Yoga Instructor in Natural Light Outside - CC

[desmondlewissmith]

I've only played with a couple images, I'll post more later as I have another shoot in an hour.

 

[amolitor]

She's an interesting subject, but the light is extremely flat and cool. The lower half of the background does not separate well from her outfit, either. In that location, and with her fairly dramatic "look" I think some boldly colored clothes would work better. If not that, place her more completely against a green background.

The foreground is downright unattractive.

She's quite nice, though!

Try her with some more directional light, with a little more attention to the stuff surrounding her. You'll be great together.

 

[Rick50]

Some fill flash might help...

 

[The_Traveler]

IMO, the pose is ungraceful and not so flattering.
If you allowed editing, the comments might be more helpful and enlightening.

 

[desmondlewissmith]

First of all, thanks for the very constructive criticism. Wondering.... should I have maybe put a fill flash behind her to separate her from the background? Her desired background was the "canyon appearance" behind her. I definitely see how the dress and the background/foreground blend.

My hope was that because the dress was somewhat sheer, her skin tone would provide contrast, but it was a failed attempt... it started getting dark and I was running out of light. I wanted to toy with some fill flash in front of her but I was afraid I'd lose all opportunities as I had about twenty minutes or so of daylight left. I also thought that a fill flash in front of her would blow out the white dress with even the least bit of overexposure and since I was hoping to keep the background, I didn't even try it.

Please keep em coming.

 

[desmondlewissmith]

IMO, the pose is ungraceful and not so flattering.
If you allowed editing, the comments might be more helpful and enlightening.

I kinda figured eventually the "my photos are not ok to edit" would bite me in the Apricot Sugar Sugar... I've modified it to allow for editing.

 

[amolitor]

Posing yoga instructors is gonna be interesting There's FLATTERING and then there's CORRECT. A yoga instructor worth much of anything is going to tell you to stuff it if you propose any of the standard ways to make you look flattering! She's going to be all about correct alignment and so on. So, there's that. Block out some serious time and have her run through poses, since you're going to be looking for poses that are:

- flattering
- yoga-correct
- yoga-interesting

which is probably going to rule out a lot of things.

You might seriously consider two sessions, one in a studio where you just shoot high ISO and don't worry, just to work out what kinds of poses you're looking for together. Shoot a couple hundred frames, then sit with her and sort. She's going to like some things, coming at it from her yoga background, and you'll like others as a photographer. Hopefully you can build a short list of poses to really work on, and then go get some lights and a location and stuff, and do the real shoot.

I think Lew is correct that the pose is not flattering. Since my wife does yoga, I recognized it as "yoga style" and so didn't really register the "not flattering" part.

 

[The_Traveler]

I think too bright for much impact.
Unsaturated
a little local contrast enhancement will help a lot.

 

[tirediron]

Okay... where do I get 'Yoga' from this shot? I see an attractive woman in a long dress, outside in a park/forest setting. Why not have her posing in more appropriate clothing?

 

[gsgary]

She's an interesting subject, but the light is extremely flat and cool. The lower half of the background does not separate well from her outfit, either. In that location, and with her fairly dramatic "look" I think some boldly colored clothes would work better. If not that, place her more completely against a green background.

The foreground is downright unattractive.

She's quite nice, though!

Try her with some more directional light, with a little more attention to the stuff surrounding her. You'll be great together.

Or no clothes

 

[desmondlewissmith]

This last picture was taken before the light stopped. The prior shots are all in a different area and are full on yoga poses. I'll find a couple and post them now. Amolitor nailed on the fact that she didn't want assistance posing, just pictures taken. I also shot a few in her location, but I didn't have my seamless white paper and lights... so they are in front of a window.

 

[Mully]

Quick edit..... small file

 

[desmondlewissmith]

Exhibit B, yoga pose....

 

[desmondlewissmith]

The ones of her indoors are in a partially sheer top, I don't think I'm allowed to post them here...

 

[Mully]

No but you could send one to our emails