Skweekie Presents........................Kayla #7

SkWeEkiE · Jan 3, 2007

These are my first shots of the new year, hope you enjoy

Feel free to C&C all you'd like. I can take the brutal stuff!

1.

2. sorry my signature is distracting in the corner, but didn't want to cover her body

3. This was actually a joke shot, but i liked the natural laughter

LilmaK · Jan 3, 2007

Nice Shots...I Like the smiling one

SkWeEkiE · Jan 3, 2007

Thanks

Big Mike · Jan 3, 2007

Great shots of a beautiful girl...the eye contact in the first two is just mesmerizing...she is a natural.

If anything, the stray hairs would be my only critique. Keep shooting and working on different poses. Maybe pic some shots from your/her favorite magazine and try to emulate those shots. Keep up the good work.

EBphotography · Jan 3, 2007

Great shots, she is very pretty, and as Mike said, beautiful eyes.

My only comment would be in two her white shirt is lost in her skin. Too harsh of a flash maybe, overexposed? Not sure. Fixable in photoshop? For sure.

markc · Jan 3, 2007

The lighting is a little direct, but overall it works well here, and it's not washed out compared to the background. Good exposure. There's a lot of grass in that first one that really isn't doing anything. I'd try a square crop for it. Nice work.

Just trying to test myself: Did you use a flash, off camera on the first one and on shoe for the last two?

SkWeEkiE · Jan 4, 2007

Thanks for the comments everyone! I love learning

MARKc: I used one 110w studio strobe to the front left of her (camera right) and a slightly off-white reflector to her right (camera left). thats it

...so all OFF camera lighting!

markc · Jan 4, 2007

Cool. Thanks. The light looked very soft for a flash, but the highlights in her eyes made me think that it might have been a flash. I enjoy trying to read the light in image, but it can be tricky. Getting the position is usually fairly easy, but determining what kind of unit is harder.

The_Traveler · Jan 4, 2007

Nice poses, good dof, very sharp, well lit.
IMO, the first 2 are not cropped well.
#1 is cropped so her weight is on her arm and then the arm is cut short, looking fleshy and truncated and the crop is right at bosom-line - semi-awkward.

#2 shows a lot of flesh and then chops off her arms short of elbow.

I would crop these much tighter or else put more of her in the picture.
I will send my suggested crops by PM and will post them if you like.

SkWeEkiE · Jan 5, 2007

Thanks for the additional comments everyone and the crop suggestions TRAVELER. I don't mind if you post them on here!

...just realized this forum has "image edition OK" now

i'll turn it on!

The_Traveler · Jan 5, 2007

Crops posted with OP's permission.

markc · Jan 5, 2007

Not to nitpick your crop, Traveler, but they feel a little unbalanced to me. Probably because the close eye is almost right in the middle of the image.

I just tried cropping the first one and couldn't find one I really liked. I think the combination of her leaning back and the crop coming up as far as it does on the bottom makes it difficult. I think her pose combines better with a horizontal, but with more of her in the image. If I were to crop this one, it would end up really tight, but even when I do, I can still see the slouch.

On the second one, I do agree that the large area of bare flesh pulls my eye (bright areas do that), but again, I can't really find a good crop that I like, so I'd probably leave that one. Changing the lighting up or the pose would help with that if you were to reshoot.