Margareth - C&C Welcome

Joe Dukovac

So, I decided since winter is here in all its beautiful glory, that I should work a bit on my studio lighting technique. After all, many people do not want portraits done out in the snow, eh?

So, I got a lovely friend of mine to come over and do some modeling for me. She's never done modeling so, please take this into account when critiquing the shots. The main objective was lighting, the second (and more minor objective) was posing and framing.

C&C is much appreciated!

Thanks for looking,
Joe

1. I can't make up my mind whether I prefer the mouth closed.......


2......or slightly open.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8. She was a great sport, and did some expressions that I thought were pretty cool and fun!


9.


10. She plays in a rock band with her other 2 sisters, so I thought a grungy, angry rock look might be fun.


11. A B&W conversion for the hell of it....I'm going to work this one a bit more I think.


12.


13.


14.

anonymouscuban

Very nice. Love #3 and #7. These are great. I've been studying studio lighting and practicing as well so from my point of view, you have some great examples of Butterfly, Side, Broad and Short Lighting. I think the post work is great too. Skin tones are really nice. Doesn't hurt that she's a beautiful gal too. Love the tight crop in the first few by the way. No wasted pixels there. And I like the open mouth better than closed.

Great job!

00SS

wow !! simply stunning.. the young lady and your shots. I can only hope
to achieve such results in the future. Thanks for the inspiration

just for curiousity, did she want some of those shots without the birthmark?

Joe Dukovac

00SS wrote:

wow !! simply stunning.. the young lady and your shots. I can only hope
to achieve such results in the future. Thanks for the inspiration

just for curiousity, did she want some of those shots without the birthmark?

I did clone out the birth mark on only a couple shots to give her an idea as to what it would look like without it. If she wants it in, no problem. If she wants it out, equally no problem.

Thanks for your comment also!

Take Care,
Joe

anonymouscuban

Question... were these done with strobes? If so, were they gelled?

adbsgicom

Really nice series. 3, 6 & 7 really stood out to me.

Joe Dukovac

anonymouscuban wrote:

Question... were these done with strobes? If so, were they gelled?

To answer your question, yes they are strobes. Although, I also did use my reflector for some of the shots also. The strobes were not gel'd at all.

Thanks,
Joe

Joe Dukovac

adbsgicom wrote:

Really nice series. 3, 6 & 7 really stood out to me.

Hey Andrew,

Yeah, these are some of my favourites out of the entire session. They just seem so calm and relaxed to me.

Thanks,
Joe

Scott_Quier

This is a beautiful set. I love all but #14 - that one .... don't know what I'm seeing for her knees, but whatever it is makes her look like a double amputee.

Joe Dukovac

Scott_Quier wrote:

This is a beautiful set. I love all but #14 - that one .... don't know what I'm seeing for her knees, but whatever it is makes her look like a double amputee.

Thanks Scott,

Yeah, 13 does resemble that a bit eh? I think its because she had a pair of spandex underneath the ripped jeans. I might try to crop that one a bit. We'll see how it turns out.

Joe

rhondavid

Very nice set of a beautiful sexy woman. Lots of favorites. Very nice job!!

Joe Dukovac

rhondavid wrote:

Very nice set of a beautiful sexy woman. Lots of favorites. Very nice job!!

Thank you Ron! I think this is the first time I've had so many comments about a set The minute I downloaded the shots to my Mac I knew that I had had a breakthrough.

It was like a light turned on in my head as to what I was doing wrong with my studio lights. To be honest, I kind of pack away my lights and just never bothered to take them out for about a year now, because the last time I used them the shots turned out...."ok" but nothing special.

I am now re-invigorated to use my studio lights, and now want to pickup my portable battery for my lights so I can use them outside on location.

So much to buy, so little money!

anonymouscuban

Joe Dukovac wrote:

So much to buy, so little money!

Couldn't agree more!

Joe Dukovac

anonymouscuban wrote:

Couldn't agree more!

Who knows, maybe if I am a good little boy, Santa will bring me my portable power system and a softbox or two

Gary752

Hi Joe! My favorite ones are the ones where she is smiling and showing some teeth. I get the feeling she is more relaxed in those shots, and is being herself. She has some beautiful eyes, and you did a great job of capturing them! I also like the photos of her with the guitar as well!

GaryB

dlscott56

Really nice Joe! Since I'm trying to learn more about portrait lighting I'd like to ask a few questions if you don't mind.

For #7 it looks like your using an umbrella set about the same height, or just slightly higher, as the subject camera right? Is that shoot through or reflective? Are you setting the lighting very close in to the subject? And, lastly are you using a reflector here?

Joe Dukovac

dlscott56 wrote:

Really nice Joe! Since I'm trying to learn more about portrait lighting I'd like to ask a few questions if you don't mind.

For #7 it looks like your using an umbrella set about the same height, or just slightly higher, as the subject camera right? Is that shoot through or reflective? Are you setting the lighting very close in to the subject? And, lastly are you using a reflector here?

