Critique My first studio portrait

Hi James, what were you trying to achieve with this shot? How do you think you did?
 
The23rdman said:
Hi James, what were you trying to achieve with this shot? How do you think you did?
Click to expand...
I only used one soft box to my left. I was aiming to get half her face nicely lit and the other half in shadow. I like how it came it :)
 
Great. My only technical crit is that you could have achieved this look with the soft box closer to the model, which would have softened the light a little. That would have been more flattering on her skin.

As for the posing itself, it has to be said that she looks like she'd rather be anywhere else in the world. Never forget that a great photograph has to have all the elements in place.

Great first effort though.
 
I'm going to throw my 2p in. Just my opinion so take with a pinch of salt.

Firstly, well done for having a go. Pose looks ok and her left side of her face in nearly completely in shadow.

The background has a few wrinkles that you can see so maybe step your subject a bit further forward from the background.

Looking at your black and white conversion, I'd be tempted to tone down the orange saturation

Good first attempt though. Better than mine as I remember first trying out with lights!
 
The23rdman said:
Great. My only technical crit is that you could have achieved this look with the soft box closer to the model, which would have softened the light a little. That would have been more flattering on her skin.

As for the posing itself, it has to be said that she looks like she'd rather be anywhere else in the world. Never forget that a great photograph has to have all the elements in place.

Great first effort though.
Click to expand...
Sir SR said:
I'm going to throw my 2p in. Just my opinion so take with a pinch of salt.

Firstly, well done for having a go. Pose looks ok and her left side of her face in nearly completely in shadow.

The background has a few wrinkles that you can see so maybe step your subject a bit further forward from the background.

Looking at your black and white conversion, I'd be tempted to tone down the orange saturation

Good first attempt though. Better than mine as I remember first trying out with lights!
Click to expand...
Thank you both! I will remember your comments when I next try :)
 
Hi James. Had a quick look through the few on Flickr. Prefer the colour shot, 'Charlotte 6' I think it is. The mono conversion is not my cup of tea, maybe doing as Shaheed said would help raise the skin tone a little. But that's personal preference.

Having the softbox closer as Dean has mentioned would have helped alot with the skin and I think lowering the power of your light would have allowed you to lower your aperture a little as f11 will be into difraction levels so going for something around f4-5.6 would have helped out on the background a touch too.

A great first attempt, just keep at it and see how different settings affect your final image.

A good video to watch is 'One Light Workshop' by Zack Arias if you can get a hold of it.
 
minnnt said:
Hi James. Had a quick look through the few on Flickr. Prefer the colour shot, 'Charlotte 6' I think it is. The mono conversion is not my cup of tea, maybe doing as Shaheed said would help raise the skin tone a little. But that's personal preference.

Having the softbox closer as Dean has mentioned would have helped alot with the skin and I think lowering the power of your light would have allowed you to lower your aperture a little as f11 will be into difraction levels so going for something around f4-5.6 would have helped out on the background a touch too.

A great first attempt, just keep at it and see how different settings affect your final image.

A good video to watch is 'One Light Workshop' by Zack Arias if you can get a hold of it.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much
Charlotte-6 by Planetjamez, on Flickr
I like this one too :)
 
I like the B&W conversion and a great first go. However that lighting is not very flattering on the skin. Prefer the others in your set, just watch the hotspots on the cheeks they look excessively bright to my eyes on a couple. Looks like you are lighting at head level for those, do you access to a boom or a tall stand to light from higher up? If you can boom, try butterfly lighting on that model.
 
Whippet said:
I like the B&W conversion and a great first go. However that lighting is not very flattering on the skin. Prefer the others in your set, just watch the hotspots on the cheeks they look excessively bright to my eyes on a couple. Looks like you are lighting at head level for those, do you access to a boom or a tall stand to light from higher up? If you can boom, try butterfly lighting on that model.
Click to expand...
Ill definitely give that a go! I dont have a boom but the stands do go higher
 
Just make sure the stand is sandbagged or otherwise secure, especially once you go above a models head hight and have one of the legs pointing in the same direction as the light.
 
It would help to study lighting and lighting patterns to understand what they mean, how to use them and what works best for the subject. That will at least give you a grounding for portraiture.

The harsh split lighting does nothing to flatter this otherwise attractive subject, usually this effect would be used on males.

"I had the chance to demonstrate them" - were you teaching? or did you have a chance to use/experiment with them?
 
dade_f said:
It would help to study lighting and lighting patterns to understand what they mean, how to use them and what works best for the subject. That will at least give you a grounding for portraiture.

The harsh split lighting does nothing to flatter this otherwise attractive subject, usually this effect would be used on males.

"I had the chance to demonstrate them" - were you teaching? or did you have a chance to use/experiment with them?
Click to expand...
I had the chance to experiment
 
Next time you try it bring the light further towards the front, not all the way but say 30 degrees from front and you won't get the left eyelash casting that shadow and it will open the left eye up more, you'll also get more uniform falloff on the right side as her forehead is lit more of the right than the rest of the face.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top