Senior portrait shoot...Cindy (4 pics)

NJMAN · Jun 19, 2007

So, I've been a little busy lately, and that's not such a bad thing. Doing the job I love to do. This time, I attempted a senior portrait shoot. Hope you like it. C&C always welcome please. Thanks for looking!

1.

2.

3.

4.

Thanks for looking!

NJ

snotshake · Jun 19, 2007

They look good! Great lighting in all of them. #3 is my favorite because of the way the warm light hits her skin and contrasts with the color of her eyes. My only complaint is how the gradient on the right side desaturates her arm somewhat. I understand how it happened, though.

Good shoot!

NJMAN · Jun 19, 2007

snotshake said:
They look good! Great lighting in all of them. #3 is my favorite because of the way the warm light hits her skin and contrasts with the color of her eyes. My only complaint is how the gradient on the right side desaturates her arm somewhat. I understand how it happened, though.

Good shoot!

Thanks a lot snotshake for your nice comments! That would be the vignette on her arm. I figured I should keep the vignette because I wanted to add more to the mood of the image.

NJ

skieur · Jun 19, 2007

Some great shots with minor but noticeable problems. The eyes are lit and handled best in the last two. The first two can be brightened a little.
The framing is too tight. The hand should not be cut off in the first shot. The elbow is too close to the edge of the frame in shot 2. The head is touching the top of the frame in shot 3 and in shot 4 the head is cut at both the top and the chin. There are also some skin colour variations from pink through grey to shades of brown. I would try to adjust colour a little to try and make the variations less noticeable.

skieur

oldnavy170 · Jun 19, 2007

Nj, number 3 is just beatiful. I love the close-up and her skin tones are perfect. Of course I love the laying in the grass pose. She should be very happy with these.

JimmyJaceyMom · Jun 19, 2007

Very good again! The eyes look awesome on that girl! She is a very interesting looking subject by the way. My only thing is the pose in munber 2. To me, it looks a little uncomfortable but is still very good.
My, my... you HAVE been very busy. Haven't you?

NJMAN · Jun 19, 2007

skieur said:
Some great shots with minor but noticeable problems. The eyes are lit and handled best in the last two. The first two can be brightened a little.
The framing is too tight. The hand should not be cut off in the first shot. The elbow is too close to the edge of the frame in shot 2. The head is touching the top of the frame in shot 3 and in shot 4 the head is cut at both the top and the chin. There are also some skin colour variations from pink through grey to shades of brown. I would try to adjust colour a little to try and make the variations less noticeable.

skieur

Thank you for your critique skieur.

oldnavy170 said:
Nj, number 3 is just beatiful. I love the close-up and her skin tones are perfect. Of course I love the laying in the grass pose. She should be very happy with these.

Thanks oldnavy! Your recent shot of the model in the grass actually inspired me for that one.

NJ

AprilRamone · Jun 19, 2007

Hi NJMAN,
1.) She has a really nice relaxed smile and look in this one, but it almost looks like her body has been stretched out really long (although I bet she just naturally has a nice long torso...lucky girl

) It looks like the background was really bright and you tried to burn it in or tone it down somehow? But, the section between her body and her arm looks like it got missed and it draws my eye right to it.
2.) Her arm is distracting in this one...it cuts off her face. And it makes a right angle that I don't think is very attractive. Your B&W conversion looks nice though

3.) This one is my favorite. Her eyes are beautiful! I think someone else already said that her head is cropped off just a tad. I think I would have tried to have her bring her right arm in closer to her body so that it wouldn't be so distracting in the frame.
4.) The cropping of her chin really bugs me in this one.

NJMAN · Jun 19, 2007

JimmyJaceyMom said:
Very good again! The eyes look awesome on that girl! She is a very interesting looking subject by the way. My only thing is the pose in munber 2. To me, it looks a little uncomfortable but is still very good.
My, my... you HAVE been very busy. Haven't you?

Thanks for your comments as always Kathi!

NJMAN · Jun 19, 2007

AprilRamone said:
Hi NJMAN,
1.) She has a really nice relaxed smile and look in this one, but it almost looks like her body has been stretched out really long (although I bet she just naturally has a nice long torso...lucky girl) It looks like the background was really bright and you tried to burn it in or tone it down somehow? But, the section between her body and her arm looks like it got missed and it draws my eye right to it.
2.) Her arm is distracting in this one...it cuts off her face. And it makes a right angle that I don't think is very attractive. Your B&W conversion looks nice though
3.) This one is my favorite. Her eyes are beautiful! I think someone else already said that her head is cropped off just a tad. I think I would have tried to have her bring her right arm in closer to her body so that it wouldn't be so distracting in the frame.
4.) The cropping of her chin really bugs me in this one.

Thanks April for the tips!

1) Yes, she has a long torso and long legs to boot (she's 5' 9"). She is incredibly athletic and excels in many sports, especially track. The background was very bright, and I was shooting in a shady but nicely lit spot. The only burning I did was a vignette around the outer edges.
2) I see what you mean about this one. I will have to watch for that next time. Good catch.
3) Thank you. And yes, good call.
4) I think I may have went a little overboard with the closeup, but I really wanted to get the eyes in this one again like #3.

OttawaPhotog · Jun 19, 2007

Very nice shots! Curious, were these shot with the 50mm 1.8 ?

Jeffm73 · Jun 20, 2007

I have to agree about #1
The bright spot between her arm and her body does draw the eye.

You did a great job as usual though.

Thanks for sharing

elsaspet · Jun 20, 2007

Really pretty stuff. I love the bokah on these. The third is my favorite too. Did you sharpen the eyes in the last two? There seems to be a hard halo on the outer rim on the iris. Still beautiful though.

NJMAN · Jun 20, 2007

OttawaPhotog said:
Very nice shots! Curious, were these shot with the 50mm 1.8 ?

Thanks for the kind words Ottawa! I used my 28-135mm IS lens for this one. But I typically use the 50mm f/1.8 for portraits.

Jeffm73 said:
I have to agree about #1
The bright spot between her arm and her body does draw the eye.

You did a great job as usual though.

Thanks for sharing

Thanks Jeff! It seems like I always forget some small composition detail. Thanks for confirming. It helps me for next time.

elsaspet said:
Really pretty stuff. I love the bokah on these. The third is my favorite too. Did you sharpen the eyes in the last two? There seems to be a hard halo on the outer rim on the iris. Still beautiful though.

Thank you Cindy for your nice comments! Yes, I always try to do just a tad more sharpening on the eyes before posting, because I want the eyes to sparkle in closeups.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to look and comment!

NJ