Liz

[Danimal_Inc]

I've been wanting to do some people/portrait photography, and one of my good friends, Liz, let me try my hand at it on her, and take some shots of her. It was a great experience, telling her how i wanted her and where she should be, i left her facial expressions mostly up to her, i mad stupid jokes and stuff to get a genuine smile out of her, anyway, here are the shots:

c&c please, be brutally honest

 

[Big Mike]

Pretty good.

I would suggest tighter crops for several of them, but that's subject to taste.

 

[NJMAN]

I have some specific critiques on these that may be helpful when doing this again in the future.

#1, Too much area on the top. I would crop it down so that it comes to about an inch above her head. Good background light, but her face is too dark. You can use fill flash or a reflector to throw some soft light back in the face.

#2, the setting is beautiful, but if you want a good outdoor portrait, it would help to zoom in on the subject more. Again, more light is needed on the subject's face.

#3, the sunglasses don't work in this one IMO. If you are focusing this close on the subject's face, we want to see the eyes. Besides that, there are shadows on the face that distract the viewer again.

#4, Much better. You have some good ambient light going on in this one. Its soft and gives some shape and contour to her face.

#5, Nice pose, but I would definitely get in closer here, so that you focus on the upper body and particularly the face. It helps a lot when the subject looks at the camera in this type of pose as well, so that the viewer gets a connection. Lighting is not bad again.

#6, Kinda cool, but need to get close again.

#7, NICE focus on the face, but too much area on the top again. Also, dont cut off the elbows. Good lighting, and background elements were kept to a minimum. Good job.

#8, Again, nice focus and good lighting. Too much area on the top and don't cut off the fingers on the bottom.

#9, Cute pose. Again, too much area on top, and there are a few distracting background elements in the yard over the fence.

#10, Nice ambient light. Maybe needs a bit more contrast and color. The cinder block wall and garage door don't do anything good for the background.

A couple more general things. 1) You may want to do some post processing and work on smoothing out the lines a bit on her forehead, especially in the closeup shots. Nothing drastic, but just enough so that we are not focusing on the lines, but on her eyes. Its all about the eyes in portraits. 2) Be sure to number your pics, so we can reference them easily.

Lovely model. Would like to see another shoot of her if you can.

NJ

 

[wildmaven]

I love the eyelash shadows in #3. Some of the poses are, well, too posed and not natural enough. When she relaxes her body, as in the one with the brick wall opening (#6), she becomes very beautiful.

 

[Danimal_Inc]

thank you very much for the comments. NJMAN thank you very much for the detailed comment. The funny thing is with her poses, they were mostly all her, I told her how to stand in the first two, but all of the others, she just got comfortable in whatever way she wanted and i snapped the photo.
i guess she just sits/leans uncomfortably

thank you again, keep them coming

 

[JimmyJaceyMom]

I pretty much was going ot say most of the stuff that NJMAN said.

And one added tip for you just to know for next time. When you have someone leaning on the arm the way you have in the last one, have them curve their elbow just a bit. It eliminates that unattractive bulginess that happens to almost all girls when they rest weight on that past of the arm. Did I say that right? Do you know what I mean?

Good job!

 

[NJMAN]

I pretty much was going ot say most of the stuff that NJMAN said.

And one added tip for you just to know for next time. When you have someone leaning on the arm the way you have in the last one, have them curve their elbow just a bit. It eliminates that unattractive bulginess that happens to almost all girls when they rest weight on that past of the arm. Did I say that right? Do you know what I mean?

Good job!

Good point Kathi!

 

[Freddeh]

I prefer the bottom series, with the polka dot top. The top series look as if they're a bit forced.

Gotta love those freckles!!

 

[Mesoam]

sorry for the off topic but i'm right near naugatuck is that a park nearby? any water features?

 

[Danimal_Inc]

the park is in Beacon Falls.
I should also state that these shots were taken with a Sony Alpha100 with the 100mm f2.8 macro lens. It had a hard time focusing in the woods, not sure why, frustrated me a bit

thank you all again...i would love to read more