my first boudoir shoot.

12sndsgood · Mar 13, 2012

Just the first two ive gone thru from my friend Daniell's boudoir shoot from last week. let me know what you think. how is the lighting? how is the shot in general? does it work? is it any good? only way i learn is by learning from my mistakes.

first was the wine glass shot. had hoped to get her a bit more out of focus and the wine and glass a bit more in focus. let me know if you think the shot works. it was something i thought up and was excited totry . (though im sure this shot has been done by people before.)

1.)

Danielle0001 by JayC photography, on Flickr

2.)

Danielle000X by JayC photography, on Flickr

i have a bunch more to go thru and clean up. may get to post a few more up down the line. but it may be a bit because im going to use this set to work on my photoshopping skills and learn some new things.

Bossy · Mar 13, 2012

#1, isn't flattering, and unless its a product shot for wine, isn't great as a b-shot. Her posture is almost head on to the camera and she looks very masculine. The color seems off. and the lighting is rather flat.

#2, her eyes look overprocessed. The lighting is nice enough though.

cgipson1 · Mar 13, 2012

Bossy said:
#1, isn't flattering, and unless its a product shot for wine, isn't great as a b-shot. Her posture is almost head on to the camera and she looks very masculine. The color seems off. and the lighting is rather flat.

#2, her eyes look overprocessed. The lighting is nice enough though.

+1

kundalini · Mar 13, 2012

My first thought scrolling down the image was that the crop at the top seemed awfully odd just above her lip.

Next was the cartoon fingers..... you know where they only draw three fingers?

Then the way she was holding the bottle (with her 3 fringers) square to the camera.

Really? Barefoot? At least get a decent wine.

Some gentle play with the liquify tool would be something to consider.

The glass is in a very good power point in the frame. Nice angle on the shoulders, however having one lower would have been better.

Bossy said:
...... Her posture is almost head on to the camera and she looks very masculine.

I'd say about 30° off lens axis.

Bossy · Mar 13, 2012

Ok, my mistake, its about 30 degrees off axis, but squared enough where she looks like a man.

Derrel · Mar 13, 2012

In the first shot she doesn't look AT ALL like a man to me...red lacy bra, lipstick, nail polish, belly button jewelry, long blonde hair touching a hairless chest....uhhh...some people need to go back and review what a MAN looks like...seriously.

In the second photo, I wish the shadow-side eyeball had a bigger, better catchlight from the softbox.

12sndsgood · Mar 14, 2012

okay guys/girls thanks for the comments. heres's my responces.

on the first one i thought the focus on the glass and having her soft and out of focus would make for a nice starting point in the set. she just wasnt as soft and out of focus as i wanted. i didnt have much distance to work with. she is masculine as far as her body. she works out at the gym pretty much every day and is built. she had contemplated going into body building contests at one point but didnt have the time to devote to it fully. so working with her i really have to try and find ways to keep her body soft . were actually going to do some fitness muscle shots of her next time were together.

I wasnt sure where i wanted to crop. i wasnt nessicarily going to show her face. it was more about her middle body and the wine. but cutting her off at the neck to me didnt work , so i wanted to include some of her face. keeping the nose in didnt seem rigth either, so i chose to crop at her lips. maybe i should have paid more attention to her fingers on the bottle. first few shots i didnt have her fingers in the shot and it just looked weird having the bottle sort of floating there.

im not familiar with the liquify toold. still learning my pp skills and havnt really gotten into any heavy editing. just the bare basics so far. hopefully with this set though im going to spend some more time and watch allot of videos to add a few more skills in that area.

as for the wine choice. she likes the stuff. and i wasnt going to spend allot of money on what i felt was a test shot.

i agree i should probalby tone down her eyes a little in the second one. wanted to go in as well and clean up the line around her contacts so thats not noticable. and havee to clean up that little portion of her bra on the bottom right side as well.

i was just excited to get these up because i liked how they turned out and compared to stuff i was doing 6 months ago i feel im really improving.

slackercruster · Mar 14, 2012

OK - but tell her to take that crap out her belly button.

Otherwise, nice work! Keep it up!

12sndsgood · Mar 14, 2012

she is real self concious about her stomach because she has had a kid she thinks the belly ring kind of distracts people from it. ive told her i think it draws peoples eyes to it. we just decided to agree to disagree about that lol.

MReid · Mar 14, 2012

1 you could crop it below her collar bone and just into her arm on the right...that lets you get away with clipping the fingers a little bit. I kind of like that shot....look like a guy, not so much ha.

2 looks good, crop above the material on the bottom, eye looks overcooked but that may be due to the extreme light angle.

Not bad.

shortpants · Mar 14, 2012

It's a boudoir shoot, why isn't she in a bed? I agree with most of the comments so far. Your lighting isn't bad but I think you missed the mark on boudoir completely. Her stomach looks great after having a kid. There are plenty of poses that would flatter or even hide it if she's uncomfortable. I'd be interested to see if you have any other shots completely different from these ones.

12sndsgood · Mar 14, 2012

well the second shot she is in bed. but these were just the first two i happened to pull out. i have tons more and will spend the next week or two working with them as i get time. i just wanted to throw these up there more for the wine shot just to see if people thought that specific shot worked or not.

Bossy · Mar 14, 2012

Snaps for trying a new concept

If you've got an ounce of artist in you, you might try doing some rough drawings of the image you want to make, that usually helps me with new concepts and framing and such

And her stomach is rockin' for having a babe

Another challenge with the champagne and glass is your reflections, they are kinda a mess.

ghache · Mar 14, 2012

she look masculine hahahahahahahahha, dude....
i agree that this have could be improve with another composition and different lighting but saying thats she look masculine is forcing it.

12sndsgood · Mar 14, 2012

I agree the reflections on the glass are a mess. Thinking about it its probably close to the only piece of glass I have really photographed, other then say a window. I am going to try this again down the line and hopefully improve on my results.

These two shots were basically the beginning of the session and the end of the session. i tried to photo her from a beginning to an end. We started in the kitchen pouring the wine. moved into the living room then down the hall, into the bedroom and then finished on the bed. I basically wanted to shoot it as if almost it was happening live and your following her thru the sequences. I will post more shots once I have time to sit down and get to editing them up. And then hopefully you will get to see that she can be quite feminine. And if that doesn't happen. then this shoot for me will go from being good to being a failure.

On a side note. B&H just delivered a bunch of new goodies so expect pics of my march christmas tonight