Grasshopper's First Formal Shoot (C&C)

divamum

This was a shoot for a singer friend and colleague. I wanted to take pictures; she needs some new headshots and also just wanted some fun shots so... a match made in heaven!

Basically, it all went pretty well - biggest problem was not my rather primitive equipment, but the lack of SPACE!! Oh my gosh - it was driving us NUTS. I really really REALLY need more space - if I intend to do this again (which I do) I need to figure out how to set up in the basement where there's at least a little more elbow room. This point was made all too clear when I knocked the flash over and in my effort to catch it - which I did - bounced it off my HEAD... resulting a big ole bump on my noggin!! (However, studies have shown that electronics do NOT bounce, so I'm actually kind of relieved that my head intervened between it and the floor.....)

I'm completely braindead and have only managed to do the first round of PP on the first batch of obvious keepers, but..... how'd I do so far? C&C always welcome!

After nearly 6 weeks of sub-freezing temperatures, it was 60 degrees and sunny today (BLISS!), so we started outside. I'm very glad I had practiced with my (tinfoil) reflector over the weekend on a "just in case" basis Hardest part was that it IS February, and everything looks horrible - I'm not 100% convinced by the tree, but it was the best neutral background I could come up with which allowed me to bounce some light back in her face.

1


2


3


After a while, we went inside and did some more formal shots. (I was actually least pleased with these while shooting but was pleased on uploading that they were better than I had feared...

4


5


6 Dunno if anybody except me will like this one, but I actually like the lighting, shadows and all...



7



8 Clearly I've been reading too many of Nik's threads, since the short red skirt inspired all sorts of cheescake poses (well, attempts at) - there are a few more of these, but they need a whole lot more PP to fix background problems. However, these came out ok. Again, I like the shadows on this, although I'm sure they wont' be to everybody's taste!



9 Perhaps a little too "upside down" but oh, those eyes....

lisap

Overall really nice!

Love those eyes!!!! I think #1 and #5 are my favs.

Just some things I noticed:

In the outside ones, her hair is kind of fly away. The light on her hair is nice, but it kind of accentuates the fly aways. I know it's tough to tame that down though. I do like the casualness of the outdoor shots

#7 - I like a lot of your shadows and such, but in this one, there's something about the shadow on the right side of her nose that maybe makes it look a bit 'off'. I dunno...I keep looking at it and sometimes it looks fine and other times is doesn't. Shadows are tricky things!!

#8 - her top seems to be blended in with the background a bit much

I know what you mean about space indoors. And even when you do get a bit more space, it never feels like enough.

Sorry to hear about the bump on your head, but good saving the flash!!

I can't wait to see more once you're done processing them

-- Lisa P.

divamum

Thanks Lisa! Yeah, we definitely had Wispyhair-itis going on - I can probably tame some of those in PS, I just haven't got that far yet (these have had some pp but to my delight, not THAT much - mostly curves, a little skin/background distraction cloning and that's pretty much it.). I'll have another look at them once I can focus my eyes again

lisap wrote:

Overall really nice!

Love those eyes!!!! I think #1 and #5 are my favs.

Just some things I noticed:

In the outside ones, her hair is kind of fly away. The light on her hair is nice, but it kind of accentuates the fly aways. I know it's tough to tame that down though. I do like the casualness of the outdoor shots

#7 - I like a lot of your shadows and such, but in this one, there's something about the shadow on the right side of her nose that maybe makes it look a bit 'off'. I dunno...I keep looking at it and sometimes it looks fine and other times is doesn't. Shadows are tricky things!!

#8 - her top seems to be blended in with the background a bit much

I know what you mean about space indoors. And even when you do get a bit more space, it never feels like enough.

Sorry to hear about the bump on your head, but good saving the flash!!

I can't wait to see more once you're done processing them

-- Lisa P.

sweet caroline

Since I'm sick, I'm not going to comment on all these lovely photos. But I want to agree with you that you've got some nice shadows on #6.

divamum

sweet caroline wrote:

Since I'm sick, I'm not going to comment on all these lovely photos. But I want to agree with you that you've got some nice shadows on #6.

