Nice lighting. I feel like raising the camera and having her look up a bit would give her a more flattering chin line and add some separation from her neck. Was the shoot a one time deal? Also, as I looked at the pic, the collar fought with her face for my attention. Is there a way you could burn down the collar to match the rest of her shirt? Otherwise, I think it is a well executed shot.
Nice lighting. I feel like raising the camera and having her look up a bit would give her a more flattering chin line and add some separation from her neck. Was the shoot a one time deal? Also, as I looked at the pic, the collar fought with her face for my attention. Is there a way you could burn down the collar to match the rest of her shirt? Otherwise, I think it is a well executed shot.
Great observation... the one thing I didn't have on hand was a ladder. I forgot how tall she was and that she had gained some weight recently. I'll play with burning the color - I cringed when I saw the white shirt.
No reason to cringe on the white shirt. I just wouldn't have shot her on a dark BG. My making the BG dark the high contrast part of the photo becomes her white shirt (we tend to ignore the dark colors).
If the BG would have been lightly colored, the highest contrast area in the photo becomes her face and draws our eyes to that, where you'd like it to be.
In the B+W her teeth seem WAY too white and need to be turned down in my opinion.
Overall, I think you did a very good job.
Oh, one more small thing. I'd be tempted to get out the cloner and erase all the fly away hair on the left side of the frame, but probably a lot more work than is really necessary.
Travis.......are you kidding that she is going to use these for Promoting her business.........
Skin may be dead on but it needs a bit o'tan....she looks anemic......it was not a MUA she needed as much as a hair stylist.......YOUR WORK IS VERY GOOD......but you cannot get rose extract from a stack of onions.........over all the b/w looks the best....the color one is too light......looks as if she had only a white base makeup on that really reflected the light off her face.........what a nightmare..............
Thanks for the great feedback. Crockett, The dark background was actually a mistake on my part. I needed to have dropped the shutter speed another stop or 2. The fly-away hair...she actually liked that. Go figure.
Art, I agree with you. The whole shoot was a struggle just to get her in front of the camera. I must admit that I've never had that experience with a a client before. Seriously, it took her 2 hours to get ready - only 20 minutes of which was actually spent getting ready. She did ask if I could make her tan in post...
You would think that if someone was going to hire someone to photograph them for their business, they would actually care about what they looked like. I don't get it.
Being the mother of a Miss America contestant... ouch. This gal has a harsh look, I agree to get rid of her fly away scraggly hairs. That hair is the first thing I notice, and her haircolor is all one color, maybe a really bad hairdresser!
Is MUA something about makeup?
She has very manly features, it may be a good thing her chin is a bit blended into the shot. What really seems to be missing to me is some color, her hair, her eyes and her skin and shirt all look the same, too bad she doesn't at least have blue eyes. Popping her skin color without adding red might help. At least she wore lipstick.
The color looks better to me than the BW.
What is she expecting? What is her age? I might be tempted to try softening it a bit.
I think you did well with a challanging client.
In my opinion, the color version has some strong merits. I like the eye-to-eye frankness. A higher viewpoint, which another poster has suggested, would to my mind aggravate a certain ambivalence which is already present in the image - about what emotional value the image is meant to have. A higher viewpoint would tip that towards glamor, which is already suggested by the makeup, light and coloring. All of which are very nice, but... do they mean what you and your client want this image to mean? I do think a little attention is needed to balance the eyes and teeth, the face and the near shirt collar, and to lift the underexposed hair line next to her face on her right side.
For a business introduction, I would be inclined to desaturated the lips, and also the hair to a very very small degree, and to bring out the beautiful light and energy in the hair - you can see it in the b&w (I love this complex hair style, with a touch of louche wildness!), and as well cut back the brightness of the shirt. Then balance the face.
This is a strongly featured face with strong psychological effect. I think it should fill the frame more, so I would crop to the pearls and on the left side to the hair without the flyaways, leaving the lovely contrast of the background and the hair in the upper right.
Would like to see you try all that, if you like to.
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Great observation... the one thing I didn't have on hand was a ladder. I forgot how tall she was and that she had gained some weight recently. I'll play with burning the color - I cringed when I saw the white shirt.
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If the BG would have been lightly colored, the highest contrast area in the photo becomes her face and draws our eyes to that, where you'd like it to be.
In the B+W her teeth seem WAY too white and need to be turned down in my opinion.
Overall, I think you did a very good job.
Oh, one more small thing. I'd be tempted to get out the cloner and erase all the fly away hair on the left side of the frame, but probably a lot more work than is really necessary.
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Skin may be dead on but it needs a bit o'tan....she looks anemic......it was not a MUA she needed as much as a hair stylist.......YOUR WORK IS VERY GOOD......but you cannot get rose extract from a stack of onions.........over all the b/w looks the best....the color one is too light......looks as if she had only a white base makeup on that really reflected the light off her face.........what a nightmare..............
Thanks for the great feedback. Crockett, The dark background was actually a mistake on my part. I needed to have dropped the shutter speed another stop or 2. The fly-away hair...she actually liked that. Go figure.
Art, I agree with you. The whole shoot was a struggle just to get her in front of the camera. I must admit that I've never had that experience with a a client before. Seriously, it took her 2 hours to get ready - only 20 minutes of which was actually spent getting ready. She did ask if I could make her tan in post...
You would think that if someone was going to hire someone to photograph them for their business, they would actually care about what they looked like.
My Images | My Lessons Learned and Other Adventures
Is MUA something about makeup?
She has very manly features, it may be a good thing her chin is a bit blended into the shot. What really seems to be missing to me is some color, her hair, her eyes and her skin and shirt all look the same, too bad she doesn't at least have blue eyes. Popping her skin color without adding red might help. At least she wore lipstick.
The color looks better to me than the BW.
What is she expecting? What is her age? I might be tempted to try softening it a bit.
I think you did well with a challanging client.
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For a business introduction, I would be inclined to desaturated the lips, and also the hair to a very very small degree, and to bring out the beautiful light and energy in the hair - you can see it in the b&w (I love this complex hair style, with a touch of louche wildness!), and as well cut back the brightness of the shirt. Then balance the face.
This is a strongly featured face with strong psychological effect. I think it should fill the frame more, so I would crop to the pearls and on the left side to the hair without the flyaways, leaving the lovely contrast of the background and the hair in the upper right.
Would like to see you try all that, if you like to.
Neil
http://www.behance.net/brosepix