Portrait & Lighting C&C

Ballistics

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Ok so I started practicing for my wife's make up portfolio tonight. I think I'm on the right track, but I have very little experience with lighting and portraiture. I've been here for a few months but I'm very green in this area.

I want the nitty gritty C&C for this.


Talia1 by The Photo Major, on Flickr

How is the lighting? Composition? Pose?
 
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You also need to keep an eye on the DOF. In that pic, the eyes are wonderfully sharp, but her nose is fuzzy.
 
What are you trying to emphasize? Is it her face in general or is it a specific application of makeup? Everything should be geared toward the answer to that question.

As it stands right now her face is the main area of focus. Her hair, especially on the sides, is a bit underexposed. There is also a hot spot on her right cheek and on her lips. The focus is perfect on her eyes but her nose and ears are starting to get soft. Finally, the white cords on her shirt are distracting. The dark color of her shirt keeps attention on the face but those white bars keep drawing my eyes away.

It's a very good start and with a few tweaks I think you are very close to what you want to achieve.
 
I did use f/2.8 but I did also use guassian blur. I'm experimenting on touching up the skin. Not good at it, but I have to start somewhere.


Talia2 by The Photo Major, on Flickr

Here is the shot without the blur effect. You are right though, the nose is out of the DOF.

Good call on the hoodie strings.
 
What are you trying to emphasize? Is it her face in general or is it a specific application of makeup? Everything should be geared toward the answer to that question.

Depending on the shot, it will either be the hair or makeup or both. Here I took the shot with just make up/face in mind.

As it stands right now her face is the main area of focus. Her hair, especially on the sides, is a bit underexposed. There is also a hot spot on her right cheek and on her lips. The focus is perfect on her eyes but her nose and ears are starting to get soft. Finally, the white cords on her shirt are distracting. The dark color of her shirt keeps attention on the face but those white bars keep drawing my eyes away.

I didn't even think about the hoodie or the wardrobe in general. Definitely going to have to do some research in that regard.

It's a very good start and with a few tweaks I think you are very close to what you want to achieve.

Ok great. Now to figure out what those tweaks are lol. Thanks for your input :)
 

Thank you for the link. Definitely good stuff here.

This is a pretty cool learning experience, although I do feel like I am trying to run before I walk. Luckily I haven't set any dates or anything like that so I can take my time and really learn my lighting set up.
 
How would I eliminate hot spots?
 
The same! I think is beautiful but the ears over all are fussy. Ah! And maybe like a women who wants to see the make up I would try to see another angle.. To see more the make up in the eyes over all the shadows (the color she put in the eyes, I dont know in english!)
 
The same! I think is beautiful but the ears over all are fussy. Ah! And maybe like a women who wants to see the make up I would try to see another angle.. To see more the make up in the eyes over all the shadows (the color she put in the eyes, I dont know in english!)

You're very right. :) When she is looking up to the camera, all the makeup on her eyes is lost. If I'm looking to see her eye shadow, I won't get anything useful from this. I do think it's an overall nice shot of your wife, though. :)
 
The makeup she has on now is faint and neutral to begin with, this shot was to test the lighting and pose etc. Each make up style would have to have a different pose I'm assuming.
 

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