DSLR Photography Forum

The big day, finally...

A week ago I had the chance to have a photo sesion with this girl... the goal is to make a series of pictures for her website. She is tv moderator and she needs to show herself in different clothes and situations...

This was our first meeting and with this came a long a lot to read about modeling for photography. I had the idea that it wouldn't be difficult for her, but then we realized that it is just very different so we are both in a learning process...

I have organized already a proyect for her to have different themes, as everyday life, life style, and glamour and all of them will go with different makeup and hairdo. I am working on my backgrounds at the moment, they are simple fabrics as I don't have at the moment something professional but still I am quite please with what I have so far.

As always in this kind of pictures light is the key, if you had any comment or advice to improve my pictures, feel free...

Thanks a lot!

#1



#2



#3



#4



#5



#6



#7



#8

Great series Irma, the backgrounds I find a little disturbing in some of them, maybe try to throw them out of focus, or blue the Backgrounds in Post processing a little..

Hi, Irma! I believe that you have done a really good job with this series. The personality of the subject is very well revealled. In some of the shots the lighting is a bit too "hot" and might be toned down somewhat. Because I am a bit old fashioned, I believe that most good "portraits" should include the subject's hands. Some of your shots do this and they are very effective in this regard. The last shot looks a bit awkward with respect to composition, as the model is leaning forward and touching the side of the frame at the right.

All in all...very nice work.

Regards.....Dennis

2, 7 and 8... You nailed those ones! I would liked to have seen the entire bag in 8, but the lighting, exposure and detail are spot on in those three. Nicely done Irma.

Jerry

Thanks for your comments....

Craig, I will be working today in my backgrounds... I have seen that my umbrella should have been a bit more to the background maybe? it was too much to the model I think.... I am also trying to get a third light to please it just right behind her...

Dennis, I know what you mean... I was also surprised when I saw all those pictures from setcards where they crop legs and hands... I see this kind of pictures very different from artistic portrait... My idea of this is that they want to be close to the model's face... What I've been trying to do is to frame with the inner triangle the arms and trying not to crop it.

Jerry, I am very happy you mentioned #2... I like this picture a lot but I was not sure about the light coming from the umbrella. #8 is the same reason as hands and legs, The original picture has the bag complete, but the girl looks far from the viewer so I had to crop it.

Hi Irma:

I am not very competent to judge portraits - but these look very good to me - in particular, I really like #2, #6 and #7

Hi Toad,

Thanks for your comment...

I am happy you like #6

Best set yet Irma.

I am not sure how big your room is but if you could get her away from the background a bit so that you can blur it a little more.

1 and 2 are fine (2 is the best in the set).

3 - don't like the pose so much - but it is a bit of a fun shot.

4 - The shadow on either side of her face is detracting from the shot (try and get some soft boxes if you can - or at least shoot through a white umbrella). The pose looks a little like she is trying to twist her head off.

5 - Ok - not so certain the square crop works

6 - Like the pose - but it doesn't work with the dark back ground.

7 - Quite nice

8 - The shadow under her eyes looks quite bad - fix it in photoshop.

Thanks so much Chris for your review and advice on my pictures... I appreciate it a lot! ...

At the moment I just have one place to hang my background but I might be able to give more room to place her farther from it...

I had my umbrella at the left and really high and my kind of soft box at the right... ( so ashamed to say this but I shoot with my light tent as a soft box because at the moment I have no $$$ chance to get a soft box.... ) however I have to say that the tent works really nice... and I love the shape in the eyes... and now that you mentioned the shadows under her eyes, it was because I placed it in the livingroom table... it was very low!! I will place it in my kitchen trolley, it is higher...

This is what I don't know how to fix....



The light from the umbrella hits the forehead and the nose.. is this because the umbrella is too close, to high... do I need a reflector to fill? this was my problem with the hairdoo and the shadows framing her face.

I think in this one I can show better my lights working... however I have the shadow and highlights...



Thanks a lot to all for your kind advice and comments...

123 terrific
4 nearly terrific
5&6 I didn't like
7&8 better than the first session.

Just a straight viewpoint not critique. Oh and the backgrounds I never noticed
I think you have done remarkably well considering you don't do much portrait work. Well done!

If everything is out of the shadow and no highlights, will it look flat?

NT73 Wrote:If everything is out of the shadow and no highlights, will it look flat?

Good question NT... still thinking about it....

Thanks for your comment dear NT...

You need your main light and fill light high and a reflector low to bounce some light up. Your "softbox" is too low.

Cheers,

Chris

Thanks Chris... I did some portraits with my softbox higher and it works much better...

I am happy for the change... I hope very soon I can get a real one...

Sun light comes from high up - it appears so much more natural when your lights do also.