Viktoriia

Nikolai

Dgrin, meet Viktoriia, sweet Ukrainian young woman who's trying to make her living in LA working as a model. I met her at LA Fashion show, we "clicked", she was in desperate need of some portfolio material, so I offered my help free of charge. For me it was a good chance to test my new studio/lights in action.
We had a very nice relaxed shoot this Saturday. It ended up a bit shorter than we planned (no sunset shots) due to some unforseen emergency situation :dunno , but we still had two solid hours of shooting, which gave us enough time to try both low-key and high-key scenarios.
I know I made a few mistakes here and there, but overall I'm fairly pleased with the results. And, most importantly, so is Vika, whose first response was "I'm blown away" - and that's after seeing only SOOC drafts.
Anyway, I spent few hours today cleaning up the results. 250+ pics were culled down to 14, and few of those I'm glad to share here:-)


1: This is Vika:



2: We're just starting up, but already having fun



3: Later in the shoot..:



4: Going for "sad":



5: After an hour or so of shooting we decided that we had enough low key material and switched to bikini/high-key mode:



6. Another high-key, closeup:



7: What's the purpose of having cooperating bikini-clad model and the pool and do not use them together;-)?



8: Finally, we went for some abstract:



The rest of the final results are here: http://nik.smugmug.com/gallery/4572614_YsS47

Hope you enjoyed it, 'cause I most certainly did! :wink

Llywellyn

Woah, #7: Love the light and the background the pool creates. Incredibly well done!

Nikolai

Llywellyn wrote:

Woah, #7: Love the light and the background the pool creates. Incredibly well done!

Thank you, Kerry!
It's funny how sometimes the simplest setups may work the best huh?

zoomer

My favorite is number 8 followed by 7.
I really liked this photo she is a pretty girl, but even the prettiest girls can use a little help.
Hope you don't mind...this is how she looks with her skin cleaned up a bit.

BEFORE


AFTER

Nikolai

zoomer wrote:

My favorite is number 8 followed by 7.
I really liked this photo she is a pretty girl, but even the prettiest girls can use a little help.
Hope you don't mind...this is how she looks with her skin cleaned up a bit.

Thank you for commenting!
I made a conscious decision to not go for a bardie/plastic look, tried to stay as much au naturel as possible

Sam

3,4,7, and 8.

Sam

zoomer

I am sure the other girls she is competing against for work will have some nice make up and their skin fixed in the pictures in their portfolios. There is a LOT of competition out there. This girl has a lot of potential if she gets her look right.

Just my opinion of course... but when shooting portfolio shots for models fixing their skin is important so they will look their best.
But maybe this is what she asked for???

Nikolai

Sam wrote:

3,4,7, and 8.

Sam

Thanks, Sam!

Nikolai

zoomer wrote:

I am sure the other girls she is competing against for work will have some nice make up and their skin fixed in the pictures in their portfolios. There is a LOT of competition out there. This girl has a lot of potential if she gets her look right.

Just my opinion of course... but when shooting portfolio shots for models fixing their skin is important so they will look their best.
But maybe this is what she asked for???

I agree with you on all accounts.
Yet, as I mentioned, this was a a conscious decision..

zoomer

Thanks Nikolai!

Icebear

Pretty girl, and she obviously liked working with you. I think you way overdexposed the high key images though. I find them wicked hard to even look at. I love the silhouette though. Very '70s looking.

Nikolai

Icebear wrote:

Pretty girl, and she obviously liked working with you. I think you way overdexposed the high key images though. I find them wicked hard to even look at. I love the silhouette though. Very '70s looking.

Thanks!
Ain't the overexposure a driving idea in high-key?

Icebear

Not in my opinion. It's hard to get it right, however I don't think overexposure of the model is the answer. Background maybe. Model, only if you're willing to take the heat.

Nikolai

Icebear wrote:

Not in my opinion. It's hard to get it right, however I don't think overexposure of the model is the answer. Background maybe. Model, only if you're willing to take the heat.

I guess I am...

evoryware

I like 3, 7 and 8!

The shades of the image determine high key, not overexposure.
High key is when [most] of the values are above middle gray on the histogram. Doesn't mean you have to or don't have to overexpose. I don't mind that it's overexposed but I can't see her stomach or half of her arms.

Scott_Quier

Nik,

All of the following are just my opinions, so take them for what they may be worth...

#1, #2 - The light from camera right is a little hot. Maybe, next time, move it a little closer and turn it down a touch - this will soften it a touch.

#2 - Not really liking the racoon-eyes affect you have going here - the light too far behind her? But, I like the pose - looks like she's nice and relaxed!

#5, #6 - Not really into the way you have her (or she has herself) wrapped around herself. The poses are just too closed for my taste, like she's trying to hide something or she's not quite comfortable - just the impression I'm getting. Additionally, the "hugging herself" posture closes her shoulders down (rounds them forward).

#7 - This is really nice. Love the pose and the lithe light on her. The DOF is nicely controlled - throwing the water OOF, but not too much. The glare/reflection next to her head is not in the best location though.

#8 - The abstract - cool effect. Maybe get rid of (or make B/W) the spot in the lower left corner? Get rid of think in 4th pane down, left side? Close the white gash in 3rd pane, right side?

Did I enjoy looking at your work? Oh yeah - learned some things from you, yet again!

Thanks so much for sharing.

Agnieszka

Very nice shots, Nik! I really love the first couple ones. Pretty lady! I am sure she'll book some fun shootings with a porfolio like this!

As for the skin touch-up. You did a great job, I think you can go even a bit softer on her forehead to get rid of the lighter spots. Overdoing is always sooo easy, but see if you can maybe stamp some of the areas out.

Nikolai

evoryware wrote:

I like 3, 7 and 8!

