Serious girl portrait (c&c welcomed)

[Igor]

My wife's niece asked for a portrait session, so we had one the other day...
It was hard to make her smile, and INHO she looked better when serious/not smiling indeed :huh:
So... all comments appreciated: color/compo/lighting/crop/whatever...
Thanks.

[robinp]

Very nice Igor - no smile needed :)

Cheers, Robin

[Auminer]

Looks very good here too Igor, but then I'm not a portrait expert either. I believe this girl will shoot very well either way or any way, she is admirable and poised. You are fortunate to have such talent available...this includes your wife! ;)

Dave

[Linda G]

I agree, Igor, no smile needed. I would like to see you direct the light more in front of her, giving her more shadows and less light on the side of her face.

That is something that has been drilled into me by my mentor so use it or not. :getdown:

He showed me how to do it, I had the light directed from the side right onto her face. He left the lightstand where it was but turned the light so it was aimed across in front of her face. There was still plenty of light on her face but looked so soft and pleasing!

[JPS]

I agree with all the others about the smile ! (i don't think that it's the smile that makes a good pic...). I like very much the first one, with the right eye brightening the shadowed part of her face !

...but WHY did you blurred her arms ? ...my eyes keep going back to the lower part of both pics :undecided !

Cheers,
J-P.

[sandman]

As you know i don't reply to portraits much , because i know sod all about them , but a couple of things here , i'd take the watch off and close her arms , the hint of cleavage don't work for me , and as JPS has said , why the blurred elbows ? .
Now for the good part , i think it's a nice piece of portrait work as far as lighting and sharpness goes .
Thats my portrait critique for the year .

Brian

[Markytp]

Nice work Igor,

You've come so far in such a short period of time. Want to share your setup, camera, lens etc etc?? :)

#1:
On the critical side, the watch is bugging me. My eyes keep coming back to it, very distracting, it takes away a little from her eyes.

Did you deliberately blur her elbows? If so what was your intention in doing so? Was it to emphasize the upper part of her body? Also there is a section of hair over her left ear that protudes out like a loop, might be worth asking your model to smooth it into place.

On the positive side, great separation and choice of background. The eyes are tack sharp. Composition is good, it works with her not smiling. Colours are crisp and sharp. Good catchlights in both eyes.

Nice job! :)

#2:

Sorry buddy, doesnt do anything for me at all. Background colour is a bit "harsh" for the subject matter IMHO, also on her neck she has a mole which is not evident in #1. It's one of things that when you've spotted it, your eyes keep coming back to it. Some models will ask for them to be PS'd out, some want them left in as it is the "Real" them. Again, the image is sharp in the important areas, but the drop off as you move down the image in sharpness takes a little away from the overall result.

A very pretty young Lady. Good work, you got this skill nailed :)

Mark

[BARBARA LUKE]

HI I agree with some of the comments.... Well i'm no expert infact I don't think i am a portrait photographer at all , {{{{I would love to be)}}}} , but i know what i like and i think on your shots the eyes have it ......they are lovely....I would have given the pics a shorter crop as the arms are a little distracting... smashing background tho.......They are better than anything i could do .... regards Barbara

[puntisaks]

I like first. The arm blur is ok. I think the eye more power if the other part a little blur. Very nice work.

[jesd]

I like #1, and the expression on her face and the color and skin tones! I don't favor the watch and the blurred elbows. #2 does not do much for me.

cheers,

Jes

[bchan3rdi]

I agree about the watch, it fights with her eyes. I tend to like more shadows like Linda was saying. I actually do like the arms falling out of focus but that is just mho. I do also like the colours.

[Duck]

Igor, you got some great comments, and I agree with most of them... the only thing I may add is to show a little more of her neck line in the first one... have you throw her hair more over her shoulders and show the beautiful neck line... otherwise, I think you did extremely well! :cool:

Oh, I forgot one more... Image #1: BROAD lighting is how you have her, turning her chin more toward the light, and give some SHORT lighting...

BROAD Lighting: Refers to the main light hitting the broadest part of her face
SHORT Lighting: Refers to the main light hitting the part of the face we see the least.

Short Lighting is flattering on a woman, while BROAD lighting is better for men... (these are just guidelines, and not necessarily RULES)

[Igor]

Thank you (and I do mean THANK YOU!) for the comments/suggestions, I do need them to polish my skills.

