Portrait CC please

imonk

Hi all,

Would love some critique on this portrait, particularly lighting and pose. I was pretty happy with this. It's for the editor of the magazine I work for and she needed a new headshot for her editor's letter section. We didn't have too long but I used a 2 flash set up, umbrella camera right really close to the subject and a vivitar bare flash behind her and camera left.



And the same image in BnW



I don't shoot that many portraits but I want to do more and I found the posing alot more challenging that I thought I would.

Cheers
Ian

Qarik

for a pic in "letters to the editor" type of deal, I would have prefered just a neutral background with no texture, distractions. The pose is fine. The lighting doesn't rellay work for me for the context...it seems too dramatic with all the shadows and highlights. I think flatter lighting woul dhave served better in this case.

chaswes5

The lighting is fine and so is the model (boss). Now this could just be me, but it looks as if the photo is slightly out of focus or perhaps a little sharpening was in order. Was this a hand held shot?

zoomer

Sorry but not loving the lighting or the pose.
She does not look happy.
Lighting seems to contrasty to me as well.

It is not easy to get someone to loosen up to take a good portait.

This is a good start.

tonichelle

the photo is nice... but, I would think you'd want a more friendly looking picture for a magazine editor to appear in the actual print. She comes off very dark/moody/mean and I'll bet that's not really her. I'd be afraid to write into her.

johno

I would have to say, IMHO, it's to dark for me. I agree with some of the other comments.

One thing that I notice that bothers me with the color version, is the lighting off the umbrella seems warm and the back flash seems cold, more blue. Maybe it's just my monitor. But you can tell they are different.

I would defuse the back flash somehow for even WB and add a reflector under her face. You could have the subject even hold it in their lap. This would reflect light up under the chin and lighten up the picture.

Just my thought.

peace.
johno~

imonk

I really appreciate all your comments guys, thanks for taking the time.

We were trying for a more confident/pensive kind of look but I take your comments about it maybe being too dark. The colour temps of the flashes will be slightly diff now that I think of it because I used a light CTO on the umbrella'd flash camera right. I think the back flash is a touch too strong and yes, I think an umbrella will have softened it up a bit.

I think we wanted something a little more serious than the normal cheesy smile and the mood kind of fitted in with the editor's letter but I agree with most of the comments and I"'ll take them on board for the next one It's gonna be an outdoors shot and much lighter and breezier!

Thanks again for your comments guys, it all helps!
Ian

Scott_Quier

imonk wrote:

I really appreciate all your comments guys, thanks for taking the time.

We were trying for a more confident/pensive kind of look but I take your comments about it maybe being too dark. The colour temps of the flashes will be slightly diff now that I think of it because I used a light CTO on the umbrella'd flash camera right. I think the back flash is a touch too strong and yes, I think an umbrella will have softened it up a bit.

I think we wanted something a little more serious than the normal cheesy smile and the mood kind of fitted in with the editor's letter but I agree with most of the comments and I"'ll take them on board for the next one It's gonna be an outdoors shot and much lighter and breezier!

Thanks again for your comments guys, it all helps!
Ian

The pose is nice enough. Though for the intended purpose, I think a slightly more friendly expresion would be better. Don't have to go all the way to the "cheezy smile" image (I tend to agree with you on that one), but something more would improve.

As for the lighting:

• Get the color temperatures matched
• Modify the hair light a bit - it's bit too much "bare bulb" in this one
• If you have another light, use it to fill the shadow line on her face just a bit. I like the drama it lends to the photo but for the intended purpose it's too much.

For this sort of shot outdoors, I like to get the model to face from the sun and use some off-camera flash to fill the leeward side. If you are shooting at either end of the day, that's the time to think about using the light OTC filter on your flash.

kombizz

pretty model
needs better sharpness

imonk

Thanks for the comments Scott, much appreciated. The next shot we're going to try for is an outdoors one so I'll definitely be adding some more light to it. I agree about the flash temps too, I never even noticed that when I was PPing Doh!

And Kom, I'll be honest and say I'm quite surprised about the sharpness comment. Does anyone else think this looks soft at all? I have the original file in photoshop and the focus is dead on the closest eye and it's really really sharp. I shot this with the very sharp Sigma 150 and I actually had to blur the skin a little.

Thanks for your comment though, I appreciate you taking the time to look.

Cheers
Ian

Scott_Quier

imonk wrote:

And Kom, I'll be honest and say I'm quite surprised about the sharpness comment. Does anyone else think this looks soft at all? I have the original file in photoshop and the focus is dead on the closest eye and it's really really sharp. I shot this with the very sharp Sigma 150 and I actually had to blur the skin a little.

Thanks for your comment though, I appreciate you taking the time to look.

Cheers
Ian

I think the "sharpness" comment may be referring to the fact that the far eye is soft. For an "artistic" portrait, having the far eye soft may be acceptable - that's a personal taste call. However, for your stated intended purpose, you probably want to think about getting both eyes sharp by increasing your DOF.

WingsOfLovePhoto

I think the pose has the right feel for what you explained you are looking for but definately not loving the lighting. The shadow on the side I think makes her face look too full for someone wearing a turtleneck and gives her a kind of eery look. I also think it needs to be sharpened a bit. I think outside portraits might suit her.

imonk

Thanks again guys. To clarify, our magazine is quite a modern one and having artistic pictures in it definitely suits the style. We didn't want a factual snapshot/headshot so if it has a more 'artistic' look to it then I guess I'm happy

Thanks for the comments, I'm getting some good feedback, much better than all positive or none at all!!