Recent homestudio practice

[tingeliM]

I have been practicing basic lighting with my one flash and a reflector. My beautiful friends have been wonderful models. =)
As I've gotten photos of people, I've also practiced my retouching techniques. I got some feedback from the first photo (the whole set) that I may have gone a little over-board when it comes to the look of her skin in web size (too smooth). When I view the photos in large size her skin looks good. With the second photo (and the whole set) I tried to focus on making them look not-too-smooth in web size.

Any opinions, feedback and constructive criticism are welcome. =) I posted the best of the sets here, but I would love it if you'd take a look at the whole sets.
You don't have to comment on the whole sets if don't want to, but just to comprehend the whole contexts and such...^^


Sanni & Masi by tingeliM, on Flickr

Canon EOS 500D + 28mm 2.8 + Speedlite 320EX
1/200 f/14 (I accidentally under-exposed these so I compensated for it in post) ISO100

View the whole set


Untitled by tingeliM, on Flickr

Canon EOS 500D + 50mm 1.8 II + Speedlite 320EX
1/200 f/10 ISO100

View the whole set

 

[DiskoJoe]

I like #2

 

[tirediron]

Very well done; I especially like #1.

 

[Forkie]

I adore the lighting in both of these, but think you may be over-smoothing the skin a little. In the first shot, the face almost looks like you pasted it from another photo and tried to blend it in.

 

[tingeliM]

Thanks everyone!

Forkie: If you read the text I wrote, I did say that I had that problem with the first one. More specifically, I had that problem when viewing the photo in web size. Retouching in large size was a little deceptive (a zoomed in sample from another photo with the same processing: http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7854/sanniihonyte.jpg). I'm working on it =)