Eli

joshhuntnm

my step son, Eli. CC welcome

jeffreaux2

Perfect!!!

To be very nitpicky....

You may have it cropped too close to his ear. If this were to be framed, you would have a tough time keeping all of that ear in view as some would be hidden by the matte or frame. Give yourself just a tad more room.

If that was with your 85mm there is definately nothing to complain about!!!

SloYerRoll

I like the shot. But I'm really picky about lighting. So I'll tell you what jumped out at me. Not to bash the shot, hopefully it's received constructively like I intend it

Hair light is focused too tightly in one spot. Looks like you used a snoot. Try using a barn door to help spread the light across the head. If you used a barn door, there are other tricks you can use to spread light and avoid lens flair. *More later if needed.

The light field from the two lights in front.. One should be a main light and one should be a fill. It looks like both lights are main lights though and set at the same power. Try adjusting one of the lights to 1/4 of whatever the other lights power is set at. This will help give some more clues of depth by giving some shadow. *i.e. main light is at 50%, set the fill light to 25%

HTH

PS: I think the crop is too close too, but I've seen that in other shots you've posted (as well as your avatar) so I figure that's jsut part of your style.

evoryware

I'm just wondering why the catchlights are different colors.

joshhuntnm

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Perfect!!!

To be very nitpicky....

You may have it cropped too close to his ear. If this were to be framed, you would have a tough time keeping all of that ear in view as some would be hidden by the matte or frame. Give yourself just a tad more room.

If that was with your 85mm there is definately nothing to complain about!!!

Good point. I hadn't noticed that.

joshhuntnm

SloYerRoll wrote:

I like the shot. But I'm really picky about lighting. So I'll tell you what jumped out at me. Not to bash the shot, hopefully it's received constructively like I intend it

Hair light is focused too tightly in one spot. Looks like you used a snoot. Try using a barn door to help spread the light across the head. If you used a barn door, there are other tricks you can use to spread light and avoid lens flair. *More later if needed.

The light field from the two lights in front.. One should be a main light and one should be a fill. It looks like both lights are main lights though and set at the same power. Try adjusting one of the lights to 1/4 of whatever the other lights power is set at. This will help give some more clues of depth by giving some shadow. *i.e. main light is at 50%, set the fill light to 25%

HTH

PS: I think the crop is too close too, but I've seen that in other shots you've posted (as well as your avatar) so I figure that's jsut part of your style.

The hair light is an additional flash--430ex. I think it would look better if I had two--one on each side. I think before I do that, I am going to experiment with some other kind of white lights.

I totally agree with the key/fill light. That was my observation about what needs to be improved--a bit of shadow to creat a 3d effect.

Thanks for the input. don't worry about offending me. I am trying to go from hobbiest to semi-pro and know I have a lot to learn.

joshhuntnm

evoryware wrote:

I'm just wondering why the catchlights are different colors.

hmmm. I have no idea on that one. there are some overhead lights that I thought would have been totally lost in 3 flashes. And, they are overhead, so who knows?

Rhinotherunt

Cute fella, some really great advice listed here. Some I am taking note of.