My daughter decided to model for me to practice my OCF work....C&C please

[JAC526]

Hello,

I used one light positioned above her and pointed down. I used a grid spot to focus in on just her face. I am looking for feedback on the lighting, DOF and color. I feel like my white balance and color editing skills kind of suck so any C&C will be much appreciated.


untitled-7887 by JChick526, on Flickr


untitled-7886 by JChick526, on Flickr

and for fun my dog decided to photo-bomb us:


untitled-7890 by JChick526, on Flickr

Thanks for looking,

Joe

 

[myko5]

I will skip the technical critique as I don't feel my skill is that enough to provide it correctly. But, I just had to tell you I laughed when I saw the dog in the 3rd picture.

 

[JAC526]

I will skip the technical critique as I don't feel my skill is that enough to provide it correctly. But, I just had to tell you I laughed when I saw the dog in the 3rd picture.

Yeah it was a lucky accident. I laughed so hard when he did it. Earlier today I was using him as my model and it was almost like I had hurt his feelings by leaving him out.

Made me crack up.

 

[jwbryson1]

FWIW, I will offer my comments.

These all appear underexposed to me. The "white" areas on the blanket (?) appear gray. I'm also not fond of the way the light shines on her face. It gives her a "greasy" or sweaty look--I don't mean to sound overly critical on that but I find it distracting. The big wrinkle on her shirt under her chin is distracting. I find the colors to be overly saturated.

My my $0.02. YMMV.

 

[janineh]

FWIW, I will offer my comments.

These all appear underexposed to me. The "white" areas on the blanket (?) appear gray. I'm also not fond of the way the light shines on her face. It gives her a "greasy" or sweaty look--I don't mean to sound overly critical on that but I find it distracting. The big wrinkle on her shirt under her chin is distracting. I find the colors to be overly saturated.

My my $0.02. YMMV.

Same...

 

[JAC526]

FWIW, I will offer my comments.

These all appear underexposed to me. The "white" areas on the blanket (?) appear gray. I'm also not fond of the way the light shines on her face. It gives her a "greasy" or sweaty look--I don't mean to sound overly critical on that but I find it distracting. The big wrinkle on her shirt under her chin is distracting. I find the colors to be overly saturated.

My my $0.02. YMMV.

I agree the shine on her face is distracting. I'm going to up the exposure a bit and see what I get and re-post. I however didn't add any saturation boosts.

Would a softer light help with the shine? I tried moving around to get an angle where I wasn't getting that direct reflection but was not successful.

 

[JAC526]

Yeah I'm not really sure how I didn't notice the wrinkle. Probably just too zeroed in on figuring out the OCF portion to the detriment of the basics.

 

[JAC526]

With a half a stop of added exposure:


IMG_7887-2 by JChick526, on Flickr


IMG_7886-1 by JChick526, on Flickr


IMG_7890-3 by JChick526, on Flickr

Thank you for your honest critique as it is one of the ways I will improve.

-- Joe

 

[651stp]

i would lower the clarity down just a smidge too to soften the skin a tad more. works well for babies

 

[JAC526]

i would lower the clarity down just a smidge too to soften the skin a tad more. works well for babies

Thanks for the tip. I tried it and I think I agree with you.

 

[OLaA]

I think a modifier like soft box or shoot through umbrella would soften up the highlights on the face. You can also maybe use something to bounce the light on her instead. Since the flash is off camera you may want to play different angles, you might find someone more flattering or unique.

As far as DOF, I can't really comment since everything besides the parts of black are on the same plane. It's a bit hard though when they're do young and can't hold themselves up.

Other than that, beautiful baby, and the dog also made me laugh.

 

[651stp]

heres a quick dirty edit that i did just to soften up the skin a little, changed the color temp a tad bit and very very small amount of contrast. Hope its okay with you

 

[JAC526]

I think a modifier like soft box or shoot through umbrella would soften up the highlights on the face. You can also maybe use something to bounce the light on her instead. Since the flash is off camera you may want to play different angles, you might find someone more flattering or unique.

As far as DOF, I can't really comment since everything besides the parts of black are on the same plane. It's a bit hard though when they're do young and can't hold themselves up.

Other than that, beautiful baby, and the dog also made me laugh.

Thanks so much. Wish I could of got the dog in focus. If I'd been thinking I'd of jacked the iso and stopped the aperture down. With softer modifiers I was worried about light spilling onto the background which was very close.

Guess I just need to practice my placement.

 

[JAC526]

heres a quick dirty edit that i did just to soften up the skin a little, changed the color temp a tad bit and very very small amount of contrast. Hope its okay with you

View attachment 25255

Absolutely. Thanks for taking the time.

 

[sactown024]

heres a quick dirty edit that i did just to soften up the skin a little, changed the color temp a tad bit and very very small amount of contrast. Hope its okay with you

View attachment 25255

its amazing what editing does, nice edit.