Senior Portrait-Tell me what you think

Visital

My first senior portraits. Tell me what you think.

Paulcao

The way the sunlight highlights her hair looks great. The only thing I'm not sure about in the photos is the green sweater with the green grass as a background. Maybe change it up with some different colors. That's really no big deal--and it's probaby just me that thinks that. Anyways, overall they look good

edit: one more thing--i'm not sure, but something about the crop in the first...can't put my finger on it.

Scott_Quier

In general, these are good photographs with a lot of potential. I love the use of the sun to bring out highlights in her hair. Well done. I would, however suggest the following:

• The crop in the first one makes me want to see the rest of her left arm. The crop at the joint is ... well ... not right. In addition, the cropping puts her dead-center in the photograph. Moving her head to the left a touch would add some dynamic to the portrait.
• You've used some on-camera flash to fill. I think, putting a gel on it and upping the flash duration (power) a touch would have helped, especially in the second shot.
• These are both quite flat. Moving the flash off-camera would have added some depth to the shot.
• These need a bit of pop, especially the second photo - take a look at this tutorial (link) for some ideas on how to bring out more of the potential of these photos.
• I really like the pose and the cropping in the second one. The combination adds some action and a feeling of playfulness to the image.

Visital

Thanks
That's what I'm looking for in a critique. I knew this site would be helpful. I totally agree. I couldn't get the flash to work off the camera and don't have any gels. The shirt color was 1 of 2 colors she brought. Thanks again for the critique I'll check out the section on how to make photos pop.

neastguy

I like em, I feel like there should be more light on her face.. like a side flash or something... I'm just a noob

jeffreaux2

Very nice. I especially like #2

The gel is a good idea to even the color temps out.

Hint: when using flash on camera as in #2 be sure that when you rotate the camera for the shot that you rotate so that the flash is on the same side of the composition as your subject. Away from the tree in this instance. It may not make a hill of beans difference, but if you are lucky, your subject will get more light than the tree.

joshhuntnm

I have a dumb question, Scott,

What is a flash gel?

Can you put in a link to b and h or some place ? I have Canon gear--580 and 430

DeuceFour

Could a Reflector have been used in this case, to maybe bounce some sunlight back onto her frontside??? Instead of using fill flash??

ChatKat

DeuceFour wrote:

Could a Reflector have been used in this case, to maybe bounce some sunlight back onto her frontside??? Instead of using fill flash??

A reflector would have been a really good choice for those images. Maybe even a gold reflector would have worked well.

I like the attempt in the first one, but the angle is not a good pose. Her look is not natural because of the angle. Her eyes are not on the same plane as her face. I do love shots from above, they are usually very flattering but her whole head needed to be the same angle as her eyes. The backlighting of her hair is really nice.

The second one needs light on the other side and the color needs tweeking for some pop as you've already heard...