Some Female by the Pool Portraits

canonguy

Hello All!
Your honest constructive feedback is totally welcomed. I have some shots I did this weekend for a local upstart publication and I would like to know what the community thinks. What is good and what can I do better?

Much Thanks in advance









P.S. Do your best to ignore the model and focus on the technicals... :wink :wink

ian408

You've got some wierd color going on. Might just be the combination of
backgrounds and the model's skin tone. Also, the facial expression doesn't
reach out and grab me either. And that red-in-the-blond look has got to
go--does nothing for the model.

canonguy

ian408 wrote:

You've got some wierd color going on. Might just be the combination of
backgrounds and the model's skin tone. Also, the facial expression doesn't
reach out and grab me either. And that red-in-the-blond look has got to
go--does nothing for the model.

OK... the red on blond she showed up with. Couldn't do anything about that. The one against the pool does not have any color combinations other than blue. Does that also have the strage colors you are seeing?

macaddict

deja vu: http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/374416

System

kirk-

like the pics and the ladies-

looks like maybe a little too much yellow-

open up hue/saturation-
on the pull down pick yellow-
click on saturation-
drop to taste-

please let me know if that helps or not-

george

wholenewlight

canonguy wrote:

Does that also have the strage colors you are seeing?

A greenish tint to her face on #1,#3, #4.

I like #2 quite a bit.

#3 seems to have an unusual look to the pose. Kind of like she is pushing her chest out ( I guess some might call that the best pose). Or maybe it looks like her head is too small for her body. Something about the camera angle. Did you use a tele, normal, or wide angle lens (or zoom setting)? That could be it too. A normal or wide lens would give the effect I'm seeing with the camera position. # 1 has a similar look to it.

ian408

canonguy wrote:

OK... the red on blond she showed up with. Couldn't do anything about that. The one against the pool does not have any color combinations other than blue. Does that also have the strage colors you are seeing?

The shot next to the pool is ok.

ziggy53

#1 and #3 are straight-on, and that's usually not the most attractive pose for most people. Her face seems fairly frozen in the same look, not exactly a smile. She needs more diversity or "mood". Her hair is pretty washed out on top. You need better control over lighting there.

The splash of direct sunlight on her chest in #3 does nothing for the shot, more of a distraction.

The profile in #4 doesn't quite work, maybe a little more or less profile would work better. I'd like to see more angles here.

#2 is by far the best shot, and I think works well as an 8"x10" portrait, cropped just to the waterline, just above her right leg. I hope you don't mind, I corrected a minor light flash on her arm, and removed a distracting background element in the lower right. I think I would have used a bit longer lens and further distance because her shoulder and upper arm seem a little predominant, but not too bad overall.

Now the obvious, this is a most attractive lady and deserves another opportunity. You really did pretty well, you just need a little more control over the lighting and some better positioning. I doubt that this is professional model, so you and she should look at some examples of other models for inspiration.

Best,

ziggy53

binghott

i feel like the eyes were touched a little too much. my other comments have been stated by others.

canonguy

macaddict wrote:

deja vu: http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/374416

Totally. Trying to learn lots... and I have.

canonguy

ziggy53 wrote:

#1 and #3 are straight-on, and that's usually not the most attractive pose for most people. Her face seems fairly frozen in the same look, not exactly a smile. She needs more diversity or "mood". Her hair is pretty washed out on top. You need better control over lighting there.

The splash of direct sunlight on her chest in #3 does nothing for the shot, more of a distraction.

The profile in #4 doesn't quite work, maybe a little more or less profile would work better. I'd like to see more angles here.

#2 is by far the best shot, and I think works well as an 8"x10" portrait, cropped just to the waterline, just above her right leg. I hope you don't mind, I corrected a minor light flash on her arm, and removed a distracting background element in the lower right. I think I would have used a bit longer lens and further distance because her shoulder and upper arm seem a little predominant, but not too bad overall.

Now the obvious, this is a most attractive lady and deserves another opportunity. You really did pretty well, you just need a little more control over the lighting and some better positioning. I doubt that this is professional model, so you and she should look at some examples of other models for inspiration.

Best,

ziggy53

Believe it or not I did all these with a 50 mm prime or a 70mm - 200mm f2.8 zoom. She was certainly not a pro model, but certainly a good looking gal. The lighting was a huge issue. It was like high noon. Very bright overhead sunlight. I found this one shadey corner of the pool and worked there. But I did not pay attention to the background unfortunately so I had to do a lot in PS to keep the background from blowing way out. As you see, I still had problems.

Thanks very much for the feedback.

rahmonster

I really like the last one, however i think it might really benefit if you darkened the background. I like the composition and the DOF though. The others don't grab me at all really to be really honest. But take it all with a grain I'm still learning too