Samara W. Session

JulieLawsonPhotography

This is the first part of our session together. We broke it up into two days because she wanted some studio portraits and outside ones. Today was not a good day for outdoor photography so we decided to split it up. CC is appreciated. I think they turned out better than I thought, but of course...always room for improvement. I studied some lighting set-ups...but am such a hands on person, that I would benefit more if someone showed me the right positioning of my lights. I'll share more after our second session.

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Flutist

very nice

ChatKat

Julie - the lighting is nicely done. I like the 3rd-6th images - they are lovely and I bet she will love them. The first one her pose is not flattering to her thighs and her bangs are separated and cover her eye a bit. The angle of the knee on the 2nd is also similar and the trophy looks crooked. I'd PS the "seam" on the 3rd one where the backdrop meets the floor.

JulieLawsonPhotography

ChatKat wrote:

Julie - the lighting is nicely done. I like the 3rd-6th images - they are lovely and I bet she will love them. The first one her pose is not flattering to her thighs and her bangs are separated and cover her eye a bit. The angle of the knee on the 2nd is also similar and the trophy looks crooked. I'd PS the "seam" on the 3rd one where the backdrop meets the floor.

Thank you so much...you have know idea how I've fretted over the lighting. My "studio" is so tight that I don't have much room to move around....maybe one day I'll have a real one. I agree about the pose but she does like it so I'll keep it. I agree about the seam, I'll pull that back in PS and fix it.

1pocket

Because she has a little extra natural cheek creases, the lighting from the sides highlites those maybe a little more than you might like, although of course they improve the whole sculptural look of the photo, so what to do?

I would probably go into photoshop and create a layer copy, then use the clone tool to remove the creases. Which of course will not look like her But then slide the 100% opacity adjustment on that layer down until you have the right balance of remaining crease, so it still looks like her, but isn't quite so pronounced.

Scott_Quier

1 - angle of her left leg tends to make her thigh look a lot larger than it really is - it's a matter of perspective. This photo also would benefit from a bit of cropping - you have a lot of negative space above her - unless this was intentional for the insertion of copy or for signing or something.

2 - Same thing with her leg. WB is different from #1 as is the exposure. Need to work on consistancy? Then there's that background mess at the back - that's going to take some PP work. You probably could have used a much larger aperture to throw the background more OOF.

3 - This is nice! If this is a crop, I would re-crop it to move her a little further to the right in the frame and to save her elbow.

4 - This is the weakest of the set. The light if flat. I can see you have some light to the side. But, based on strength of light, it's your fill and the one from slightly camera left is your main light. You have the lighting strengths backwards (see your next photo for an example!:))

5 & 6 - These are, IMO, the strongest of the set and very, very nice. I like the lighting (#6 is better than #5). In both, the photo might have benefited from a light behind and to camera right to better seperate her hair from the background. As for the "cheek crease" - leave it there or soften it only a very small amount. Any more than that and you'll be changing her to look like someone else - not a goodness.

Overall, these are a good set and I KNOW the client will be well pleased!

crockett

Julie,

I think the single biggest difference you could make is next time try using a background color that more closely matches the color of the clothing that your model is wearing.

Our eyes are really attracted to the contrast between the light BG and her dark clothing. Your mind knows the BG is blah, so we end up on her dark clothing instead of her beautiful face.

I think you can see this just from the natural reactions.
5,6 get the most compliments. A big contributing factor to this is that the biggest contrast is the BG and her skin color. Your eyes naturally go to her face where they should.

Even in #2 where the BG appears more blue, it begins to elavate the photo because you have reduced the white/dark contrast because the BG appears darker than it does in 1,3, and 4.

I don't know if you've ever read anything written by Chuck Gardner? If not, google him and over the next month read his entire site. Especially the parts about posing and BG/clothing contrast. Great reading! Not the be all end all of sites but very good stuff. I wish he posted here. He does post over at FM quite a bit.

roentarre

Wow, she is such a beautiful girl and your photographs did her great justice!!

JulieLawsonPhotography

Scott_Quier wrote:

1 - angle of her left leg tends to make her thigh look a lot larger than it really is - it's a matter of perspective. This photo also would benefit from a bit of cropping - you have a lot of negative space above her - unless this was intentional for the insertion of copy or for signing or something.

2 - Same thing with her leg. WB is different from #1 as is the exposure. Need to work on consistancy? Then there's that background mess at the back - that's going to take some PP work. You probably could have used a much larger aperture to throw the background more OOF.

3 - This is nice! If this is a crop, I would re-crop it to move her a little further to the right in the frame and to save her elbow.

4 - This is the weakest of the set. The light if flat. I can see you have some light to the side. But, based on strength of light, it's your fill and the one from slightly camera left is your main light. You have the lighting strengths backwards (see your next photo for an example!:))

5 & 6 - These are, IMO, the strongest of the set and very, very nice. I like the lighting (#6 is better than #5). In both, the photo might have benefited from a light behind and to camera right to better seperate her hair from the background. As for the "cheek crease" - leave it there or soften it only a very small amount. Any more than that and you'll be changing her to look like someone else - not a goodness.

Overall, these are a good set and I KNOW the client will be well pleased!

I've got some tweaking to do on areas. I agree about #4. On the first one, I was trying to include her senior jacket, poms and her dance jacket. I know as I do this more, it'll get a little easier for me though. I do need to practice on how to use my hair light with darker haired people.
Thank you Scott for your feedback. It's always appreciated.

JulieLawsonPhotography

crockett wrote:

Julie,



I don't know if you've ever read anything written by Chuck Gardner? If not, google him and over the next month read his entire site. Especially the parts about posing and BG/clothing contrast. Great reading! Not the be all end all of sites but very good stuff. I wish he posted here. He does post over at FM quite a bit.

I've never heard of him, but I did go to his site and bookmarked it so I can read what he has to say when I get a chance. I can't wait to learn more, so I'll be reading it very soon.

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it.

JulieLawsonPhotography

roentarre wrote:

Wow, she is such a beautiful girl and your photographs did her great justice!!

Thanks roentarre.

ivar

Nice going

I think I like #3 the best, because her smile seems the most natural in that one.
In #1 it looks like she is sitting in the snow, with bare legs for some reason, and that just makes me think that she must be cold

JulieLawsonPhotography

ivar wrote:

Nice going

I think I like #3 the best, because her smile seems the most natural in that one.
In #1 it looks like she is sitting in the snow, with bare legs for some reason, and that just makes me think that she must be cold

!!!!