Tiffany at fall

12sndsgood · Nov 21, 2013

Wanted to work with the sun a bit more so called on Tiffany to come out and model for me. Here are a couple of the results. Let me know good or bad what you think, and I'm an adult. no sugarcoating. just honesty please.

1.

Tiffany-3 by Square1 photography, on Flickr

2.

Tiffany-16 by Square1 photography, on Flickr

3.

Tiffany-18 by Square1 photography, on Flickr

4.

Tiffany-9 by Square1 photography, on Flickr

oldhippy · Nov 21, 2013

Beautiful kid, first two, the eyes look odd. Number 3, like the color and pose. Nice job there. Later Ed

The_Traveler · Nov 21, 2013

The faces all seem curiously flat in tone to me.
I think #2, although too loosely framed for my taste, is the most attractive in that it gives her face some sculpted lines which the other images don't.
Her face shows no detail yet the sweater is always sharply in focus and there is the disconnect for me.

Derrel · Nov 21, 2013

The_Traveler said:
The faces all seem curiously flat in tone to me.
I think #2, although too loosely framed for my taste, is the most attractive in that it gives her face some sculpted lines which the other images don't.
Her face shows no detail yet the sweater is always sharply in focus and there is the disconnect for me.

I'd have to agree with The_Traveler on the comments above ^^^^. I looked at the whole set on Flickr. I thought they were as a whole, showing a bit more flash power than I would like to see, and the high level of flash was flattening out the face too much.

OrionsByte · Nov 21, 2013

How much did you crop #1 in post? I like the shot a lot, but a little room around her (especially somewhere for the dandelion to go after it's blown) would have given the shot some punch, in my opinion. Also, this may be one case where it might have been stronger if she was not looking at the camera.

#2 is nice except for the expression.

#3 is the strongest of the bunch I think - I like it! That's the one I'd have in a frame on my wall if I was her father.

#4... I'm not sure. It's well lit, well composed, but I feel like there's a story being told that I'm not privy to (how's that for a vague comment?).

12sndsgood · Nov 21, 2013

I agree about the flash power, just actually did a set at the house I'm about to edit and was entirely disappointed in my flash setup. wondering (haven't checked yet) if I have turned down the brightness in my camera screen to much and it's not showing how hot the lights really are? but I have noticed the last few shoots I have done I have been really hot with my light setup. It's defiantly something I'm aware of and going to work on taking care of because at this point I should be better then that. Also thinking that in combination to me over smoothing her skin has led to the flat look and lack of details in her face over processing could be why Hippy feels something is off on her eyes in 1 and 2.

2 is framed a bit looser just because after processing a few other of the shots of her laying In the field like # 3 I just wanted a little bit different look to it. and the whole blown out shot like that wasn't something I normally do.

on 1 I cropped out the right side a bit and up from the bottom a bit. I actually have a full set of her starting to blow then the 2 nd shot was her looking at me as shown, and then another of her looking at it blowing away and then a 4th where she just started lauging after which would have been a perfect set but I missed the focus a tad on the laughing photo. Was a bit disappointed in that. When I framed it I just pulled it across so the stuff floating was right to the edge rather then have a bare spot. Might go back and look at it and just see how it would look with a bit of room.

Thanks everyone.

3 was the first image I processed to show off. really liked how well the whole laying in the field shots came out.

hirejn · Nov 21, 2013

Some nice ideas that needed more work. In No. 1 she's broad lit as the side closest to the camera is getting the light; short lighting is generally better. The background and overall palette is good. In No. 2 there's no way I would show a client an image with a strand of grass like that coming through it. It gets removed or the image is deleted. I'm not buying the washed out look. There's also blurred grass in front of the hand. Those are problems. The idea is interesting. No. 3 has some similar grass problems and there's no light on her face. You have flat light against back light, which doesn't seem to work. I don't mind back light but I'm not a big fan of flat light. Dimension is usually more visually appealing, especially for females. No. 4 works reasonably well and might benefit from experimentation with more toning options. The rim light makes more sense in this image than No. 3, I think because of the B&W. But the way she's sitting and her clothes fall make her look wide.

12sndsgood · Nov 22, 2013

Yeah on 1 that was more then likely her just finding the seeds and blowing them so I just had her do it again for the camera and didn't think about which side the light was on her at the time but good point. In 2 I like that layering effect in photos. the strands of grass don't bother me, I like that they add depth and that your almost looking thru the weeds at her, as long as the strands aren't blocking her face which to me is the most important part I'm okay with them. I agree with you about the lighting. working with the heavy setting sun backlighting and s strobe was what we came out for that day. I think they were just getting washed out so its defiantly something I need to still work on in that aspect. I see what you mean by the way her coat was falling in the back on 4 I really had to work with her because she has bad Scoliosis so she has this really heavy back arch that I was trying to work with. defiantly adjusted the way I was trying to pose her. Thanks for the critique.

Robin_Usagani · Nov 22, 2013

I checked out the set, I liked the one where she wasnt looking at the camera. Overall i think she looks stiff. Ask her to think about something funny and capture that smile.