luckily for me she doesn't mind who she is and is comfortable in her own skin.

Refer to what I said a couple of lines up.
The mistake is a good one and one you needed to make to learn. That's what this is-a learning process. You have learned a lot of what NOT to do, how about some tricks? She's a great model for you to work with in your learning process if she's a plus size or almost plus size. If you become adept at posing her for flattery you will be able to pose nearly anyone. Besides all women think they're fat and love an image that really hides what they THINK is wrong with them.
For a plus or even borderline plus model you want to shoot from above eye level and even higher. It hides A LOT. You often want to strategically hide parts of arms, bellies, etc. You always want to have a gap between the arm and body to accentuate the line of the body. A slight turn to the side can really hide a lot of thickness. Arms are always a problem for women and if you can learn tricks to hide what they think is flab you will be much loved. With boudoir sheer fabric about 6 feet or more in length in red, black and white should be a standard in your kit. It gives you lots of "peek-a-boo" sexy with ANY model and it's a Godsend with the plus sizes.

.

 

[oldmacman]

Here's my take on your shot plus some of the feedback you have received.

 

[GnipGnop]

Her skin almost looks computer generated.

 

[MissCream]

Quick edit with a small picture

 

[GnipGnop]

That looks better, especially in her arm pit. I don't like the elbow though. It looks too artificial and lacks detail.

Her eyes look much better, and you removed what looks like a moustache from the pic above yours. I'm not sure if I like her hair that soft though...
hmmm...

 

[MissCream]

That looks better, especially in her arm pit. I don't like the elbow though. It looks too artificial and lacks detail.

Her eyes look much better, and you removed what looks like a moustache from the pic above yours. I'm not sure if I like her hair that soft though...
hmmm...

It's a super small picture, I didn't add softness to her hair or elbow, just looks that way I actually sharpened it :S

 

[GnipGnop]

Compared to oldmacmans? Really?

 

[MissCream]

Compared to oldmacmans? Really?

Really lol
I'm not lying I promise! I sharpened her eyes, bra and hair. I'll over sharpen it and upload it again to see if it looks better

Yeah it still looks soft and it is sharpened beyond ever necessary.

 

[brush]

One of the trends I'm noticing on this forum is people saying over & over that they don't want to move their ISO up because of noise. That makes no sense to me, people ruin pictures with motion blur and under-exposure trying to avoid an undiscernible amount of tiny little pixelation they're never going to see in a million years unless zoomed in to 100% or printed on a giant poster. I'm not saying that an ISO of 6400 is called for in normal situations, but if you set your ISO to 400 and repeat this shot, you'll have much better exposure with no motion blur and the noise you experience will be so minimal that if you said it was 100 nobody would ever call you out on the noise.

I agree with you 100%. In the live view 400 looked way over exposed to me. Maybe what I'm seeing as overexposure is actually proper exposure, so next time I'll do one at a higher ISO and one at a low ISO and post both pics. That way I can gauge what it should look like on my end as I take the photo.

Did you leave your shutter speed at 1/20 when it looked over exposed at 400? That's way too slow & will almost definitely over-expose with a higher ISO, the whole point of increasing the ISO is so you don't have to use such a slow shutter. First set your ISO & aperture, then increase the shutter speed to get the right exposure. Personally I wouldn't bother using live view for this, stick with the view finder. You know how to use the built in light meter right? That's a better way to set your exposure than live view.

 

[oldmacman]

Her skin almost looks computer generated.

*shrug* NR on a super small pic. 533 px on the long side.