Summer Beauty | Portrait

Ironlegs · Aug 19, 2014

Thoughts ?
Thanks to sscarmack for helping me out with several things

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Only natural light.

Summer Beauty by Ironlegs Photography, on Flickr

EDIT.

Summer Beauty by Ironlegs Photography, on Flickr

Pejacre · Aug 19, 2014

Love it.

tirediron · Aug 19, 2014

I like the lighting and exression, but I'm not 100% sure that the landscape aspect is the way I would have gone.

Ironlegs · Aug 19, 2014

It was providing me a nice shade

Derrel · Aug 19, 2014

OMG, this shot would have been an utterly fabulous "tall". She's wearing a cute sundress, and you lopped her off at the top of her bustline in order to show us...a tiny bit of an out of focus lawn and an out of focus tree, or what is called "an empty background"...

I'd try and lighten up those crushed dark tones on the bottom of the hair in the lower left corner. I realize the dynamic range is pretty wide, but the empty blacks are hurting the higher-key vibe that you got from the strong backlighting. That big, dark, empty patch in the lower right hand corner is also not advancing the shot, but is hurting it. Your large, white logo overlayed on a big dark spot is hurting a lot too. It's sometimes difficult to separate one's feelings toward a shot of a beautiful woman from what is actually being shown on the paper, or on the slide, or in the file, or on the screen, and there's a lot of slack cut for shots of pretty people, but the landscape orientation in this shot just kills this as a serious photographic work. Just cropped her off right at the top of the bewb line...

JacaRanda · Aug 19, 2014

Derrel said:
OMG, this shot would have been an utterly fabulous "tall". She's wearing a cute sundress, and you lopped her off at the top of her bustline in order to show us...a tiny bit of an out of focus lawn and an out of focus tree, or what is called "an empty background"...

I'd try and lighten up those crushed dark tones on the bottom of the hair in the lower left corner. I realize the dynamic range is pretty wide, but the empty blacks are hurting the higher-key vibe that you got from the strong backlighting. That big, dark, empty patch in the lower right hand corner is also not advancing the shot, but is hurting it. Your large, white logo overlayed on a big dark spot is hurting a lot too. It's sometimes difficult to separate one's feelings toward a shot of a beautiful woman from what is actually being shown on the paper, or on the slide, or in the file, or on the screen, and there's a lot of slack cut for shots of pretty people, but the landscape orientation in this shot just kills this as a serious photographic work. Just cropped her off right at the top of the bewb line...

Really good info that I am sure will help lots of us newbies.

Mr. Ironlegs OP

Something I read (probably in a Bryan Peterson book) is when shooting portraits, almost always take a repeat shot in portrait orientation. Just for the heck of it. Well, actually just for the reasons tirediron and Derrel suggest.

I sense you are going to get really good at this. Keep on keeping on.

The_Traveler · Aug 19, 2014

Looking at this at 100% from the DL, her face looks oof and almost totally devoid of contrast.
At first glance the picture is gorgeous but I think that this was not focused well and she was too much in the shade to get that clarity of detail that makes print look great.

Designer · Aug 19, 2014

Aside from the rather obvious mistake in framing, I see three different shades of skin color. Probably should have been all the same color.

FITBMX · Aug 19, 2014

I am way to new at photography to give any c&c. But those are some great responses, thanks for posting them!!!

Granddad · Aug 20, 2014

All the other points and tips are good for all of us to learn from. I'll add one thing, I can't help noticing the angle of the stonework to photo left; I'd have straightened that up.

Flaws aside I love her expression and I agree with JacaRanda, you are probably going to get to be very good at this.

Ironlegs · Aug 20, 2014

Derrel said:
OMG, this shot would have been an utterly fabulous "tall". She's wearing a cute sundress, and you lopped her off at the top of her bustline in order to show us...a tiny bit of an out of focus lawn and an out of focus tree, or what is called "an empty background"...

I'd try and lighten up those crushed dark tones on the bottom of the hair in the lower left corner. I realize the dynamic range is pretty wide, but the empty blacks are hurting the higher-key vibe that you got from the strong backlighting. That big, dark, empty patch in the lower right hand corner is also not advancing the shot, but is hurting it. Your large, white logo overlayed on a big dark spot is hurting a lot too. It's sometimes difficult to separate one's feelings toward a shot of a beautiful woman from what is actually being shown on the paper, or on the slide, or in the file, or on the screen, and there's a lot of slack cut for shots of pretty people, but the landscape orientation in this shot just kills this as a serious photographic work. Just cropped her off right at the top of the bewb line...

Thanks for your valuable feedback, it makes me move forward but at the same time makes me a little bit sad that i wasted such a nice picture cause i didnt go a little bit more down with the composition... But i tried it in portrait mode and it didnt look as good, i should just have pointed my camera a little bit more down...

The_Traveler said:
Looking at this at 100% from the DL, her face looks oof and almost totally devoid of contrast.
At first glance the picture is gorgeous but I think that this was not focused well and she was too much in the shade to get that clarity of detail that makes print look great.

Isnt it that when you see someones eyelashes, the picture is in focus ?

I think there was some detail loss cause of the sun, the original picture had a strong grey tint, to me the picture looked good since others were if compared to this one OOF, still trying to understand the focusing with 1.8 lens. Thanks

And thanks everyone for your feedback !!!

Braineack · Aug 20, 2014

lovely shot, I agree with the orientation aspect. Curious how much you pushed the flare? Not sure I'm entirely sold on it.

mmaria · Aug 20, 2014

I'm having troubles with pictures not showing up so I really can't comment on the picture because I don't see it... but...

I couldn't not to smile on this