''Tuff Girl'' (part one)

esselle · Jun 5, 2013

My daughter is 17 and is into boxing. I posted a thread about this in the beginners section...that I'd like to do a set with her in the gym, 'in action' with her coach, so to speak. Punching the bag, etc. Tonight, decided to snap some of her in the garage. (yes, my garage is a mess!)

This ended up being harder than I thought. (I have so much to learn about this!) But, I have to keep practicing to get better. This is just the first 'round.' More to follow, maybe over the weekend when I have more time.

**Please feel free to edit, if you have some ideas you would like to see here.

.

Thanks for following!

cenote · Jun 5, 2013

Lighting seems dark on the face on most but last. Fill flash would help a lot (guessing you didn't use)
Last shot is my favorite, she looks most natural there.

esselle · Jun 5, 2013

agree about the dark faces. i appreciate the advice!

frommrstomommy · Jun 5, 2013

Agreeing with a lot of dark faces.. I like the two with her seated.. she is clearly the focus and I honestly hardly notice the mess in the garage.. I wish we could see her punching bag or whatever behind her though, then it would make more sense as to why shes in this garage. I like the idea of #3.. I'd get her a lil further from the wall though, and get some light onto her face.

mgChickenfoot · Jun 5, 2013

My thoughts: It might be good to manipulate your angle to make her look "tough". Getting down and shooting her below her eye line will make her look more dominant. Another thing that would be fun to experiment with is slow shutter speeds as she's doing some techniques. If you use flash, using it in 2nd curtain mode will make her sharp with a trail of movement behind her.

I think number 2 is the best. Very natural expression and pose.

esselle · Jun 5, 2013

frommrstomommy said:
Agreeing with a lot of dark faces.. I like the two with her seated.. she is clearly the focus and I honestly hardly notice the mess in the garage.. I wish we could see her punching bag or whatever behind her though, then it would make more sense as to why shes in this garage. I like the idea of #3.. I'd get her a lil further from the wall though, and get some light onto her face.

thanks mrstomommy! Your work is so warm and I can learn from u. I'm going to apply the ideas everyone's offering and try again this weekend. Maybe at her gym because there is a ring and punching bags etc...would be ideal. Thank u much for your advice here.

mgChickenfoot said:
My thoughts: It might be good to manipulate your angle to make her look "tough". Getting down and shooting her below her eye line will make her look more dominant. Another thing that would be fun to experiment with is slow shutter speeds as she's doing some techniques. If you use flash, using it in 2nd curtain mode will make her sharp with a trail of movement behind her.

I think number 2 is the best. Very natural expression and pose.

I really can use advice like this...I will try this then. Getting below her eye line. Excellent!

im excited to go for round two! No pun. :}

Tailgunner · Jun 5, 2013

Nice, I agree with the use of fill light to help eliminate a lot of the shadows covering her facial features. Anyhow, I really like the lower left seating picture. The jabbing picture isn't bad either minus the darkened facial features.

jowensphoto · Jun 6, 2013

I like the first two, aside from the cluttered BG. The second one wouldn't be hard to adjust - an S curve would give some contrast, making your brights brighter and darks darker - rendering the BG pretty much black.

There's also a way to do this using flash. It's not something I'm very good at explaining, but I'm sure someone else can

esselle · Jun 6, 2013

This site is great; to get objective feedback on such personal photos is hard to find...I'm soaking in all the advice and will see how my next set comes. Definitely a little flat agreed needs more contrast. TY much!

jowensphoto said:
I like the first two, aside from the cluttered BG. The second one wouldn't be hard to adjust - an S curve would give some contrast, making your brights brighter and darks darker - rendering the BG pretty much black.

There's also a way to do this using flash. It's not something I'm very good at explaining, but I'm sure someone else can

12sndsgood · Jun 6, 2013

Agree with the others on the fill. like the last one. might do some of her putting on her wraps, not paying attention to the camera. if you want that tough look you don't nessicarily want her looking into the camera with a big smile. you lose the toughness that way. for #3 id try to get her arm down a bit. lose some of the glove and just catch the top half of the glove that way you can have her going back as a leading line to her face. just an option. besides shots of her hitting the heavy bag and speed bag and in the ring.

Big Mike · Jun 6, 2013

A garage can be an excellent place for photography...the open door can become a huge softbox. But to really take advantage of that, you have to shoot sideways inside the garage, so that the door is to the side of your subject. It looks like you had that set up in #3, but you really underexposed that one. How are you metering? What mode are you shooting in?

Just as an idea, when I think of photos of a boxer...I think sweaty, hard training type shots. So you might shoot her after she's been working out for a while...or you can fake it by getting her wet. Something I've always wanted to try, is to have an athlete rub oil on their skin (maybe baby oil) and then mist them with water. The oil should help the water to bead up to really make it look like sweat. Then I'd use some really dramatic lighting, maybe making it look like ring lights in a dark arena.

esselle · Jun 6, 2013

Big Mike, thank you for the feedback!
i mainly use manual mode.
I showed the set to a few others...They agreed...to shoot more of her actually in motion/in action with the sport. I'm not good at shooting people in motion, though, but if I don't do more of it, I'll never get better at it. Much to improve upon here, and I'm glad that I shared this with you all, because it'll help me grow.

teribithia · Jun 7, 2013

I want to view the original photo

esselle · Jun 7, 2013

teribithia said:
I want to view the original photo

Okay, will do.

I'm at work now but will post them later.

gregtallica · Jun 7, 2013

I see what you meant about the garage now, from the other post. In #1, if you have photoshop, you could try some burning & dodging to bring her out a little more and make that background much darker.

The way it really dims down in the others is cool.