The shades of the image determine high key, not overexposure.
High key is when [most] of the values are above middle gray on the histogram. Doesn't mean you have to or don't have to overexpose. I don't mind that it's overexposed but I can't see her stomach or half of her arms.

Thanks!

For what it's worth, this all is only PP effect. IRL ther a more or less normally exposed, at least for a RAW. Here's an "as is" sample:

As it's easy to see, I have enough latitude to make her whole body totally visible. The final result is simply "how I see it".

Nikolai

Scott_Quier wrote:

Nik,
All of the following are just my opinions, so take them for what they may be worth...

Scott, thank you, no worries!

#1, #2 - The light from camera right is a little hot. Maybe, next time, move it a little closer and turn it down a touch - this will soften it a touch.

Very well possible. This was my first "field test" for the new lighting gear. As I said in the lead post right off the bat, I know I made a few mistakes

#2 - Not really liking the racoon-eyes effect you have going here - the light too far behind her? But, I like the pose - looks like she's nice and relaxed!

I agree. Too much power on the hairlight, plus wrong position of the hairlight. One of those mistakes. But I too liked the pose, so I decided to include it in this showcase...:-)

#5, #6 - Not really into the way you have her (or she has herself) wrapped around herself. The poses are just too closed for my taste, like she's trying to hide something or she's not quite comfortable - just the impression I'm getting. Additionally, the "hugging herself" posture closes her shoulders down (rounds them forward).

That was her first ever "bikini shoot", so it may be very well possible that she was not comfortable. However, I personally think it delivers the "implied" intention I was going for....;-)

#7 - This is really nice. Love the pose and the lithe light on her. The DOF is nicely controlled - throwing the water OOF, but not too much. The glare/reflection next to her head is not in the best location though.

This whole thing was a total improptu. She asked for the outside shots, I was already in a hurry for the aforementioned little emergency, sun was totally not in a good position, I didn't have time to meter anything, so I just grabbed 580, put it on a cord, set it to 1/8 manual and started shooting holding camera in one hand and flash in another...

#8 - The abstract - cool effect. Maybe get rid of (or make B/W) the spot in the lower left corner? Get rid of think in 4th pane down, left side? Close the white gash in 3rd pane, right side?

Thank you! I actually like the color patches, I guess tastes differ...

Did I enjoy looking at your work? Oh yeah - learned some things from you, yet again!
Thanks so much for sharing.

Thank you very much, appreciate detailed friendly C&C!

mr peas

I like it, but Nikolai, I dont know how many strobes you have but one side is usually lacking light in most of the photos in the dark background. Suggest using a reflector on one side if not a strobe in lower power as an auxillary light.

Also, unsure if you made the fotos look 'softer' on purpose by a soft filter or something on PS or simply using F1.2-1.8 the whole time , but some of them look very soft lacking the ever so crisp detail it could be having.

My favorites:


Good frame!


Another good frame!

The shots you took at the pool could use more lighting! Try placing the flash way far away or having a diffuser to diffuser the light over her entire body evenly.

The high-key shots have a lot of contrast, maybe its just me, but a lot of the subject's skin tones are blown out, but then again, I think you did that on purpose, haha, but it does work, I just have to wear sunglasses to stare at it longer , jk.

Cool beans though! What kind of home-made concoctions did you use on this shoot?

Nikolai

Agnieszka wrote:

Very nice shots, Nik! I really love the first couple ones. Pretty lady! I am sure she'll book some fun shootings with a porfolio like this!

As for the skin touch-up. You did a great job, I think you can go even a bit softer on her forehead to get rid of the lighter spots. Overdoing is always sooo easy, but see if you can maybe stamp some of the areas out.

Thank you, Agnieszka! Forehead was indeed a problem, we knew about it. We were planning to have a mua, but it didn't work out. And this being my first usage of those lights I wasn't well aware of all the possible side effects.
Oh well, we're learning, right? ;-)

Nikolai

mr peas wrote:

I like it, but Nikolai, I dont know how many strobes you have but one side is usually lacking light in most of the photos in the dark background. Suggest using a reflector on one side if not a strobe in lower power as an auxillary light.

Thank you!
In fact, there was one!
If you check this thread, you will see my low-key setup:



One main light with 3x4 shoftbox, one golden reflector on the other side and one hairlight with the snoot.

Also, unsure if you made the fotos look 'softer' on purpose by a soft filter or something on PS or simply using F1.2-1.8 the whole time , but some of them look very soft lacking the ever so crisp detail it could be having.

I mostly softened things up in ACR/PS. I was shooting at f/5.6 all the time.

The shots you took at the pool could use more lighting! Try placing the flash way far away or having a diffuser to diffuser the light over her entire body evenly.

I agree. Yet, as I already explained, this was totally in spur of the moment, so it was what it was....

The high-key shots have a lot of contrast, maybe its just me, but a lot of the subject's skin tones are blown out, but then again, I think you did that on purpose, haha, but it does work, I just have to wear sunglasses to stare at it longer , jk.

I did, I did:-) I wanted this to be like that. However, this was also my first ever high-key attempt (never had enough light -power before), so natually some adjustments are to be made...

Cool beans though! What kind of home-made concoctions did you use on this shoot?

Thanks! Nothing out of the ordinary (granted my liqour cabinet is stocked better than some of the bars:-)

evoryware

Nikolai wrote:

Thanks!

For what it's worth, this all is only PP effect. IRL ther a more or less normally exposed, at least for a RAW. Here's an "as is" sample:

As it's easy to see, I have enough latitude to make her whole body totally visible. The final result is simply "how I see it".

For what it's worth this is my favorite shot! LoL!

Nikolai

evoryware wrote:

For what it's worth this is my favorite shot! LoL!

"We aim to please"