Critique wanted girl against black

n1kcy

n1kcy

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Name
Nicky
Edit My Images
Yes
I took these shots of my friend yesterday in my home studio. I'm feeling thick skinned today and really want to improve my portrait skills. So bring on those constructive comments please, whether they be on the technical side, the posing side or the post processing.

Many thanks

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Hi Nicky. Liking #1, just a shame about the torn knee in the jeans, its bright and draws the eye. Also, clean up the bg, either in pp or at shoot. Looks like stray dog hairs ...

#2 is a nice pose, but I think the light camera left is causing some shadows which aren't flattering. Is your fill light to the right or at camera position? From the catchlights, it looks camera right. shows in #3, which seems too bright camera left also. Try the lights higher so the catchlights end up at 11 oclock or 1 oclock.

Were you using softboxes or brollies?

Hope that helps.
 
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I find the large pupils a bit scary, am I alone in this?
 
Thanks both of you for taking the time to comment, much appreciated. (y)

Photodiva said:
Hi Nicky. Liking #1, just a shame about the torn knee in the jeans, its bright and draws the eye. Also, clean up the bg, either in pp or at shoot. Looks like stray dog hairs ...

#2 is a nice pose, but I think the light camera left is causing some shadows which aren't flattering. Is your fill light to the right or at camera position? From the catchlights, it looks camera right. shows in #3, which seems too bright camera left also. Try the lights higher so the catchlights end up at 11 oclock or 1 oclock.

Were you using softboxes or brollies?

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

There are a lot of stray dog hairs, so I'll get tidying.
My fill light was at camera right, both lights were used with white brollies. For some shots I had a hair light (back left) with a snoot.

MatBin said:
I find the large pupils a bit scary, am I alone in this?
Click to expand...

You're the second person who's mentioned the large pupils, I'm wondering now if that was my fault as the room was pretty dark ambient (light wise)... :shrug:

I guess if I position the lights higher as Photodiva recommends, then I might get the catch lights into the pupils instead of the edge of the iris which might help.
 
Dull ambient light will cause her pupils to open up, they dont react quickly enough to close down (a little) when the flash goes off. If you had alight on the lens axis you would have probably got massive red-eye too.
Some do it for effect though.
 
n1kcy said:
Thanks both of you for taking the time to comment, much appreciated. (y)



There are a lot of stray dog hairs, so I'll get tidying.
My fill light was at camera right, both lights were used with white brollies. For some shots I had a hair light (back left) with a snoot.



You're the second person who's mentioned the large pupils, I'm wondering now if that was my fault as the room was pretty dark ambient (light wise
Click to expand...

may be it was the wine. :D nice pics same as above tidy the foreground in #1, and fire the light a couple of times before the shot to reduce those pupils, hth mike.
 
Thanks for the feedback, it definately helps.
 
the lighting is flat as its from BOTH sides.
#1 crop is bad as her knee is cut also you cant see the dogs face enough.
#2 the pose is OK but the hands and the champagne are superfluous. either show all the hands or none.
#3 Its a bad angle from high up and front on. and makes the head seem too big. Try offering a little makeup powder to take the shine off the skin. Yes the pupils are large but, I suspect that you have been using the flash on full power to cope with low ambient? I'd try raising and mixing the ambient with flash on lower power using gels to retain natural eyes. Not a bad start...
 
HBeevers said:
just quickly, in the 2nd image, her teeth seem to 'pop out' as being brighter than they should be. I kind of weirdly like the huge pupils in the bottom image, looks pretty cool. Also in the final image the stray hairs are slightly distracting, they could easily be cloned out in photoshop.
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I did indeed brighten her teeth in some, so well spotted. Thanks for commenting.

we11ingon said:
the lighting is flat as its from BOTH sides.
#1 crop is bad as her knee is cut also you cant see the dogs face enough.
#2 the pose is OK but the hands and the champagne are superfluous. either show all the hands or none.
#3 Its a bad angle from high up and front on. and makes the head seem too big. Try offering a little makeup powder to take the shine off the skin. Yes the pupils are large but, I suspect that you have been using the flash on full power to cope with low ambient? I'd try raising and mixing the ambient with flash on lower power using gels to retain natural eyes. Not a bad start...
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for all the pointers.
Is this an improvement for number 1 - I've fixed the knee and removed the dog hairs:
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In number 2 I was very conscience of her hands and spent ages trying slightly different poses, that was definately the best one :LOL:.

Number 3 was taken from an idea we saw in a book, I thought it added some variety to her images. It's always worth experimenting but no one really seems to like this one very much so lesson learned.

I have very basic strobes that just have 1/4, 1/2 and full power settings. I had the main strobe on 1/2 and the other on 1/4 but I think my studio is too small so I can never get the lights far enough away.
 
n1kcy said:
I did indeed brighten her teeth in some, so well spotted. Thanks for commenting.



Wow, thanks for all the pointers.
Is this an improvement for number 1 - I've fixed the knee and removed the dog hairs:
6927922881_f5d0213f5e_b.jpg


In number 2 I was very conscience of her hands and spent ages trying slightly different poses, that was definately the best one :LOL:.

Number 3 was taken from an idea we saw in a book, I thought it added some variety to her images. It's always worth experimenting but no one really seems to like this one very much so lesson learned.

I have very basic strobes that just have 1/4, 1/2 and full power settings. I had the main strobe on 1/2 and the other on 1/4 but I think my studio is too small so I can never get the lights far enough away.
Click to expand...

Yes that better, The dogs unfortunately never co-operate do they ? "Here boy" just makes em walk off the set!
If you are struggling with too much power from the lights try using one flash and a reflector If you dont have one use a sheet or a space blanket... If you want low controllable light use cheap flash units like the yongnuo 460. ( I use six of them and they cost the same as ONE dedicated flash.
Number two is definitely better. Hands are difficult as if people are relaxed the often have their hands together. They also look odd if you can't see all of them. The old masters knew this and its quite rare to see parts of hands in oil painting.

Number three is NOT really bad. Its just not well suited to this subject or the purpose. You see that angle a lot on TV promos and album covers. You can try making it more flattering to the lady by lowering it a little and shooting from 45' as she turns her head over her shoulder to follow you. ( This has the "slimming effect" ) Which the lady obviously doesnt need... :) You are getting there!
 
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