senior portrait

Skyeg · Sep 6, 2005

this is a senior portrait i did recently. please give me some advice as to what i could do to improve.

thanks
-skye

Reflexions · Sep 7, 2005

It looks as if the lighting is just a bit flat... your main light needed to be up a bit and a little more to your left.

Tally Ho · Sep 12, 2005

It appears to me that her hair was dodged so it wouldn't blend in with the dark background. A hair light and a kicker light at the time of exposure would have added sparkle and life to her hair. Otherwise, the image is not too shabby.

Tally Ho

Skyeg · Sep 12, 2005

i never did a black background before, so i wasnt totaly prepared, especialy not for someone with black hair. i used a light above and to my left and a reflector down and right. if i were to reshoot this how many lights would you use? and where would you position them? i get the hair light, but what is a kicker?

Tally Ho · Sep 14, 2005

Kicker lights are usually small lights behind and beside the subject aimed at the sides of the hair to give it some sparkle and shine. I usually place mine directly beside each side of the background, just out of camera range, snooted so they put out a very tight light pattern that just skims the sides of the hair. They are set for the same exposure as the hair light. These lights are of course in addition to the hair light which comes from above and behind the subject. In the image below, I have one kicker at camera right, and the normal hair light above her. I also had my main light at camera left skimming her face and body, a fill light behind the camera illuminating everything the lens 'sees' and a "Cosmo' light on the floor aimed up at her face. I Photoshopped out the extra catchlights created by the 'Cosmo' light.

Tally Ho

BadRotation · Sep 25, 2005

Id say use a hair light, since here hair looks kinda bland..

Also, the overall lighting just looks a bit flat.

Soraiden · Sep 25, 2005

Everyone is already giving the same suggestions over & over again..so I will just skip that, lol. Do you have others from the same shoot? I'd love to see, if you do.

thebeginning · Sep 25, 2005

nice, i like it. i would suggest maybe a little stronger lighting, maybe like the others suggested, except i would use a different background and use a back light on it, that and a hair light from the right. a slightly tighter crop would work better too i think, and perhaps a different shirt, as that loose one she has on top is a bit detracting. I know some people that are all about all-black, and it's hard to get them to change their mind, but something besides black would help to seperate things a bit

Soraiden · Sep 25, 2005

thebeginning said:
nice, i like it. i would suggest maybe a little stronger lighting, maybe like the others suggested, except i would use a different background and use a back light on it, that and a hair light from the right. a slightly tighter crop would work better too i think, and perhaps a different shirt, as that loose one she has on top is a bit detracting. I know some people that are all about all-black, and it's hard to get them to change their mind, but something besides black would help to seperate things a bit

Ohh.. I agree about the shirt. Maybe just the tank top she has on below it, even. It's black, but it's not so big that it makes her whole look so wavy. Her hair is already black & wavy, so with the shirt so big & "wavy" it almost makes it all flow together. So, if she would be instant on black, maybe just change the style of the shirt a big

Different color couch/chair? If the image is going to be black & white anyway... maybe a lighter fabric that would show contrast better in the end.