how to improve this, before post-processing

ivar

I like people. No, I love people. Especially looking at people. I can sit outside for hours looking at people (interestingly enough I don't like being in groups of people but that's not really relevant here :lol3).
So, one of my favorite things to photograph is, you guessed it, people.

I'm not a pro, but lately I have been thinking about doing a little shooting on the side; I am in the fortunate position that a lot of weeks I work less than 40 hours a week effectively for my full-time job, so that gives me a bit of time to play around. However, as many others, I need to get my confidence level up a bit first. I've been reading books, taking classes and been out practicing.
Something that I noticed is that the shots that I have properly thought about before I took them turn out a lot better as opposed to the ones I didn't think about enough, and that I'm more and more a believer of the "crap in - crap out" principal. If the shot is crap to begin with, no post-processing is going to make it better, at least not to the point that it is a great shot.

So, after all this irrelevant rambling, here is my question; What should I have done at the shoot to make this shot better? This shot is straight out of my camera, a direct conversion from RAW to JPG, no changes.

The details: Canon 5d mark II, 85mm 1.8 at f/3.2, 1/160th, iso 100
The main light (sun with overcast clouds) pretty much behind me, a little flash, off-camera, on the left of me.

I'm not interested in the post-processing of this one really but what should I have done to make it better when I took it? settings, lights, angles, etc. Please let me know and don't be shy. I promise you won't make me cry

:ear

Andy

For me, it's beautiful, technically, the shallow DOF with so much OOF before I get to the subject confuses me. At shoot, I'd have framed her more to the right, thus losing much of the OOF stuff to viewer's right of the subject. The bg falling out of focus behind the subject is very pleasing, keeping me on the striking intense look from this beautiful subject.

After the fact, of course, you can just crop it.

Scott_Quier

I'm with Andy on this one .... unless there's some meaning to be found in the OOF stuff on frame-right, I would have re-framed this (before shooting) to place your beautiful model nearer the right edge of the frame and let the OOF stuff fall behind her on frame-left.

Halite

I like your concept: beautiful model, casual pose, edgy, colorful setting.

What strikes me is the wrinkly, blandly colored poster behind her head. It isn't the most photogenic background to have in sharp focus. Did you take any shots where you moved her forward to the more graphic grafitti and poster in the foreground. This may have competed too much with her, I don't know, but it would've been worth exploring. It could've set up a nice echoing of the geometry of your model's hair and pose. When I see this much text, bold lines and punchy color in an image, I think comic book. I mean this in a positive way because comic books can be very visually striking. So I would say in a setting like this, explore the potential to use the background in a really graphically strong way.

sweet caroline

Um...let me see... This is beautiful. The light looks great, I like her expression, love the colors. I like the composition, too. The lines on the wall lead to your model, even though they are curvy. Yes, this would also look great cropped portrait orientation. SO, I'm no help if you are looking for how to improve this shot.

Caroline

divamum

sweet caroline wrote:

Um...let me see... This is beautiful. The light looks great, I like her expression, love the colors. I like the composition, too. The lines on the wall lead to your model, even though they are curvy. Yes, this would also look great cropped portrait orientation. SO, I'm no help if you are looking for how to improve this shot.

Caroline

tenoverthenose

First off, great shot! I like that you framed her on the left, with the OOF wall leading into her. Now that thats out of the way...

There is a lot of visual chaos on that wall, especially the text that is on the same focal plane as your model. Maybe it might have been better to have the if focus section of the wall be less chaotic. Or maybe the green and white section without any text is too clean in comparison to the rest of the photo. Another problem for me that the seam between the posters at your models left shoulder looks like a slightly off center split. The pose works better at her shoulders than it does her hips.

Wil Davis

Nice picture, great looking girl, nice colours…

…but to me it almost looks like two pictures joined together; the in-focus frame containing the girl on the left, and the out-of-focus right half - there's seems to be a vertical demarcation line in the middle.

I think the left half stands on its own; tighter cropping focusing on just the girl. The girl looks as if she could be sitting, or slouching against the wall, or perhaps sliding down the wall; she looks sort of awkward, and tighter cropping might fix that.

She has an interesting expression on her face. The lighting, modeling and texture of her skin is nice, and very natural.

The right half looks as if it doesn't really belong.

Fill the frame with the subject!



- Wil

PS: Here you go:

jeffreaux2

Andy wrote:

For me, it's beautiful, technically, the shallow DOF with so much OOF before I get to the subject confuses me. At shoot, I'd have framed her more to the right, thus losing much of the OOF stuff to viewer's right of the subject. The bg falling out of focus behind the subject is very pleasing, keeping me on the striking intense look from this beautiful subject.

After the fact, of course, you can just crop it.

My thoughts....EXACTLY.....

Out of focus foregrounds in portraiture really throw me off and that...in effect...is what you have here.


Also...with her pose

....Andy's suggestion would have given some room to her right....the direction her head is turned....allowing some space for her gaze. The crossed arms are a tad defensive....and will more often than not appear as such in portraits. Moving her to the right...which would bring her closer to the camera....would have given a tighter crop. With that, a less defensive pose with her hands on her hips.....or thumbs looped in pockets....could have given you a "look" that only showed the upper arms.


Lastly....clothing.

Ideally you would want a background that is less "busy". But....if determined to use this one, surely a solid toned shirt would have offered more "separation" from the background.

Your light, color, and exposure look great.

ivar

Woah, thanks very much for the kind words and the critique, guys!

Okay, resume; the general consensus is that OoF foregrounds don't work, and that in this case it would have probably been nicer to either have her more to the right of the frame, or maybe shoot portrait oriented so that the right half of the current image wouldn't be there (interestingly enough, during the shoot it seemed so 'logical' to put here where I put her. Just shows me, always keep thinking, changing, looking for other things).

Halite, I didn't really notice the wrinkling; it doesn't seem to bother me personally that much, but it's a good thing to keep an eye on.

As far as the 'busyness' of the wall... yeah, it's a bit busy. I probably wouldn't use it for a 'real' shoot, but it was something that was close. Plus, I figured I should be able to make the best out of all situations, that includes busy backgrounds

jeffreaux, I agree with you on the arms; It does have the potential to look a bit defensive. I'll see if I can reshoot her, and try something different with the arms. As far as the clothing, yeah, I wouldn't have used it for a real shoot, but it was kind of a spur of the moment thing.

Will, thanks for the illustration! I personally wouldn't have cropped her this way because of that little bit of shoulder missing. I would have tried to keep all of it.

Thanks again, all of you!