Newbie Model

photographyguy

Trying out some shots with aspiring model "Kelsey". Would like some input and thoughts on this shot

Hackbone

Just comments from me, others will probably disagree.
1. too straight on, should have more of a body angle to create movement.
2. Lighting is very harsh for a female shot. Need to defuse it. You seem to have flash on camera lighting her.
3. composition is too centered and the top right is distracting with the protrusion.
4. the bright background does isolate her in the image and makes you eye go to her and depth of field or lack of is nice.

photographyguy

Thanks for the input , appreciate and consider your thoughts. How long have you been doing photography for

Hackbone

About 35 years

Bilsen

Just a few suggestions:

1> As Hack said, the top right should probably be cloned out.
2> The fine hairs on her face and the flyaways on either side of her head could be corrected.
3> A crop to take her slightly off center (not necessarily a full "rule of thirds") would help.
4> The on camera flash bothers me less than almost everyone else BUT I do suggest trying a modifier such as a bounce card to diffuse the harshness a bit more.

Also, rather than having her fully backlit, you might try the same image but from a camera position 90 degrees to camera left with the sun hitting her from 45-90 degrees. Just that change of camera positin will substantially change the lighting effect.

and to answer the same question, 7 years, 200+ shoots and a ton of torching on here, all of which helped me improve.

Foques

echoing what Charles said.
It is a snapshot.

photographyguy

Wow that's amazing what a passion you have for this your a very talented individual. You got my vote . I'll be uploading some new photos to a new model I have and share it on here. Thanks for your time and I will be back in a few days:D

photographyguy

Mr Bilsen, thanks so much first of all for taking the time to read and share your points, very very helpful to me you're so awesome to do that sir. Another thing I am inspired to learn from your photos because I can see in them the time and thought that you put into taking them and the experience that you have show it, my respects i am not worthy . Anyways Ill be uploading some new photos to a new model I found, will share it later.

Thank you so much for your input and time you took to write this.

Very much appreciate it ,
A new fan of yours

Bilsen

Photoguy,

Your check is in the mail.

You give me way to much credit and I will tell you that some years ago I started where you are.
I took a fair number of beatings here, adopted some things and put others away but this board contributed a lot to what you see from me nowadays.

Just as an example of some of what I outlined above, in this image from yesterday, rather than backlight Kellie, we positioned her so the sun was to camera right.
Also, there was a nice overcast giving me the worlds largest diffuser.
Some may like this image and some may not but the techniques I discussed are here except there is no flash or reflector in use.
She also had some flyaways that are gone just as a general cleanup.




Keep at it. The first 20,000 or so clicks are the hardest.