Margareth

Joe Dukovac

Hi Guys,

It seems like an eternity since my last post. I've been pretty busy lately, working on business plan, meetings, and general life stuff.

Anyhow, I moved into my new studio last Saturday and last night I had a chance to finally get my gear setup and do a shoot with Margareth. Some of you may remember her from previous postings, and she's just a dynamite girl to work with, very nice person.

Anyhow, I've been working on refining some of my post processing. I know it may not suit everyone's fancy, but I'd love some feedback on what you guys/gals think.

Thanks,
Joe

Mike J

Hey Joe - welcome back. Looking forward to hearing more about the new studio in the future.
#1 I like the pose but for me personally, it was shot from too low. Not too much higher but maybe a foot or so. I think this shot would work really well in landscape. Not sure if you have enough BG to do that.
#2 Love the way the red in her hair is highlighted. In this shot and in #1, the light appears to be too low. The nose loop is going up. Doesn't look natural to me.

The overall processing looks good to me. What are you trying different?

Bend The Light

I like them. I don't mind the shooting angle of the first, gives the lady a bit of "don't give a damn, I'm better than you" attitude. She is relaxed and in a position of power to me.
I agree that the lighting is not so nice in the second, and in my very limited experience (I am trying to nail lighting in my new little studio) I agree that it's the nose shadow. I did nose shadows like that, and I can see that they are not so good.

Thanks for sharing, and in doing so, I will learn by watching and reading others' responses in this thread.

Cheeers

Joe Dukovac

Mike J wrote: »

Hey Joe - welcome back. Looking forward to hearing more about the new studio in the future.
#1 I like the pose but for me personally, it was shot from too low. Not too much higher but maybe a foot or so. I think this shot would work really well in landscape. Not sure if you have enough BG to do that.
#2 Love the way the red in her hair is highlighted. In this shot and in #1, the light appears to be too low. The nose loop is going up. Doesn't look natural to me.

The overall processing looks good to me. What are you trying different?

I was using my giant soft box on this shoot. I probably need to use a medium or large in this case, cause part of the light was below her and part was above. Or I may just need to raise my soft box up so that the bottom part is even with the bottom of her nose.

I used to use a lot more plug-ins for Aperture then now, and this time I made almost all my adjustments in Aperture and then added a crossprosses filter using Nik Color Efex 4.0. I also painted the vignetting in so that it didn't creep into the subject.

I'm pretty happy with the results and when she saw her photo was very blown away.

Joe Dukovac

Bend The Light wrote: »

I like them. I don't mind the shooting angle of the first, gives the lady a bit of "don't give a damn, I'm better than you" attitude. She is relaxed and in a position of power to me.
I agree that the lighting is not so nice in the second, and in my very limited experience (I am trying to nail lighting in my new little studio) I agree that it's the nose shadow. I did nose shadows like that, and I can see that they are not so good.

Thanks for sharing, and in doing so, I will learn by watching and reading others' responses in this thread.

Cheeers

In the first shot I was going for a bit more "attitude" than anything else. After many different poses, I preferred this one the best.

Thanks for the comments!

Joe

Bend The Light

Joe Dukovac wrote: »

In the first shot I was going for a bit more "attitude" than anything else.

And it worked.

Yaflyyadie

Light was a little low, but you nailed both shots.
We all learn from each other and your pictures were a good lesson to me.
Your model is beautiful.!!!!!
Cheers.
Y.

Hackbone

Try bringing your softbox out in front of your subject and actually pointing it across her so it's pointing more at the wall and not really at her. The edge of the box close to you will bounce the light back to her and you should get more wrap around light.

On #1 I think you shooting angle is low but it does give her more of a dominant look for the shot. That makes me overlook up the nostrils. Pop her left arm out a tad to put some space between her body and her arm to accent the female form.

On #2 I think her eyes are cut too far from the camera. If they were brought back just a tad it would have worked well for me.