A Second Look - Vanessa

Bilsen

The second "look" we shot last Sunday in the studio.

You can probably see me playing with the light positions and trying different things from broad to split to even a little Rembrandt. Whether I got them or not is open to question but the sexy, beautiful look of Vanessa is not.



2.


3.


4.


5.


6. and my little stab at the artistic. (One gridded side light.).

Hackbone

I like the first 4, nice lighting and shadow, feminine posing shows off the S curves. Last one????????????

Bilsen

Thanks Hack. The last one was just playing around.

Dreadnote

#3 is the best IMHO, #2 looks like her bikini wax left her a bit raw.

novicesnapper

Man, I'm digging this new lighting, notice both eyes are lit? nice. Are you confined on space, as far as pulling the model from the background? Maybe a splash of soft light on the BG would help diffuse any shadowing? Very nice indeed.

divamum

John, in haste but...

#4 is the best of these IMO.

#5 - notice how the brightest spot in the picture is her toes, and her face is underlit - unless you LOVE the expression/pose and are willing to put a ton of PP into it to balance up the lighting in post, that would make it a tosser for me....

Bilsen

Thanks all.

Dread, you have sharp eyes. I'll go back and fix that.

Novice, the space is a bit tight but workable. I think my real issue in this set was light spill and I'll need to control that better. All of these had the Softlighter as the key (camera right), a white reflector camera left and a gridded 430EX that I tried to use either as a hairlight or background light.

Diva, in fact I do like # 5 but, as I said above, I should have either flagged the 430EX OR pulled the power way back. Here's a similar frame with the 430 pulled back. I didn't post it because I think she looks mad but the lighting is probably better balanced.

Nikolai

John,
I like #4

#3 is "almost there" but, as I have said many, many times, shooting female subject full height from her eye level is the worst possible vantage point as it "eats up" her legs length.
You have to go below her waistline (or way above her head for a different effect).

HTH

Bilsen

I think I was actually sitting down for most of these Nikolai BUT you could be right about that one. I'm old and don't bend so easy anymore.:D

Nikolai

JohnGalt_ny wrote: »

I think I was actually sitting down for most of these Nikolai BUT you could be right about that one. I'm old and don't bend so easy anymore.:D

I'm mostly sitting during my shoots, too (that is if my camera is not on the shooting stand).
Unless I'm lying on my stomach or scaling some rock/ladder for a high vantage point.