Senior Girl in a Golden Field

[Aayria]

Hey all =)

I had a "photo shoot" yesterday evening with my good friend's niece. She was a bit shy and uncomfortable in front of the camera, but I did my best to keep things light hearted and help her feel more at ease. Overall, I felt that I did very poorly with this shoot. We had such beautiful light, and I kept making awful decisions with locations and positioning...Lots of shots with bad shadows, or just poor planning.

But in the end, there were a handful that I really did like quite a bit, and I wondered if they worked for others, or if I'm just being too optimistic. >< This wasn't a paid shoot or anything, I'm not in buisiness (and don't plan to be any time soon lol.) But it was just a gift for a sweet friend, and I really want to like these.

Here are the couple that I thought might be alright...looking for any and all CC about lighting, processing, posing, anything you have to offer is totally appreciated! =)

Do any of these make you say "oooooo wow!" or do they still fall way short?

Thanks for taking a look!

 

[tirediron]

C&C per req:

1. Nice shot, good eyes! I think I'd maybe dial the exposure back about 1/3 stop or so, as there seems to be a little detail loss in the face, but that's minor and easily fixed.

2. This would have been an outstanding image if she didn't appear as though she were about to cry. Great lighting, good exposure. This is the sort of scenario where I suggest taking lots of pictures; tell the model just to look around, smile, etc.

3. The money shot! This is a great shot, again, I think some selective exposure reduction would help, but it's a very strong image.

Overall, I think you should be pleased; camera-shy people are difficult to work with, and I think you've turned in a nice product here. I would suggest perhaps cloning out the little blemish on her upper lip. Well done!

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

 

[Derrel]

Third shot's pretty good. Middle one, not so good.

On the first shot, I'd ask you to think about the pose and the framing, and maybe consider how this arm pose (that's what it is, an "arm pose") would look if the camera had been moved over to the right about four feet or so, and lower, by maybe five or six inches. Why? Because seeing her back and wrinkly shirt on the left hand side of the frame adds nothing to the shot. Neither does having that strong, light-colored out of focus fence running on a strong diagonal AWAY from her face...if the camera had been moved over to the right, then that big black area in the upper left hand corner would not be there, adding dead space, and making the white, OOF fence even stronger as a distraction. Moving to the right four feet or so would have also made her nose look smaller, by being more straight-on with it. The pose as-shot, just is not right.

 

[Aayria]

C&C per req:

1. Nice shot, good eyes! I think I'd maybe dial the exposure back about 1/3 stop or so, as there seems to be a little detail loss in the face, but that's minor and easily fixed.

2. This would have been an outstanding image if she didn't appear as though she were about to cry. Great lighting, good exposure. This is the sort of scenario where I suggest taking lots of pictures; tell the model just to look around, smile, etc.

3. The money shot! This is a great shot, again, I think some selective exposure reduction would help, but it's a very strong image.

Overall, I think you should be pleased; camera-shy people are difficult to work with, and I think you've turned in a nice product here. I would suggest perhaps cloning out the little blemish on her upper lip. Well done!

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

Thanks for your input! I will go back and see how I like these with the exposure back just a tad. I did push it brighter than ussual, though I think the loss in detail may be more due to the method I used for healing up her skin. I'll definitely play around with it and try for getting more detail back in that first shot. The second shot was sort of a fluke, it was meant to be an outtake, testing my lighting before I "posed" her for the "actual" shot haha...I guess that's how things happen sometimes. I didn't even end up liking the "actual" shot as much as this one..but you're right about the sad expression. I promise I didn't say anything mean!

The third was my favorite two, thanks for the compliments and critique!

Third shot's pretty good. Middle one, not so good.

On the first shot, I'd ask you to think about the pose and the framing, and maybe consider how this arm pose (that's what it is, an "arm pose") would look if the camera had been moved over to the right about four feet or so, and lower, by maybe five or six inches. Why? Because seeing her back and wrinkly shirt on the left hand side of the frame adds nothing to the shot. Neither does having that strong, light-colored out of focus fence running on a strong diagonal AWAY from her face...if the camera had been moved over to the right, then that big black area in the upper left hand corner would not be there, adding dead space, and making the white, OOF fence even stronger as a distraction. Moving to the right four feet or so would have also made her nose look smaller, by being more straight-on with it. The pose as-shot, just is not right.

Wow, thanks for the great posing input! All things to definitely keep in mind..I can't believe I didn't think about how the fence would be leading away from her the way I framed it, arghh. I kept trying to think of ways to flatter her facial structure instead of making her nose look bigger, and moving to the right would have been perfect. Thanks so much!

 

[shootermcgavin]

I like the middle one, maybe a bit more with a different expression but I love the lighting and the place it is shot. I would level the picture though I don't think it adds anything tilting it slightly. I like 3 too, maybe cropped more might make it better. Not a big fan of 1.

 

[Derrel]

Aayria, just because I like you, and because you're one of the most introspective and studious new portrait and family photography shooters on this board, I thought I would actually take a few minutes and expand upon my earlier comments on your first photo, by applying the Paul Caponigro compositional techniques from his Luminous Landscape article which I referred to here a few weeks back on TPF. So, here are a few quick "looks" at your image, which I selected as being filters that would allow us to see into the image a bit more easily, by changing it....by creating "new eyes" via filters, as it were.

As-shot

A 16-pixel wide Gaussian Blur layer shows the color blocks and large compositional elements very clearly.

Desaturated: notice the emphasis of the background's upper left corner and the fence

THRESHOLD shows image as large blocks,reduced to "compositional elements".

EMBOSS filter shows shapes very clearly.

Find Edges filter also shows shapes,contours

INVERTED

 

[Aayria]

Step away from the filters Derrel...quickly. >.>

 

[SabrinaO]

I think these shots are beautiful. Such an amazing location!

 

[HeyMeester]

1st one. Her arm bugs me. Her forearm atctually. Have her raise up a little higher with her shoulders. Just a little.
As said, the fence as well.
2nd. Love it! Pure awesomeness!
3rd one. Love the shot, composition, lighting.. Don't like the head tilt and where is she looking. If she wasn't looking to the sky in that awkward tilt it
would be perfect.

 

[photo guy]

I too like @2 the best. #1 just has too much space in the top left and the wrong angle. Nice shots though for someone still learning and asking questions. That is very important to photography.

 

[Aayria]

Thanks for all the feedback, guys! We were going to try getting together again soon to do some more shots in an urban setting downtown....I think I might ask her to bring along her friend to help her feel more at ease. I mean, I'm good friends with her aunt and she knows me and such...but she just isn't at ease with me because I'm not a highschool girl I guess lol...but whatever the case, I think it would help her to have somebody along to lighten the mood besides just me you know? I'm also going to try planning a few more shots in advance instead of "winging it" when I get to the location. I've been taking soooo many pictures that are all starting to look the same to me! I want to step outside of that box!

Thanks again! =)

Oh..and Derrel, my first thought after getting through your last reply was to consider making my pictures NOT ok to edit hahahahaha =P