My first Model shoot (please C & C)

[katanapilot]

I must say I was very intimidated to shoot a perfect stranger, it felt very unnatural and me not having experience in this stuff makes it even more of a challenge. We went out this afternoon for evening shots, here are some shots of her/downtown. For those of you out there help out, what do you think so far? (Need advice)

 

[AmericanJesus]

Ok,

So, the background was brighter then the model. So, i bumped the contrast some, burned the background and dodged her face a little. Also since you had cut off her feet i cropped in closer to her face, thats just a move i make cause i have some sort of compulsion about feet being cut off.

 

[tirediron]

C&C per req:

In the future, please number your images to make critique easier.

Since there are so many, I'm not going to comment on each image, but rather make generalizations.

The first thing that strikes me is that this young lady hasn't had much experience as a model; she seems very stiff, and while the ideas for the poses are good, they don't appear natural. Additionally (and I think most importantly) there are many where she's looking away from the camera. You don't always want her looking straight down the lens, but generally at least toward the cameara.

In the first group (On the grass by the river/lake) There are two issues. (1) is the lighting which looks to me like a single on-camera flash resulting in flat, boring light, and under-exposed images and (2) is the DoF; there's way too much of it. We don't care about the buildings in the background, we want to focus on the model. Unfortunately, all your EXIF data is gone, so I don't know what settings were used, but I would suggest opening up much wider. You want the model in sharp focus and the background a soft, somewhat amorphous blur. Lighting I think should have been at least two strobes, and probably a reflector as well to provide more even coverage. I'm not a big fan of this sort of work at this time of day, because of how difficult it is to make you lighting look natural.

The second group (Palm trees, wearing blue top) are better; the lighting is more appropriate and doesn't look so synthetic.

The last group (Red shorts, striped shirt) I don't really like at all; the combination of the clothes, the high-heel shoes, and the poses/location all say one thing to me. If this was the look you were going for then, well done, otherwise, I don't think they're good shots; technically they're fine but...

One other important area is that of cropping. Many of these images have small bits cropped off. Finger-tips, toes, etc. For example, #s 35 and 91 are both missing fingertips. It's fine to crop limbs, but not at joints, or "little bits" which rather make one think that the photographer wasn't paying attention.

All of that aside, I think you've made a heck of a good start. With a little more lighting, and a little more practice for both you and the model, you'll be turning in some top-notch images.

Just my $00.02 worth - your milage may vary.

~John

 

[Renair]

Pretty much what John said.....

 

[Dikkie]

It's a cute woman ! :heart:

 

[katanapilot]

C&C per req:

In the future, please number your images to make critique easier.

Since there are so many, I'm not going to comment on each image, but rather make generalizations.

The first thing that strikes me is that this young lady hasn't had much experience as a model; she seems very stiff, and while the ideas for the poses are good, they don't appear natural. Additionally (and I think most importantly) there are many where she's looking away from the camera. You don't always want her looking straight down the lens, but generally at least toward the cameara.

In the first group (On the grass by the river/lake) There are two issues. (1) is the lighting which looks to me like a single on-camera flash resulting in flat, boring light, and under-exposed images and (2) is the DoF; there's way too much of it. We don't care about the buildings in the background, we want to focus on the model. Unfortunately, all your EXIF data is gone, so I don't know what settings were used, but I would suggest opening up much wider. You want the model in sharp focus and the background a soft, somewhat amorphous blur. Lighting I think should have been at least two strobes, and probably a reflector as well to provide more even coverage. I'm not a big fan of this sort of work at this time of day, because of how difficult it is to make you lighting look natural.

The second group (Palm trees, wearing blue top) are better; the lighting is more appropriate and doesn't look so synthetic.

The last group (Red shorts, striped shirt) I don't really like at all; the combination of the clothes, the high-heel shoes, and the poses/location all say one thing to me. If this was the look you were going for then, well done, otherwise, I don't think they're good shots; technically they're fine but...

One other important area is that of cropping. Many of these images have small bits cropped off. Finger-tips, toes, etc. For example, #s 35 and 91 are both missing fingertips. It's fine to crop limbs, but not at joints, or "little bits" which rather make one think that the photographer wasn't paying attention.

All of that aside, I think you've made a heck of a good start. With a little more lighting, and a little more practice for both you and the model, you'll be turning in some top-notch images.

Just my $00.02 worth - your milage may vary.

~John

Hey John


Thanks for the input man, I really appreciate it... again I am all ears, (or eyes in this case) It has been a year since I got this SLR, so all this info is all welcome, I think all the EXIF data was removed when I exported in LR. I was using a SB800 on D80 and SB600 on a umbrella remote. I will have cory post some of his, I bet his look much better, they were having more interaction.