Photo night with the girls

[squirrels]

I had the best little photo girls night with my photography pal and a lovely model! Playing with my friend's monolights has given me something new to covet.

I wish I'd used better separation/rim lighting, and despite being steeped in creative live, I struggle with good posing direction.

Please C&C harshly re lighting and posing and post processing. We were shooting for timeless, did I hit dated instead?

1.


2.

3.

4.




Also, this birdcage netting is giving me some sort of weird purple effect instead of white. Any advice on how to remove that cast in post so it doesn't look like fishing line for catfish?

 

[crimbfighter]

I'm afraid I don't have much to offer for #1. The more I stared at it, the more detail started coming out as my pupils adjusted to the dark image. When the white background of the website is blocked, there really is much more detail that at first glance. I like it, but wish maybe it was a tad brighter?

#2 I think I would really like this one if her head were turned to the right, and maybe looking back toward the camera, or downward to the right, sort of looking off to nowhere. I'm not feeling it much the way it is, though. I don't feel like it has much visual interest without seeing her face. It kinda feels like you're advertising her hairdo.

#3 I really like the concept in this one! I wish her eyes were open, though, and looking right through the mesh. As for the purple you're speaking of, I'm not seeing it. But it could be CA.

#4 Her right arm feels unnatural. Perhaps if she were touching her face, or maybe just putting it down to her hip? Otherwise the lighting looks really good for this pose.

Those are just my opinions, your style may vary!

 

[Derrel]

1. It's got a lot of dead space on the right. Make it a tall, or crop it square. Something needs to be done on the composition to make it sing. Brightening the shadows up a bit would be nice too I think.
2. Hair bun from behind. Seems kind of faraway. Not a lot going on there.
3. B&W with hair netting. Nicely done, interesting and well-suired to her and her expression. Seems very gray and somber. Could be re-worked or altered, manipulated many different ways and it would still be the same very pleasing image!
4. The lightest part being her arm is a bit, just a tiny bit, less-than-perfect. Her chest and cleavage draw a lot of attention due to brightness. Her left (camera right) elbow has a tiny highlight on it, which adds. I think her face in profile would have benefitted from brightening, either through a gridded light or a small snoot and a dash of light. THis looks like a posed figure study. It's not too bad. Not perfect, in that the arm being so important seems weird, but hey...for just a test session, it's a nice picture, and it has some pleasing qualities.

One thing I would say is that what you are seeing on your end in editing these might be different than what other people are seeing, if perhaps your monitor is really low-contrast and has its brightness set kind of high.

Veiling material CAN easily cause really strong chromatic aberration (color fringing). Maybe you could remove it in Lightroom?

 

[squirrels]

Derrel and Crimbfighter, Thanks so so much for your feedback guys! I think you guys are hitting the nail on the head in terms of areas that need improvement here and it really helps to have someone there to point these things out! :mrgreen:

I do have a series of veil shots, but the netting kept catching eyebrows in a lot of them and making things wonky. I'll need to keep a closer eye out for that next time. I'll mess around some more and see if I can sort the color cast issues. Here's one where the lashes weren't caught, but the image hasn't gone through the wringer yet and I don't know how I feel about that sparkly over the pupil.


And you are on the money in terms of the right arm. Scanning through our shots, it looks like we were trying to turn her into Rosy the Riveter, and this just wasn't a Rosy the Riveter evening. This afternoon I've been filling my "ideas" folder with pictures including what to do with hands and arms, and taking notes from you guys on how to get better. :thumbup:


You rock!
Thanks!!
Cherie

 

[EIngerson]

That would make these Squirrels girls. lol. Very nice.

 

[squirrels]

That would make these Squirrels girls. lol. Very nice.

I tried so hard to come up with a good rhyming response to that. I've got nothing useful... curls, hurls, referrals...

 

[tirediron]

Harsh C&C per req:

1. You key light is too far from the subject or not diffused enough, causing excessive specularity on the cheek and forehead. I see what you were going for here (I think) but IMO, it just misses; either a little more fill image right, or none at all. I would also go for a square crop on this; having her look frame left with all of the empty space to the right feels 'wrong' to me.


2. Lighting is spot on; I love the way she merges with the background, and the exposure on her hair and back is ideal. I do wish though you'd hidden her right hand in front of her.

3. I think this one would work if it weren't grey. Either full colour, or a nice, crips black & white, but in this, she just looks... ummm.. dead.

4. Great lighting here; my only nit is I think if you'd brought your key around just a bit so that the highlight on her arm wasn't quite so pronounced, this would have been perfect, lighting-wise., posing... not so much. Again, I see what you wanted to acheive, but to be honest, she looks to me like a body-builder doing a bicep flex and the shoes are so dark that I had to look at the largest version to see what they were.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John