Little Roman Empress

[Steveathome]

Taken last Friday, the way she's holding her clothing and the clouds behind reminded me for some reason of Roman times. 4 Light set-up Key, Fill, Background, and Rim

Camera/lens iso as in the exif information below the image.

I was trying out a cheap Godox MS300v with QR-P70 softbox. I wanted to feather this light, but due to lack of space (my lounge) and reflectivity I decided to put a grid on this light. This was approx 45º to the subjects side and approx 45º looking down on subjects left, set @ f 8
I had a fill light set to f 4. I wanted to use my Elinchrom mid-octa for this, but again due to space limitation I actually used a white Beauty dish with translucent reflector and a sock. This was placed to the subjects right - but as close to the camera as possible without being in shot. The flash was an Elinchrom 250 BRXi.
The background light I tried to keep as far away as possible in an attempt to keep lighting as even as possible, this I used an Elinchrom 400BX set to f 8 centre of background. I used barn doors to try and keep spill to a minimum.
The rim light was an Elinchrom DLite 200 with a 50x130 stripbox with grid. This was set to f 4. This was on the left side of the image.
I had made a mistake and knocked the camera aperture setting from f 8 to f 7.1, but no damage done that couldn't be sorted in Photoshop raw.
I set a new camera profile and also used as grey balance with the colour checker classic.
The subject is my youngest granddaughter, I have seven other grandchildren that I hope to make a set of with similar effect. I was also trying out a new background, of which I brought down exposure a little so as not to overtake the subject.

I have in the past struggled to make my images pop, but am glad to say that this one printed and in a frame surpases the image on the screen.
I'm very happy with the outcome of this shoot, but am always looking to improve, so any constructive criticism/tips would be welcome.

I wish I had actually covered a little more background, but the way it turned out (more luck than judgement) I'm not too disappointed.
I like the way she is holding her dress, but sometimes when I look, it can look a little strange with the hand not being connected to anything, the more I look the worse it gets, am I being too critical?

 

[smoke665]

@Steveathome welcome to TPF, and the C&C Gallery. Unlike other galleries this is a place to go for answers rather than showcase your work, as such it is more restrictive in nature. You've mostly fulfilled the first requirement in the "Read First" note at the top of the gallery, but please come back to edit your post to include more insight into what you intended with the shot, specific questions or concerns, and where you feel it needs improvement. Learning to critique your own work objectively is a major step in development. Posts that do not conform to the guidelines will be moved or deleted.

 

[smoke665]

First thank you for adding the information, it really helps to direct the critique. What a little cutie.

I'm hoping others will chime in here, but to start it off, here's a few comments.

1. Composition - Your choice of background with the dark perimeter and lighter area directly behind her is a good choice. As with all backgrounds though, wrinkles are an issue, putting light on the background will accentuate both wrinkles and waves. I've spent a lot of time steaming, ironing and still had them show up, if you can stretch the background, it will help a lot. You mentioned space limitations, but moving your subject at least 6' -8' away will help to throw it more OOF thereby hiding them.
I'm somewhat ambivalent about the choice of landscape vs portrait. There's always the issue with the subject being a little cramped for space on anything over a head/shoulders shot.

I like the way she is holding her dress, but sometimes when I look, it can look a little strange with the hand not being connected to anything, the more I look the worse it gets, am I being too critical?

I don't think so. The only opinion I might offer relates to the space comment above on a landscape orientation, in this case the fingers are very close to the bottom edge, so much so, that I suspect when printed and framed, part of the fingers will get cut off.

2. Lighting - For the most part it is good. Young kids (especially blonde hair blue eye kids), tend to have very translucent skin, which can bring out the red under color on the cheeks. I typically strive for 2 to 1 ratio, f/8 on the key, f/5.6 on the fill to minimize that redness, and light up the skin. You have an appropriate placement on the key, but it appears the fill besides being under powered, was placed to far to the side, so much so that there's no catch light at all from it. When you do that you end up with uneven light on her right cheek with hot spots from the key light fall off. On your kicker, (this is just my personal taste), I like to have it on the same side as the key, powered just under the key, so that any errant fall off is hidden by the key.

3. Exposure and processing - looks good, I see you had it in PS, IMO a little smoothing and D&B on the cheeks would help. I like to use a simple frequency separation for smoothing that separates the color from the detail, allowing me to smooth without getting a plastic look, and a curves layer with mask for D&B.

 

[JTPhotographics]

I think you have handled this very well. Nice catch lights in the eyes, great color and I agree with Smoke, background color and subject colors work well.

Skin tones have turned out really nice and you have maintained the mottling that appears in the skin tones of children which tells me its unlikely you have used any form of digital skin smoothing.

Her eye color is great too.

I don't have anything of real substance to provide in the way of improvement, the only thing that catches my eye is the wave/wrinkle in the background top left of image.

Well done.