Emily S. Studio Session

patrickhlenz

Hi All,

I shot Emily last week and here are some of my shots. The color combinations between her outfit and the backgrounds are a bit questionable...:nono

C&C very much welcomed...Thanks in advance.

P

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VayCayMom

wow this is cool stuff, but give us more details! wacky appliances, that stove is making me feel a bit strange!!
Yeah, not liking the purple clothing, but the background is great for her skintone inmho. what is this for?

Seneca

Where are the images with the stove? I so think that is so cool looking.

patrickhlenz

VayCayMom wrote: »

wow this is cool stuff, but give us more details! wacky appliances, that stove is making me feel a bit strange!!
Yeah, not liking the purple clothing, but the background is great for her skintone inmho. what is this for?

Emily does local modeling and she was looking for a few shots, so I offered. We'll see how she likes the color combos...yikes! She brought way too many purple colored clothes to this shoot. This is a local studio that others in my photography group are able to take advantage of. The props on site are a collection from us members to share with each other. The stove and the pipe dude in the shot with Emily are very heavy, but thankfully I had someone that could help with the lifting.

patrickhlenz

Seneca wrote: »

Where are the images with the stove? I so think that is so cool looking.

The images with the stove didn't make the cut. I had to consider the queasiness effects on VayCayMom and others so I'm sparing you all.

zoomer

Patrick I am critiqueing because you asked.
Very cute girl and looks like a fun project.
The photos do not look very sharp.
Looks like a levels adjustment is needed as they look a bit dull over all.
The background appears to have put a color cast on her skin...overall too pink which makes her skin blend with the background.
Overall they are not bad pics...I like the posing and composition choices....just a bit of processing required.
Hope you find this constructive...as was my intent.

patrickhlenz

zoomer wrote: »

Patrick I am critiqueing because you asked.
Very cute girl and looks like a fun project.
The photos do not look very sharp.
Looks like a levels adjustment is needed as they look a bit dull over all.
The background appears to have put a color cast on her skin...overall too pink which makes her skin blend with the background.
Overall they are not bad pics...I like the posing and composition choices....just a bit of processing required.
Hope you find this constructive...as was my intent.

I have this habit of putting negative values in the Clarity adjustment in LR3 to soften photos; especially of women. Maybe this is what's going on??? I may have to lay off of that adjustment in the future.

That darn background has caused me headaches from the onset. It was supposed to be coral, but looks much more pink than coral. And with the purple? Not good color combinations I suppose. Oh well, live and learn.

I appreciate your feedback Zoomer!

Hackbone

Just some critique, take it for what you need or want. Most of the lighting is flat. She has a slight full face some some modeling of the light would have helped to make the face appear more slender. I really like #2, you have a great beginning of a shot there. If the main would have been more to her right and not so much fill it would have given you a great shading on her face.

#5 has the start of the shading I was speaking about. Turn your fill down more.

You could have enhanced the color of the background by playing with your background lights. It would have even changed the intensity of the color.
Also watch out for the hair in the face. Hope that helps.

patrickhlenz

Hackbone wrote: »

Just some critique, take it for what you need or want. Most of the lighting is flat. She has a slight full face some some modeling of the light would have helped to make the face appear more slender. I really like #2, you have a great beginning of a shot there. If the main would have been more to her right and not so much fill it would have given you a great shading on her face.

#5 has the start of the shading I was speaking about. Turn your fill down more.

You could have enhanced the color of the background by playing with your background lights. It would have even changed the intensity of the color.
Also watch out for the hair in the face. Hope that helps.

Hey Hackbone, thanks for the thoughts. She was really liking #2 as well, but she wanted that hair removed from her eye in Photoshop. I told her I didn't have the ability to do so and that's the truth. I think I would end up making it worse. I need to watch for those things before pulling the trigger. On #5, I actually didn't have the fill light firing, but I think the white wall that was nearby was providing the fill more than anything...does that sound reasonable? There is a shooting bay directly to the left of the one I was using that is lined with black curtains; I may want to set up in that one in the future to avoid the unintended light reflections. I will give your lighting recommendations a shot with my next shoot - thank you for weighing in!

With the background lighting; what did you have in mind as far as "playing"? Different colored lighting or just the intensity and positioning of those lights?

Thanks once again for your feedback and helpful suggestions.

P

zoomer

You can zoom way in tight and remove the hair with the cloning tool, fast and easy.

Hackbone

patrickhlenz wrote: »

Hey Hackbone, thanks for the thoughts. She was really liking #2 as well, but she wanted that hair removed from her eye in Photoshop. I told her I didn't have the ability to do so and that's the truth. I think I would end up making it worse. I need to watch for those things before pulling the trigger. On #5, I actually didn't have the fill light firing, but I think the white wall that was nearby was providing the fill more than anything...does that sound reasonable? There is a shooting bay directly to the left of the one I was using that is lined with black curtains; I may want to set up in that one in the future to avoid the unintended light reflections. I will give your lighting recommendations a shot with my next shoot - thank you for weighing in!

With the background lighting; what did you have in mind as far as "playing"? Different colored lighting or just the intensity and positioning of those lights?

Thanks once again for your feedback and helpful suggestions.

P

You have instant feedback from your viewing screen. Just don't shoot cause you can. Take a shot and view it and make your judgements. Drop the power of the light down to darken the bkg. Keep your subject at least six feet from your background if possible. Don't let any of the main light hit the bgk. You can even put colored gels over your bkg light for different effects or snoot your bkg lights.

Feather your light meaning pivot the light slightly away from your subject but this will change your f stop slightly. Also you can shoot thru your umbrella. Again effects the f stop. Try moving the light really close just out of camera range.