Thanks Caroline! Feel better.

Another one which just jumped out at me...

darkdragon

divamum wrote:

Another one which just jumped out at me...

I really like 6, 8, 9 and the new one. I think 8 is probably my favorite. I really like the pose and colors and it seems flattering to the model, IMHO.

The only think I wish for when i look at these is that there would be a rim light behind her to bring that black shirt out of the black background - or maybe try a chocholate shirt next time instead of black.

clemensphoto's

Very nice photo series. I like them all

blaser321

I like 1,8 and the new one You might try a crop of just the face in 8 to see what it looks like ? But it looks good the way it is

Scott_Quier

divamum - One general comment .... are you ready for it? ..... here it comes .....
YOU ROCK!

Comment #2 - love her eyes - you did good in emphasizing them. She's a lovely lady. You're lucky in that it's always so much easier and more fun working with a beautiful and interested model.

OK, now onto something a little more helpful/specific:

1. I love the way you worked mixing the light - the sun and reflector. It's really working for you! Nice smile. I agree about the tree - I'm also not 100% convinced but in Feb it's hard to find good outdoor backgrounds.
2. This one ... I'm not liking so much. The reflected light is coming from a lower position, putting shadows in strange places. Tree growing out of her head. She's square on to the camera. Arms. But, I love the animation in her expression! That's, sometimes so hard to get.
3. The pose (aside from the arms) here is much better than the previous ... she's turned from the camera just a bit, got a nice head tilt going, face is turned as well. Ooops - Tree growing out of her head.
4. Nice flat light. Dead expression. Hunched shoulders. Cut off arm/wrist. BEAUTIFUL EYES!!!
5. Some very nice butterfly lighting going here. I really like the intimacy implied by the bare shoulder. And those eyes are to die for! Watch for the stray hairs across the face/forehead. Clone them out if you miss them during the shoot.
6. This is probably my favorite of the bunch. Love the shadows! The expression. Is her head turned just a touch to far from the camera? Missing the whites of her eyes on the near side of her iris.
7. The light is just a bit too close to her face - you have some very fast light fall-off. You could mitigate this with some fill from the other side or just move the flash further from your model's face. Not too crazy about the very strong cross-lighting as it tends to over-emphasize some of her less flattering facial features. I love her smile - it's in her eyes as well as her mouth.
8. Cute! What could you accomplish with just one more light? Her top and shoes are lost in the background. A second light would mitigate that. With beauty like that, more "cheese cake" would not be out of line
9. This is all about the eyes! There's a sense of tension in her neck - not sure if I like or dis-like it - right now I just see it is all. I would be VERY tempted to soften/remove the lines in her forehead.
10. Again, a second light would help you so much - her top is lost in the background. Not too sure about the light fall off between her face and her hands/knees.

This was a very nice piece of work. FWIW - I think you can be well proud of what you've done here!barb :ivar

jeffreaux2

I think Scotts critique is spot on....and you did do a great job!

9 is too upside down.....which is easy to do with this pose. It wouldnt take a huge camera angle adjustment to correct it though.

One nit.....the white balance varies a bit from shot to shot outdoors......and also from shot to shot indoors......the latter being something that ought to be fixed.

A white reflector would throw back less light, but it would also be less specular....and the shadows would be softer....in the outdoor shots.

Scott_Quier

jeffreaux2 wrote:

I think Scotts critique is spot on....and you did do a great job!

9 is too upside down.....which is easy to do with this pose. It wouldnt take a huge camera angle adjustment to correct it though.

One nit.....the white balance varies a bit from shot to shot outdoors......and also from shot to shot indoors......the latter being something that ought to be fixed.

A white reflector would throw back less light, but it would also be less specular....and the shadows would be softer....in the outdoor shots.

Thanks for the comp, Jeff.

And, good point about the white reflector. I was going to mention it but got caught in the emotion of the moment and forgot.

divamum

You guys... lustlust THANK YOU!!

