Sophie and Isabel

Mike J

Just practicing here with my somewhat willing daughters as models. All shots were taken with 60" softliter II with SB-800. Softliter was high and in front just to camera right. Reflector directly in front just out of bottom of frames. Gridded and gelled flash on BG for the first four. I just noticed in these that I have a sync problem with the flashes (black bar on right). I was shooting at 1/250 with Cactus V4. Looks like I need to back it down to 1/200 and maybe even 1/160 with these.

All of these were processed with Portrait Pro. I'm trying to decide if it is too much. Thoughts?

Any C&C is welcome. As I've said before, I'm more comfortable sitting in the snow taking pictures of ski racers than I am doing indoor portrait work.

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5 Practicing hand placement but not quite happy with this though.

D3Sshooter

Red always does it, nice series. I like 1 and 4. Maybe a bit more neck in 4

zoomer

Nice portraits, good light and skin looks good to me.
Great looking young ladies.
Posing hands is tough...my solution is to just not.

Nice work.

Qarik

great light, nice focus and good processing! pretty girls to boot!

BrettDeutsch

The skin looks a little fake to me, particularly under their eyes and in the neck. But it's not so much as to jump out and yell "OVER-RETOUCHED" (a scream we've all heard too much of these days, I think). I'd clean up some of those fly away hairs, however; particularly those that fall in their eyes.

Mike J

D3Sshooter wrote: »

Red always does it, nice series. I like 1 and 4. Maybe a bit more neck in 4

Thanks D3S. The scarf is one my oldest daughter brought home from Ecuador. I have the same opinion about needing to see some of the neck on #4 as well.

zoomer wrote: »

Nice portraits, good light and skin looks good to me.
Great looking young ladies.
Posing hands is tough...my solution is to just not.

Nice work.

Thanks zoomer. So you just let the hands fall where they may?

Qarik wrote: »

great light, nice focus and good processing! pretty girls to boot!

Thank you Qarik.

BrettDeutsch wrote: »

The skin looks a little fake to me, particularly under their eyes and in the neck. But it's not so much as to jump out and yell "OVER-RETOUCHED" (a scream we've all heard too much of these days, I think). I'd clean up some of those fly away hairs, however; particularly those that fall in their eyes.

Brett - I appreciate your feedback about the fly-away hair and the skin. The skin is right on the edge for me as well which is why I was asking.

Hackbone

Great skin tones and color....good job on that.

Since you asked for CC I touch on what a judge might say. The oldest girl does not seem to be sitting up errect. You want to have a great base before you even set your lights so start with correct posture. 1 and 3 are broad lit and that makes the face wider than it actually is. With her body and head position the light should have come in from the other direction to create shadow that narrows the face. The way her hair is this would have cause a problem with a shadow on her eye. Try to keep the hair behind the edge of the eye socket to prevent shadow falling on the eye.

Judging by the catch lights the main seems to be too high unless your going for a butterfly or modified butterfly pattern as you have in some.

Try to expirement with your reflector and move it over to the other side of the main and not so underneath. There is a time where you do want it under the chin however.

Hands above the waist should go up and below the waist should go down.......these are just starting points and the rules are at times broken with amazing results.
When hands touch the face it is just, just, just (did I say JUST) barely touch so the face isn't squeezed or pouched.

Try to get a reflector on another light coming in from the main light side and behind the subject to kick some light to rim her and separate her more from the background.

I apologize for rambling as I'm watching the pre-game show. If you have any questions please ask for clarification.

Mike J

Hackbone wrote: »

Great skin tones and color....good job on that.

Since you asked for CC I touch on what a judge might say. The oldest girl does not seem to be sitting up errect. You want to have a great base before you even set your lights so start with correct posture. 1 and 3 are broad lit and that makes the face wider than it actually is. With her body and head position the light should have come in from the other direction to create shadow that narrows the face. The way her hair is this would have cause a problem with a shadow on her eye. Try to keep the hair behind the edge of the eye socket to prevent shadow falling on the eye.

Judging by the catch lights the main seems to be too high unless your going for a butterfly or modified butterfly pattern as you have in some.

Try to expirement with your reflector and move it over to the other side of the main and not so underneath. There is a time where you do want it under the chin however.

Hands above the waist should go up and below the waist should go down.......these are just starting points and the rules are at times broken with amazing results.
When hands touch the face it is just, just, just (did I say JUST) barely touch so the face isn't squeezed or pouched.

Try to get a reflector on another light coming in from the main light side and behind the subject to kick some light to rim her and separate her more from the background.

I apologize for rambling as I'm watching the pre-game show. If you have any questions please ask for clarification.

Charles - thanks for your time and detailed comments on this. It is much appreciated. I've also learned a lot in your pullback thread so please keep those coming.
I've got lots of time to play over the next couple of weeks so I'll keep at it.
By the way, I'm rooting for SF! Go Niners!

Hackbone

Boo, I use to like you!!