Test shoot

Forkie · May 13, 2015

This shot came out of a test shoot I did yesterday evening with my friend, Marie. Marie has become something of a muse for me. She seems to bring out the best in my work. She's really versatile, loves being photographed and is game for pretty much anything I ask her to do! Not to mention that she's stunningly beautiful. Which is always a bonus

The shoot was a test to try different lighting, poses and to see how my big feather headdress handles studio lighting. The actual shoot will be mostly full body shots which I also tried last night and might post up once I've edited a couple of them.

Just thought I'd post this one up for opinions. It's not perfect - it was only a quick edit at 1:00am this morning. The hands are a bit bright and the face has lost a bit of colour during post-processing, I think. But as a test, I think it turned out quite well.

Tribal by Ian Forknall, on Flickr

goooner · May 13, 2015

Cool image, I don't do portrait work, but her hands do look quite large. What focal length did you shoot here?

mmaria · May 13, 2015

the face could be a bit brighter and the bg could be much darker.

I like where you are going with this

Forkie · May 13, 2015

goooner said:
Cool image, I don't do portrait work, but her hands do look quite large. What focal length did you shoot here?

Thanks. It was shot at 85mm and I thought the hands looked big in the original and I actually changed the perspective slightly, thinking I was perhaps a little bit low when I made the shot. It did help, but perhaps it could have done with the perspective being pushed a bit more.

mmaria said:
the face could be a bit brighter and the bg could be much darker.

I like where you are going with this

Thanks Marija! Yes, I had to darken the hands and brighten the face quite a bit, which is where I think I lost some of the colour. I think my key light (above and in front of her at about 30 degrees) wasn't pointed perfectly and it threw a bit too much light on her hands and not enough on her face (I didn't have a grid to I could use).

But, this is all what the test shoot is for. Trying stuff out, remembering things for the real shoot so it looks great when I come to do the real one!

Thanks for the feedback guys!

D-B-J · May 13, 2015

The things that jump out to me are that her eyes seem a bit lost and not nice and bright, and her hand seems composited in front of her face. On her pointer finger, the one thats in front of her cheek, there seems to be some odd shadows behind it.

Really though, can't wait for the final shoot if this is just the test shoot!

Jake

Forkie · May 14, 2015

D-B-J said:
The things that jump out to me are that her eyes seem a bit lost and not nice and bright, and her hand seems composited in front of her face. On her pointer finger, the one thats in front of her cheek, there seems to be some odd shadows behind it.

Really though, can't wait for the final shoot if this is just the test shoot!

Jake

Thanks for the points, Jake!

I think the odd shadows you're referring to is actually smudges of the black face paint. But it'll be something to watch for in the real shoot.

You're right about the eyes. The black face paint does absorb a lot of light and I had to bring the eyes up in post. I was worried about bringing them up too much, since the shot is supposed to be dark anyway - I just need to find the right balance there.

Thanks for the comments!

bribrius · May 14, 2015

little more light on the top to bring out that head dress? Like the premise, looks a little "too " messy but has potential. Eyes look right to me. two cents, may not get you far.