Senior CC

SharedMemories · Oct 28, 2011

This young man has such a unique personality I tried to capture him not just the typical senior shots, I got a few of the typicals in there but I think I did pretty good considering the lighting was HORRIBLE!

I had ISO @ 100 and cant remember my shutter speed I am on my work computer so no access to the orginals...

Well here ya go...

308684_263349367022599_182543061769897_958061_814249_n by Shared Memories2011, on Flickr

304430_263349417022594_182543061769897_958062_4541328_n by Shared Memories2011, on Flickr

296087_263349197022616_182543061769897_958058_2538254_n by Shared Memories2011, on Flickr

297009_256803777677158_182543061769897_933747_685997_n by Shared Memories2011, on Flickr

The last image the blacks look really noisy not sure what I could have done differently..

tirediron · Oct 28, 2011

C&C per req:

1. An appropriate pose; very Leonard Cohen, BUT the exposure is lacking. Very lacking. At least one light was needed low, camera right. There's virutally no detail in the black shirt foreground, and he has a bad case of racoon eyes.

2. Not fond of this one at all; you have a large black/dark area image left which is blending in with the subject, and then a bright area image right which draws the eye away. Again, almost no detail in the clothing, and it looks ever so slightly soft, and there appears to be a WB issue.

3. Angles are a personal taste, not mine, but that's beside the poit. A polarizer should have been used here to eliminate the reflections on the car, and a remote speedlight on the seat would have really helped the exposure.

4. Again, a very Leonard Cohen sort of pose. Much better clothing detail here. I suspect the noise is due to some exposure correction in post. I would prefer to see this one levelled, and I think it would have been much stronger had you moved slightly further left so that the large tree wasn't directly behind the lamp standard.

Overall, they're not bad. If this was a courtesy shoot for a friend, I think you did well under challenging conditions. If this was a paid shoot for a client... If the lighting was so bad, why not do it at a different time/location? Did you suggest any other clothing choices? He seems like a young man given to black, but a little variety never hurts.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

Studio7Four · Oct 28, 2011

C&C per request:

1) My favorite of the bunch. I like the personality you captured, though I would rather have seen him looking out from under the hat brim towards the camera, to engage the viewer, rather than looking down at some unknown spot. Did you add a bit of tint during your conversion process? Sometimes that works, but here I think I'd rather see it in straight black-and-white. In this version I'd like to see a bit more contrast; I'm not sure if that would be necessary in a straight B&W. Lastly, though it may be how he naturally puts on/takes off his hat, I don't like his hand position. With his fingers crooked over the top, his palm flat against the front, and (most importantly) his wrist bent slightly back, this pose looks too settled and static. Had he been gripping the same spot with his finger tips and had his wrist bent inward (so that his palm was away from the hat and his fingers extended), the pose would appear more dynamic. It also would have helped frame his face. I'd also try to edit out the bit of light that got through onto his arm, so that the skin tone of that arm is consistent.

2) I like the view down the stone wall, and I think his pose is solid for a senior pic. This shot could use a temperature adjustment (white balance), and possibly a bit of brightness. I don't like that he's positioned (as far as the camera's perspective is concerned) at the transition between the stone and the brick/gate...the shot would have been better if you were able to get only stone wall in the shot. The tilt adds nothing to this image and, because of the straight lines of the brick and gate, actually detracts. (Had there been only stone wall in the shot I might not have noticed any tilt.) He is positioned too close to center...either move him appreciably off center (think Rule-of-Thirds), or really center him (here his left ear is pretty well centered, not his face or his torso). Finally, I'm all for breaking the "portraits must be shot in vertical (portrait) orientation" convention, but I think this one would have been better off in portrait rather than landscape orientation. You would have either been able to get his lower body in the shot (from the position of what we can see of his hips, that would make it a more interesting pose than simply crossing his arms) or tighten the frame so that you didn't need to get the brick and gate in the frame.

3) Decent job with the lighting, though a reflector or fill flash would have helped the shadowed side of his face. I really dislike the tilt here. I also don't like the perspective relative to the car...the car is much too prominent a part of the foreground, and the mirror and antenna are way too distracting. Every time I go back and look at it I see "a car with a guy leaning against it" not "a senior and his car" If you really wanted to use the car as a prop, there are a couple things you could have done. A) If shooting the car from this angle, move him from leaning against the door to leaning/sitting on the hood. That puts less of the car in the foreground and gets the mirror and antenna behind him. B) Shoot the car much more from the side, from a 3/4 view to straight on sideways. I also might have suggested posing him on the other side of the car - putting him on the driver's side does more to imply that it is his car.

4) I like the concept - nice pose, nice location. Again, the tilt does nothing to help this shot. I also would have rotated him and you around the lamp post until you got to a perspective in which the tree was not directly behind the post.

SharedMemories · Oct 28, 2011

Thanks for the awesome CC.

DiskoJoe · Oct 28, 2011

I like #1, its got attitude, but the focus is just a bit soft. Not a fan of the rest. Really not liking the tilt on #4. Also try to get the subject to not wear all black. This can mess up white balance and exposure. Not to mention it just really does not make him look that great.