I'd love to share my lighting with you! I am using an umbrella for this shot (that's all I have is umbrellas right now) and a reflector, and it's set about 2-3 feet from her, camera right, about a 45 degree angle from the subject, maybe a little farther of an angle from the camera also. For the lighting to be soft, you need to get close. The reflector however was about 3-4 feet away from her. I wanted to just touch her a bit with the reflector. I also used another light, set almost to the ground about 3-4 feet from the backdrop with a 40 degree grid on it so that it shone at about head level. The backdrop light was set at about 45 degrees from the backdrop also.

I hope this answered you question. Sometimes I'm not that good at explaining things

Joe Dukovac

BroPhoto wrote:

Hi Joe! My favorite ones are the ones where she is smiling and showing some teeth. I get the feeling she is more relaxed in those shots, and is being herself. She has some beautiful eyes, and you did a great job of capturing them! I also like the photos of her with the guitar as well!

GaryB

Thanks a lot Gary! She was a little rigid and nervous at first, since she' never done modelling before, but in the later shots she relaxed, and did very well, at least I thought so.

Thank you for your compliments.

Take Care,
Joe

dlscott56

Joe Dukovac wrote:

I'd love to share my lighting with you! I am using an umbrella for this shot (that's all I have is umbrellas right now) and a reflector, and it's set about 2-3 feet from her, camera right, about a 45 degree angle from the subject, maybe a little farther of an angle from the camera also. For the lighting to be soft, you need to get close. The reflector however was about 3-4 feet away from her. I wanted to just touch her a bit with the reflector. I also used another light, set almost to the ground about 3-4 feet from the backdrop with a 40 degree grid on it so that it shone at about head level. The backdrop light was set at about 45 degrees from the backdrop also.

I hope this answered you question. Sometimes I'm not that good at explaining things

Thanks very much Joe!

Joe Dukovac

So last night I did a couple conversions for the young lady I photographed, for her rock shots. Any preference to either or?

1.


2.


--Joe--

Kalrog

Very good series. The lighting on the face and skin looks great and you got a great partner for testing there!

The one nit that I have is the catchlight in some/most of them looks a bit funny. They are dead on center and low and that looks "wrong" to my eye.

adbsgicom

Not working for me (these shots based on #10). Not coming across as menacing or tough (maybe I'm biased by the prior shots too much) which I'm guessing is what she wanted given that expression. If you can you might want to widen the crop a bit so the side of her hand isn't cropped off. Sorry. Been liking the others, though...

Joe Dukovac

Kalrog wrote:

Very good series. The lighting on the face and skin looks great and you got a great partner for testing there!

The one nit that I have is the catchlight in some/most of them looks a bit funny. They are dead on center and low and that looks "wrong" to my eye.

The reason some fo the catch lights look low is because I was doing some beauty lighting, which I had one flash above and one below the model pointed on 45 degree angles down and up at her. That's why you see those. I'm not too sure yet how to get those to look different, though I suppose you might not be able to. Maybe someone has some insight?

Thanks for your comments!

Take Care,
Joe

Joe Dukovac

adbsgicom wrote:

Not working for me. Not coming across as menacing or tough (maybe I'm biased by the prior shots too much) which I'm guessing is what she wanted given that expression. If you can you might want to widen the crop a bit so the side of her hand isn't cropped off. Sorry. Been liking the others, though...

Thanks Andrew! Yeah, this shot was just one we played around with a bit. It's an ok shot, pose and expression wise, but you're right, the other ones might be lending some bias. I'm sort of in the same boat with you there I suppose.

--Joe--

D'Buggs

Good to go!

Lottsa good shtuff here with my fave being #5 - Just like the comp and expression in this but I'd go with a crop that gets rid of the white, distracting blouse

#1 of the second set........ GOOD.

Mr. Quiet

I have to ask this question, sorry... How much time did you spend on PP? What kind of PP did you do with her skin, it's perfect...

Joe Dukovac

Mr. Quiet wrote:

I have to ask this question, sorry... How much time did you spend on PP? What kind of PP did you do with her skin, it's perfect...

I actually hate to admit this, but most of the blemishes were removed right in Apple Aperture. Then I ran the photos through a plug in filter called Portraiture (plug in for Aperture and I believe Lightroom and Photoshop). Total time spent on skin was about 15 minutes tops.

Her skin was already very soft and there were no horrible huge zits or other major things to tweek, so it was relatively straightforward and minimal. I know there are a lot of people who use Photoshop and spend a LOT of time working on these things, so for me to admit what I do feels a little like the kid in school who is cheating

Mr. Quiet

Good... I don't like to use them at all!

kres

#4 of the original set is my favorite. I love a good smirk.

Top notch job, wonderful presentation

Mr. Quiet

By the way, stunning girl...

Joe Dukovac

Thank to everyone who responded! I appreciate the feedback from you.

Take Care and Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah and a Happy New Year to Everyone!

Joe