I'm working through them today and will be reworking some of these in the light of everybody's comments - for instance I think I can get the black top and background better separated - there's some wiggle room with the raw file so even though there's no light back there : I can probably improve the black-curtain-mime effect and at least get an outline of her arms and torso!

Scott, there are no words to express how much I appreciate the detailed critique. And I'm especially happy that YOUR nits are actually the same as mine... so my eye is improving all the time! Woohoo!

Jeff, I agree about the foil - in fact, right after we came in I said "bother - I wanted to do some using the white side as well" but she was already changing and the light had moved to where the tree was merely blocking it and there was nowhere else to go outside, so I abandoned it for this go-round (there will likely be more - we only got through about half the ideas we had AND got to have a really nice afternoon hanging out while we were at it). I had started with the silver side simply because I thought I would need the stronger light it generates and liked what it did for her eyes...

WB variatioin is because I'm doing it by eye instead of the numbers, and re-doing it for each shot The lighting sources/camera settings were the same, so in theory they should match. In theory Calibrator is the FIRST thing on my (growing) shopping list, and it will be my FIRST treat to myself once I have funds!

I really wanted to get some good "boyfriend shots" of her in that short skirt (figured with Valentine's day coming up, why not?) - we tried, but our main limitation on those was SPACE. She's not terribly tall, but even with that there just wasn't enough room to do it right so the angles are weird (eg the upside down shot) and we ran out of background. Etc etc. Learning curve... all things that ARE fixable now I know they are a problem. Having only done sitting SP's of myself and shots of a short child, I hadn't really clued into that so much . Must. Have. More. Space. ::eyes storage area of basement longingly, imagining it with two ABs and a seamless paper background::

And with all that... back to working through these. If y'all can stand it I'll be posting some more - with fresh eyes, i'm seeing completely different things today and there are some which I didn't even put in the keeper folder which really should be there. We'll see what I come up with!

Thanks again to all of you for the comments. I really, really REALLY appreciate it! lustlust

sweet caroline

Space is a big issue with adult models. Thankfully, my daughter is now something like 5' 2", so I was able to test full length shots on her. It didn't work out so well in my living room. If I hadn't tried with her first, I would have had my taller model friend come to my house, and would have been terribly disappointed by the limitations.

I'll agree with Scott that you rock! Since this is a friend, you'll have a chance to work with her again, right? And since you achieved some lovely pictures of her, I'm sure she'd be thrilled to do it again. I love low pressure photo shoots- they make for a wonderful learning experience. You're free to take risks and try things.

Caroline

Scott_Quier

divamum wrote:

Scott, there are no words to express how much I appreciate the detailed critique. And I'm especially happy that YOUR nits are actually the same as mine... so my eye is improving all the time! Woohoo!

You should be very concerned about the high-lighted statement - the fact that you and I are thinking alike - you should aim much higher!:D

divamum

Scott_Quier wrote:

You should be very concerned about the high-lighted statement - the fact that you and I are thinking alike - you should aim much higher!:D

Well, I didn't say those were my ONLY nits lol Seriously, if I can spot the same things YOU do in a picture, I'm definitely coming along just fine!!

Ok, a few more.

1. Here's a rework on one of the black-on-black shots with some more detail in the shirt, so at least there's an outline


2. And another outdoor one (I don't like the eyes in this one as much, but it has something about it I like)

jeffreaux2

I set white balance by eye to my own tastes as well. I generally adjust the WB, sharpening, and NR in lightroom on one shot from a location/set (all the shots near the window inside a reception hall?) then go back to the library and synch it with others of the set. Before I did that, I did much the same but saved the WB and sharpen and NR as a preset...."Divas under oak" and applied that preset to the images shot....under the oak for instance.

Scott_Quier

divamum wrote:

2. And another outdoor one (I don't like the eyes in this one as much, but it has something about it I like)

You don't see it 'cause you ain't a guy. This is a very sexy, flirty portrait. She's looking up through her lashes (not really, but the feel is there), she's go her left shoulder pulled forward in a very ... oh I don't know the word, but it's there .... position. This is a great V-Day photo for hubby's desk!

