More Jessica

[Granddad]

Last month I posted a couple of shots of Jessica who did a shoot with us. Here's another one from that set. There's one aspect I'm a little unsure about. I won't say what it is so I can see if anyone else feels the same way.

 

[tirediron]

Very nice image Mark! The highlights from your hairlight (back, camera right) are a bit intense IMO, and I'm not sure about the way her arms sort of appear between the two layers of fur especially her right as it has a sort of disembodied look, but overall, a great image with which both you and she should be well pleased.

 

[Granddad]

Very nice image Mark! The highlights from your hairlight (back, camera right) are a bit intense IMO, and I'm not sure about the way her arms sort of appear between the two layers of fur especially her right as it has a sort of disembodied look, but overall, a great image with which both you and she should be well pleased.

It was the right arm that concerned me,too, John. Well spotted! I'll see if I can bring the highlights down a bit over that side. I tried covering her right arm in photoshop but I half think it looks even more awkward... but then I've been staring at it for too long!

 

[tirediron]

I think I like the second one better; the crisper look to the processing is definitely an improvement, and the missing arm doesn't seem to be missing. I think the wrap works.

 

[Rick50]

That's not fair. You have already discussed the two points I was going to make.
Pretty good job Granddad.

 

[jcdeboever]

Excellent. What a great lesson for people wanting to improve. Thank you men.

 

[The_Traveler]

There is another point that bothered me.
Either her face is pointed over your right shoulder or her nose is off to one side. (note that one side of her nose is more visible than the other.)

 

[tirediron]

That's not fair. You have already discussed the two points I was going to make.
Pretty good job Granddad.

 

[tirediron]

There is another point that bothered me.
Either her face is pointed over your right shoulder or her nose is off to one side. (note that one side of her nose is more visible than the other.)

Okay..... given that this isn't an executive headshot, do you really want her staring right down the lens?

 

[The_Traveler]

I noticed it, that's all.
I leave it to portrait guys to decide if that's what they want.

 

[tirediron]

Fair enough.

 

[Granddad]

That's not fair. You have already discussed the two points I was going to make.
Pretty good job Granddad.

Thanks Rick.

Excellent. What a great lesson for people wanting to improve. Thank you men.

This is my photo uni and these guys are my tutors.

There is another point that bothered me.
Either her face is pointed over your right shoulder or her nose is off to one side. (note that one side of her nose is more visible than the other.)

You're right Lew, she probably was looking over my right shoulder a little. My wife acts as my posing assistant and I've (finally!) trained her to sit behind me so my subject's eyes aren't looking off into the wilderness. I still have to remind them frequently to look directly into the lens if that's the shot I'm looking for. The slight facial angle doesn't bother me in this one but it's a point I need to look out for, thanks. Although her eyes are looking directly into the lens, in the original one of her eyes was noticeably a little more open than the other, I put the shot through Portrait Pro to fix that.

 

[Derrel]

What I notice is that the "base" of the portrait covers almost the entire width of a horizontal frame, in light-colored fur against a jet black backdrop, which gives her this immensely wide feeling, made more wide by the hair streaming outwardly toward the edges of the frame. This is what is called an arm pose, but the way the arm and hand are positioned is not delicate or feminine, and the head is rather a small element atop this massive expanse of the white fur on the posing table, and the rabbit-fur wrap she's wearing. The things I noticed were the odd horizontal framing, and the direct, square-shouldered positioning to the camera/lens axis, which makes her look very wide. The cloning-in of the fur makes the width look much worse; leaving both arms in shows more of "her", and lessens the width-of-the-frame effect that the second, cloned-in fur shot creates.

Overall, this is just not a good framing or a good arm pose. Her chin is below the middle of the horizontal frame, and the hand and arm under the chin , both,appear very big: her arm width at the bottom of the frame actually measures out to be wider than the widest part of her face, which indicates rather severe foreshortening and enlarging of the width of her arm, indicating too-close a camera position, and/or too-short of a focal length. To me, that is the second-worse thing: the measured width of the arm in comparison to the width of the face at the widest part (foreshortening and exaggeration of the arm and hand).

 

[Granddad]

Valid points on the width Derrel and the way the fur and hair arrangement emphasises that, which I will keep in mind for my next shoot. Focal length was 98mm so I think I was a fair distance away, I was shooting from my hallway into my dining room/studio. She probably had her elbow too far forward.

Her chin is only just below the center line but I purposely had her eyes right on the upper 1/3rd line, I see as I look at in LR again moving her chin up a little does make an improvement.

I still like the shot but I can see that it's not one to repeat (I can't UNsee the width now). The sheepskin rug was too much at the same time as my wife's old 1980's power shoulder rabbit jacket... AND the square to the camera pose.

 

[FITBMX]

Very nicely done!