In short:

- agree about lighting with Duck, moving her head a bit to shadow would make it better.

- elbows (as well as all lower part) were blurred/darkened intentionally to focus on face/eyes. Maybe overdone?...

- don't know why I like the #2 too... my first try in shooting from mode;'s back, kinda fresh look

- setup: two 100W strobes w/softboxes, SLR/n , Nikon 28-70/2.8

Thanks again to every one! :grouphug:

[Duck]

Igor, may I suggest one more option with your lights on the first image... Move the main light a little above her, called butterfly lighting, because is causes a shadow below the nose, that resembles a butterfly... (Very flattering on women)

[Serge]

Very Mona Lisa Igor, great lighting, maybe tone down the backdrop a little :goldcup:

[Camarochas]

Igor,

I agree with most of the comments posted, especially related to the watch. I's a lso have brought the main light in from her right side (or turned her hes to the left to stablish a "short" lighting pattern. The ratio is fine; could even have been a little more shadow on the shadow side, but that's preferential. I also think you could have cropped in tighter and a little tilt of ther head might enhance the composition. The background is very nice.

Whenever I do portaraits, I like to tell the subjects not to wear white unless I'm going to do a high key portrait. The viewer's eye goes to the brightes part of the photo first (for most photos) and in this case it is her sweater. A color that is complimentary to the backgroud would set her face an eyes off nicely. Try changing the color of her sweater (in P-Shop) and see how it looks.

Bye the way, I put my photographs up for critique every month in our local camera club and I also judge a soe,of the local clubs. So I know it's a lot easier to critique a photo than it is to make the photo.

In photo #2 I think we need to see just a bit more of her left eye and I think the light shoud be more dramatic for a profile. Try the main light from about 45 degrees behind her.

Overall, nice work. Great color and well exposed.

[Camarochas]

Igor,

I agree with most of the comments posted, especially related to the watch. I's also have brought the main light in from her right side (or turned her head to the left to establish a "short" lighting pattern. The ratio is fine; could even have been a little more shadow on the shadow side, but that's preferential. I also think you could have cropped in tighter and a little tilt of her head might enhance the composition. The background is very nice.

Whenever I do portaraits, I like to tell the subjects not to wear white unless I'm going to do a high key portrait. The viewer's eye goes to the brightest part of the photo first (for most photos) and in this case, it is her sweater. A color that is complimentary to the backgroud would set her face and eyes off nicely. Try changing the color of her sweater (in P-Shop) and see how it looks.

In photo #2 I think we need to see just a bit more of her left eye and I think the light shoud be more dramatic for a profile. Try the main light from about 45 degrees behind her.

Bye the way, I put my photographs up for critique every month in our local camera club and I also judge at many of the local clubs. So I know it's a lot easier to critique a photo than it is to make the photo.



Overall, nice work. Great color and well exposed.

[HairyHaggis]

Igor .. very nice work indeed .... I am falling behind your very quick learning curve here .... you seem to be master of all things to be photographed mate.

The main problem I find with my images is that they are not clean, now I am not sure if its the white balance or lighting, but you have nailed it !!! great efforts mate. :goldcup:

Do you custom white balance each of your portrait sessions, and how far from the model were your lights? Also, what colour was the room??? Might appear silly question, but it might answer some of mine ???

TIA

[Igor]

Thanks guys.
Steve, not silly at all, you know we must start from scratch to master the new things (like portraiture).
The room I shoot in is very small, about 3.5 x 2.5 meters. So the distance from softboxes to model is about 1.5m only.
I use Photoshop to make the contrast softer. Shadows/Highlights work best for me.

The walls are mostly ivory with pinkish/biege patterns.

I shoot RAW, when processing choose "FLASH" for white balance or shoot a test shot with white paper and "measure" the WB on this sheet.

HTH :cheers:

[Jacqui Jay]

Igor, lovely pictures of a lovely girl and lots of advice, not just for you but for al of us on site who are on this learning curve.

I think I'd like to see them with a more square format. I appreciate this would mean chopping off her elbows in the first one, but it should work in the second one.

[Igor]

Thanks a lot Jacqui, I DID have cropped the #2, but lost the waist area with elbows, which IMHO added to girl's slim look... not sure which one's more appropriate here, will wait till the girl (Natasha) sees the shots, her opinion would be the last/ most important :chicken: :lol: