Practicing in my home studio - C&C Please :)

[TooShay]

I was itching to do some kind of fashion-ish type of shoot so I could practice with my strobes - I'm still learning how to use multiple strobes effectively (correctly?), so please feel free to tell me how I can improve. I know some of the poses look awkward, there are some really funny ones that we just had to laugh at because she looks like she is missing limbs, but it's a learning experience, right? Haha! Thanks in advance!

1. IMG_1713-1 by RoockPhotography, on Flickr

2.
IMG_1658BW by RoockPhotography, on Flickr

3.
IMG_1743BW by RoockPhotography, on Flickr

4.
IMG_1943 by RoockPhotography, on Flickr

5.
IMG_1837 by RoockPhotography, on Flickr

 

[Mach0]

I like 1 and 4

 

[cgipson1]

I like 1 and 4

Me two!

 

[The_Traveler]

Speaking from a position of total ignorance of studio lighting, I nevertheless have an opinion.
I think they are over-bright and you have lost the delicate beauty of a red-heads skin.
I think #4 is the best look.
#2 is a bit odd that her top half looks straight on but there is a sort of looking-down perspective on her legs. Were you using a relatively short focal length at torso level?

When I darkened her skin by quite a bit, it seems more natural to me.
I hope she is your wife, daughter, girl friend or something like that because she is beautiful and quite photogenic.

 

[TooShay]

No one is saying anything bad yet, which scares me just a bit! I need some negativity up in here!!

 

[The_Traveler]

No one is saying anything bad yet, which scares me just a bit! I need some negativity up in here!!

Your name is funny and your clothing sense is bad and your car makes too much noise/

Does that help?

A beautiful model goes a long way to make up for any faults.

 

[TooShay]

Speaking from a position of total ignorance of studio lighting, I nevertheless have an opinion.
I think they are over-bright and you have lost the delicate beauty of a red-heads skin.
I think #4 is the best look.
#2 is a bit odd that her top half looks straight on but there is a sort of looking-down perspective on her legs. Were you using a relatively short focal length at torso level?

When I darkened her skin by quite a bit, it seems more natural to me.
I hope she is your wife, daughter, girl friend or something like that because she is beautiful and quite photogenic.

Gah! I think the problem is my uncalibrated screen. That or I'm just blind. I know, I know... I'll get it together eventually. I do the same thing to my skin, It's so darn easy to blow out ginger skin! I do prefer your edit over mine, for sure! Thanks!

And yeah, I was using my 24-70 and it was on the shorter end to take full body images. Would getting down lower help at all? Or am I just screwed completely because of space limitations?

Oh, and she's my brother's ex-girlfriend, but still a good friend of mine. (I'm a girl) She's the perfect model, and ridiculously smart, too! She wants to get into modeling and take a semester off from college (she's already accepted to her dream college) but I'm like NOOO! Get your education, modeling probably isn't as fun as it seems anyway.

 

[TooShay]

No one is saying anything bad yet, which scares me just a bit! I need some negativity up in here!!

Your name is funny and your clothing sense is bad and your car makes too much noise/

Does that help?


A beautiful model goes a long way to make up for any faults.

Hahaha! Yes, yes it does help! I posted before I saw your first post

 

[cgipson1]

You asked! I am not the most knowledgable about this type of shooting... but"

#1.. Definitely at top limit of brightness but nice... Pose is attractive... lovely girl! Nicely done!
#2 .. pose is very awkard.. facial expression is not doing it for me... she looks confused or something. Fill on her left eye isn't adequate.. bordering on a "coon" eye!
#3.. nice... but meh! Don't care for the hair in this one.. especially that little bit on her left...
#4.. very nice.. good expression. A touch bright.. but not bad at all. I suspect you don't calibrate your monitor, do you?
#5 pose is ok.. but too much bright skin on that arm.. detracts from her face! Her expression says "Are you kidding?" or something.. not good for the shot...almost a sneer! The shoe looks odd..this would have been cute with socks on or even barefoot.

 

[jamesbjenkins]

I hope she is your wife, daughter, girl friend or something like that because she is beautiful and quite photogenic.

Traveler obviously doesn't pay attention to signatures.

C&C:

Your hair light on #5 is really hot.

You might want to consider having a strobe hit your white backdrop so it doesn't have such a dull gray cast to it. You'll also get some really nice separation that way.

You need to work on your balance between the strobes. I don't know if you were going for a high key look, but I generally try to create a 3D look to my portraits by setting my fill light at a stop or more less than my key.

What's your lighting setup? Overall, your images are very nice for someone who's still mostly playing with ideas. And as was said above, it's easy to get a great image when your model looks like she just stepped down from Mount Olympus.

 

[TooShay]

I hope she is your wife, daughter, girl friend or something like that because she is beautiful and quite photogenic.

Traveler obviously doesn't pay attention to signatures.

C&C:

Your hair light on #5 is really hot.

You might want to consider having a strobe hit your white backdrop so it doesn't have such a dull gray cast to it. You'll also get some really nice separation that way.

You need to work on your balance between the strobes. I don't know if you were going for a high key look, but I generally try to create a 3D look to my portraits by setting my fill light at a stop or more less than my key.

What's your lighting setup? Overall, your images are very nice for someone who's still mostly playing with ideas. And as was said above, it's easy to get a great image when your model looks like she just stepped down from Mount Olympus.

My hair light - yeah... that was actually unintentional. I forgot to turn that light off and then I had an aha moment and thought "sweet, hair light!" but because I'm a dunce, I didn't adjust the power. But to be honest, I probably still would have gotten it all wrong. I definitely need help in the lighting department.

So with the white backdrop, what exactly do you mean? Do you mean totally blowing it out? (which I SUCK at, currently)

IMG_1675 by KateRoockPhotog, on Flickr

Balance between strobes... yep, I need to learn all about that. I'm still a bit confused about how to set my lighting. I get the whole key light, fill light, hair light, background light stuff, but the power levels are still a mystery to me. I just adjust and chimp. I need a book. Would a book teach me? Gosh, I'm dumb.

Lights: 2 Alienbee B800s, 2 B400s, giant softbox, a stripbox, a set of grids, a background shovel... I think that's it.

 

[The_Traveler]

I hope she is your wife, daughter, girl friend or something like that because she is beautiful and quite photogenic.

Traveler obviously doesn't pay attention to signatures.

I could skip around being wrong and say that I don't prejudge people's sexual orientation but you're right I didn't notice the signature.

I really don't like this last one.
It's much more of a glamour girl, big-boobies kind of thing and really loses what this young woman has going for her which is the lithe, graceful gamin look.
The pose is awkward, her arms are awkward and she looks like she's balancing on one butt cheek. - and all blown out.

While she is lovely, she has one tiny flaw, her nose is a little big for her face in pictures. Look at the other pictures, she's straight on and is generally great looking.
This image makes her nose look too big.

Those big, dark shoes look huge in profile.
Make everything match her top in scale. She's slender and tiny; make everything that way.

Really terrific model and, even to a total know-nothing like me, it's clear you will get great shots with her.

Lew

 

[TooShay]

I hope she is your wife, daughter, girl friend or something like that because she is beautiful and quite photogenic.

Traveler obviously doesn't pay attention to signatures.

I could skip around being wrong and say that I don't prejudge people's sexual orientation but you're right I didn't notice the signature.

I really don't like this last one.
It's much more of a glamour girl, big-boobies kind of thing and really loses what this young woman has going for her which is the lithe, graceful gamin look.
The pose is awkward, her arms are awkward and she looks like she's balancing on one butt cheek. - and all blown out.

While she is lovely, she has one tiny flaw, her nose is a little big for her face in pictures. Look at the other pictures, she's straight on and is generally great looking.
This image makes her nose look too big.

Those big, dark shoes look huge in profile.
Make everything match her top in scale. She's slender and tiny; make everything that way.

Really terrific model and, even to a total know-nothing like me, it's clear you will get great shots with her.

Lew

Ahahahaha! You missed my avatar AND my signature. You failed. :lmao:

Thanks for the critiques! It really helps me figure out what I need to work on next.

I don't like the last image either, I just posted it to see if this is what one of the previous posters was referring to by asking me to light the background. I haven't mastered that yet... or anything really, but that's not my point, haha!

Hayley will definitely be my go-to model when I want to try out new concepts! We're planning an outdoor shoot next, just for kicks... that is, if it EVER stops raining. We didn't get a winter this year in the sunshine state. Very lame!

 

[The_Traveler]

Ahahahaha! You missed my avatar AND my signature. You failed. :lmao:

Actually, I saw the avatar but there are a lot of ugly guys on camera forums who put pix of good-looking women as their avatars.
Either they want to attract attention or deep inside they really believe they are a good looking woman.

So I stopped looking at avatars.

 

[TooShay]

Lol!! That's so creepy. Doesn't surprise me, but still strange.