Grly

divamum! These are awesome! You really did a great job here.

lisap

Love the new ones you've posted too! That outdoor one is REALLY nice
I really love your indoor more dramatic lighting that you've been doing the last little while. I've been following closely so I can hopefully learn tons!!

-- Lisa P.

divamum

Thanks again everybody! I really appreciate the kind words - gives me confidence to keep at it :ivar

jeffreaux2 wrote:

I set white balance by eye to my own tastes as well. I generally adjust the WB, sharpening, and NR in lightroom on one shot from a location/set (all the shots near the window inside a reception hall?) then go back to the library and synch it with others of the set. Before I did that, I did much the same but saved the WB and sharpen and NR as a preset...."Divas under oak" and applied that preset to the images shot....under the oak for instance.

Thanks. I need to go figure out how to use the macros (presets/actions) and synch features of LR and PS - I can see where it would be VERY useful for strings of same-setting shots and save huge amounts of time. I feel like I"m really slow with this and it's taking forever to get through this batch (granted, there are a lot of them, but even so). Added to my list of things to work on!

Scott_Quier wrote:

You don't see it 'cause you ain't a guy. This is a very sexy, flirty portrait. She's looking up through her lashes (not really, but the feel is there), she's go her left shoulder pulled forward in a very ... oh I don't know the word, but it's there .... position. This is a great V-Day photo for hubby's desk!

Heee heeee... :giggle I'm smiling because I actually had to use the liquify filter to open out her eyes somewhat - because I was a few steps above her (we were using my deck steps at the time, and I was at the top) she was looking up at me and her eyes almost looked a bit closed. I thought my liquifying technique (such as it is... or isn't...) was pretty poor and way too obvious, but obviously it worked better than I thought

lisap wrote:

Love the new ones you've posted too! That outdoor one is REALLY nice
I really love your indoor more dramatic lighting that you've been doing the last little while. I've been following closely so I can hopefully learn tons!!

-- Lisa P.

"Dramatic lighting technique"? HA! Easy: have next to no equipment and even less space and move it around while thinking, "Hmm... I wonder what THAT might look like?".

Kidding aside (wait, I'm kidding?!), the reason I think this batch worked lightingwise is because I have a window with blinds which I can use for a little bit of fill - works better than trying to do it with lamps. I made sure this shoot was timed for when the sun moves around to that window so I could use it as I needed to - I control it with the slats (and I didn't really need much) and it meant that I had just a little bit more light available to me than just my one flash. I did a couple of WB checks to get the custom WB set the way I wanted, and it seems to have worked well - they're warm, but in general I don't think they're TOO warm. The other thing is actually probably the positive result of the lack of space - I have to light everything really close because there's nowhere else for the stand to go, which means that I'm getting maximum bang per buck (or lumens per buck, as it were) out of my little speedlight (I control it almost exclusively via FEC, sometimes shooting at -2 even when it's the only lightsource). I suspect if I was trying to work in a larger space it would actaulyl be less successful with this equipment.

Zanotti

Scott_Quier wrote:

You don't see it 'cause you ain't a guy. This is a very sexy, flirty portrait. She's looking up through her lashes (not really, but the feel is there), she's go her left shoulder pulled forward in a very ... oh I don't know the word, but it's there .... position. This is a great V-Day photo for hubby's desk!

Don't break my heart and tell me she is married!


Great shots, comp, lighting, poses - all just wonderful.

Not a sinlge shot of her left hand.............



Z



PS: #7 is a big winner in my book!
.

divamum

Zanotti wrote:

Don't break my heart and tell me she is married!


Great shots, comp, lighting, poses - all just wonderful.

Not a sinlge shot of her left hand.............

Z

.

Sorry Z, she's spoken for! giggle Thanks for the kind words - I really appreciate it!

Trevlan

divamum wrote:

2. And another outdoor one (I don't like the eyes in this one as much, but it has something about it I like)

Have to agree with Scott on this one. There something about her eyes that say,"I rock worlds..." You did a great job Diva, your photography has come a long way.