John and Hugo, thanks for the CC style comments, that is what I was hoping for. Hugo, this image was taken for the makeup artist we used on the shot. He needed some stuff for his portfolio and we needed stuff for ours so we traded TFP, same with the model. This was her first time in front of the camera and it was a bit of a challenge to get her to stay close to the spot I set up for the best catchlights in the eyes, hence Johns observation that catchlight was partially in the white area and not really visible. I suppose we could make some catchlights with PS but decided to keep the image pretty much stock if we could.
This was the first shoot in the new studio so things were a bit chaotic running back and forth for goodies in the other place, figuring out where I had put stuff and basically a zoo. But it was a blast anyway and we all had fun. One of the images was just blown up to 20x30 inches and looks amazing, it is more of a formal portrait in a black gown, I am still impressed with the images that come out of that old Fuji, you just cannot beat the skin tones.
This image was shot using a 40 inch umbrella as the main light, a 7 foot octabank as the fill and a small stripdome as the hair light, a large halfdome for the background light. I used my 80-200 and backed up against the far wall for the shot. I wanted a little compression with the long lense instead of getting up close. Had she not moved forward you would have seen a better catchlight and her hair would have been a bit nicer where it is a bit dark, next time she comes over to model we will glue her feet in place. We shot about 400 pictures that day with 6 costume changes, I will post a few more as soon as they are edited.
Hi Phil, upon opening this photo there were a few things that immediately struck me:
First, the exquisite textures in the skin and the mode's hair in the top right, as well as the well eloquent make-up, matching the tones of the backdrop beautifully. Just gorgeous! It makes the close up approach work very well.
As to the composition, I still would prefer a little less close-up view; the way the hair line intersects with the top edge is just a bit close for my taste. That's obviously very subjective, but I think preserving the same margin as you did with the neck area, or even just a wee bit more would've balanced the composition just a bit stronger.
As to Robert's rework, I tend to like the natural skin textures better, although I see your point too; maybe softening up the cheek area a tad would balance the whole overview.
The reflection of the umbrella, as John mentions wouldn't have caught my eye if he hadn't mentioned it. I would, however, have liked to see a bit more contrast and brightness in her hair on the left of the image; the all black blends in a bit too much with the collar, if you see what I mean. It creates a rather dominant (near) black area, occupying a rather large part of the image.
The pose, and construction of the composition is very well balanced, though; excellent show case of the rule of thirds.
Hope this all makes sense; can't really comment on the use of studio equipment or on how to improve the lighting, as I've only just begun playing around with strobes...
Sorry Phil missed the critiques corner flag, I amnot sure how to fix this but here eyes are a bit 'dead'. The reflection of the umbrella is well off to the side and is lost in the white of her eye. Not sure what to do here with out trying a bunch of ps dots to see where something should go. There, thats better. JB
I side with Phil. I could tell in the thumbnail that it was too soft. Good news on the studio coming on line. Now I can bring down my antique books and scotch bottles and shoot em! JB
Thanks for the input, that blurring effect really changes things. Perhaps someting a little in between would be better, not quite as soft but yet a touch softer then the original. I could see that effect on someone in their 40s, but this girl is only 18 and it may be a bit too much. Will see what the others think.
Nice portrait from the S1! Hope you don't mind, but I did a little photoshop work to enhance this beautiful woman. I did some softning to her skin and brought out some of the color in her eyes.
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