Portrait Session this past weekend C&C Please!

[Rudipides]

A good friend of mine posed for portrait session this weekend. She really liked the photos.
Please C&C if you will.


#1




#2


Thanks

 

[nicholaskong]

They are all good

 

[tirediron]

C&C per req:

1. The composition is a little too centered for my taste; I would suggest cropping away a good chunk of the RH side and avoid posing people, especially women, square to the camera ("football shouldes"). Also, consider the use of a reflector in cases like this to bring more light onto the face and reduce the highlights on the hair. You definitely want some, but in this case I think you have too much of a good thing.

2. This is a nice casual image, but again the eyes are a little dark; fill light whether a flash or reflector would have helped a lot here. Not sure about the 'hands in the pockets' pose. IT seems a little awkward, but the angle of her body is much nicer than in #1.

3. Face is grossly under-exposed. The expression is good, but with all of the bright areas, the eye is pulled away from her as soon as it moves onto the image (remember, the human eye is always attracted to light over dark).

It's a nice set, but a simple reflector or speedlight would have taken these from 'nice' to 'WOW!'.

Just my $00.02 worth - YMMV

~John

 

[abovenormphotos]

Love no 2. I like the light and shadows. The background is great. But it sorta xUses her hair to get merged into it.

 

[ronlane]

C&C per req:

1. The composition is a little too centered for my taste; I would suggest cropping away a good chunk of the RH side and avoid posing people, especially women, square to the camera ("football shouldes"). Also, consider the use of a reflector in cases like this to bring more light onto the face and reduce the highlights on the hair. You definitely want some, but in this case I think you have too much of a good thing.

2. This is a nice casual image, but again the eyes are a little dark; fill light whether a flash or reflector would have helped a lot here. Not sure about the 'hands in the pockets' pose. IT seems a little awkward, but the angle of her body is much nicer than in #1.

3. Face is grossly under-exposed. The expression is good, but with all of the bright areas, the eye is pulled away from her as soon as it moves onto the image (remember, the human eye is always attracted to light over dark).

It's a nice set, but a simple reflector or speedlight would have taken these from 'nice' to 'WOW!'.

Just my $00.02 worth - YMMV

~John

^^This, but I don't mind the composition in #1 as much as John. I would rate the #2, #1 and then #3 (it needs more exposure.). I can see that she would like them.

 

[Rudipides]

Thanks for the replies guys.

 

[vintagesnaps]

John's spot on with his critique, he knows his stuff. I think the first two have a little more background than you need. The first one is lovely but I'd crop some, and I'd look at the bottom of the photo. I would have either had her roll the sleeves down a bit or framed a little differently to not get just the edge of her skin below the sleeve, that seems to make her seem cut off.

I like the second background too with her in denim, but vignetting to me seems to give a feeling of being closed in; again I'd just crop it some but it does look nice and straight which is something to watch for I find with geometric backgrounds (brick, stone, wood etc.).

I find the lighting in the third can be tricky if your camera's metering for the bright light off in the distance. I usually lower the camera and meter for the area that's say maybe several feet in front of me that I'll be photographing and then reframe. I sometimes too will bracket shots (although I do that more often if I'm shooting B&W film) to get a photo according to the meter reading, then one with the exposure increased by one setting by adjusting either shutter speed or aperture, then another with the exposure decreased by one. (If that makes sense! lol)

These are nice photos, just some adjustment might make them a bit better.

 

[Rudipides]

@Vintagesnaps Thanks for the advice. I didn't even think about the sleeves in #1. #3 was totally bad exposure on my part. I will definitely try your idea of metering several feet in front of me. Good advice.

 

[Pejacre]

Everything John said - perfect critique. Just to add I really love the choice of bg in 2.

 

[Rudipides]

I made a few adjustments to photo #1. How does it look?

Thanks

 

[ruggedshutter]

These turned out great, good job! The only thing that I would change that hasn't been addressed is on number 2. I would have gotten a little more separation between her and the background. It would have kept the same feeling but it would have allowed her to pop out from the background more by getting the rock-work out of focus. Great job

 

[vintagesnaps]

That's nice, brings the attention more to her. I might make copies and experiment with various crops; for women with long hair usually I wouldn't want to see the ends of the hair cropped, but with the pockets of the denim it's probably a judgement call. I like the background choice because her blond hair looks good against the color so I don't know if I'd want to lose a lot of that. You could probably do more than one version of this portrait and get some nice choices.

 

[Derrel]

For the most part the adjusted shoot looks good. You have all the ingredients needed for a good outdoor portrait, except one: fill light and the accompanying trait that I refer to as "eye sparkle", meaning something to draw our eyes to HER eyes, that's the main missing ingredient. Here is what a single 4x6 foot white reflector panel on a PVC frame can do in basically the same, exact type of outdoor backlighting in sunshine conditions.

[ D3X_3124_1800x.jpg photo - Derrel photos at pbase.com ]

What the reflector has done is it has brought the shadow-side, her face and body, "up" and closer to the highlight exposure, so I do not have really badly burned-out highlights. YES, I let the hand, which is in a shaft of strong sunlight, go hot, but that's okay, since the hand is actually placing the flower in her hair, and so that makes sense. But you can see, the big 4x6 foot tall reflector is really making here beautiful brown eye color show up, plus she has BIG catchlights in her eyes, which further emphasize her sideways glance. Her non-makeup skin also has a nice, attractive glow to it, due to the very softly diffused highlight the reflection of the BIOG panel makes on her face, as it throws a ton of sun back, and into what were shadowy areas.

I think reflector fill light is the easiest way to work during the spring, summer, and fall. Easier than flash. More versatile than flash. More subtle than flash. But either one can give that "eye sparkle" look, and can throw some light into the eye sockets and the face.

[ D3X_3113_1800x.jpg photo - Derrel photos at pbase.com ]

As Tirediron mentioned above, this is just, "a simple reflector," used under similar lighting conditions outdoors.

 

[JacaRanda]

Well, what they said

Watch the backgrounds especially something immediately behind the head. I could care less about the leaves behind her, but a photo critic may. Perhaps either of you moving a tad to her right or your right may have taken the leaves out of play.

#3

 

[Pejacre]

I made a few adjustments to photo #1. How does it look?

Thanks


View attachment 81389

Crop is better apart from chopping the hair but as Derrel says, fill light and eye sparkle missing - also the blown highlights in the hair distract from what's otherwise a lovely shot.