Maternity, C&C

beeschmidt · Apr 3, 2012

Hello! My name is Brittany, I have been shooting as a hobbyist for over a year now.. this was a portfolio shot I did, and was looking for some C&C before I post it. I had it ready to go up (Hence the watermark) but something seems off to me and I can not put my finger on it. Thanks!

Mrgiggls · Apr 3, 2012

Hi and welcome.

This is a very good photo from a composition standpoint (compose a smidge more to the right to get a bit more of the back of the arm in the shot). The only thing that bothers me is the lighting.
This is a uni-directional contrast shot which is fine. Except for the window really blew the highlights and thus sort of took over the metering of your camera leaving you with a shot that has too wide a gap between shadows and highlights.

You can use an off camera flash to correct this. You'd want an umbrella/soft box to make your external light source as big as possible and keep the lines soft. Place it to your left and in-between you and the subject, so that the shadows are still being cast from the same side as the window light. And you probably don't want the flash at full power. What you want is for the flash to light your subject more but still give the same shadows thereby taking the window light down and bringing in shadow detail, without it being a traditional fill light which would change the dynamic of the uni-directional play of light and shadow.

Edit: Without the benefit of a unbrella/soft box....you could try using a camera mounted speedlight with a difuser aimed at the ceiling and bouncing some light onto the subject.

beeschmidt · Apr 3, 2012

Thank you! I actually had my speedlight on, but I was trying to go for more of a silhouette shot, which obviously failed. The sun was coming directly through the window, thank you for the comments though. I will remember that for next time.. I had my Umbrella in front of her belly, (which actually worked well for another pose in the same spot)

Mrgiggls · Apr 3, 2012

beeschmidt said:
Thank you! I actually had my speedlight on, but I was trying to go for more of a silhouette shot, which obviously failed. The sun was coming directly through the window, thank you for the comments though. I will remember that for next time.. I had my Umbrella in front of her belly, (which actually worked well for another pose in the same spot)

Ah I see. I think that having the umbrella directly in front of your subject might have done more harm than good. You'd want some light on the shadowed portion of the subject. Remember that the sunlight in the window will be the dominant light source by far. All you want to do is get enough light on your model so that you can back off your exposure for the sake of the window light not nuking your shot.