Cindy in Motion

Bilsen · August 19, 2011

Once again proving that I do listen and learn on this board, here's my insanely gorgeous Dominican model, Cindy. As suggested here, I tossed a little music on the iPad and told her to just move around naturally and let me worry about getting the correct shot.

I think she did well although I had a ton of not so good clicks of the shutter. Once again, thank you Phottix for the radio triggers that let me fill these images semi-correctly.:barb

By the way, I know the wall isn't blurred but I like it.:D

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jonh68 · August 19, 2011

She does a good job of modeling but the background hurts the image. This time it hurts because the lighting is all over the place on the background. Your lighting is great on her, but the shadows and hotspots are distracting on the wall. I think the wall should have been blurred out as it takes away from her. A better position would have been put her at the end of the edge she was standing on, and shoot towards the wall so you isolate her more and don't have the awkward angles produced by shooting straight angles at an angle.

Yaflyyadie · August 19, 2011

I like all four pictures.
Cons: The wall hurts, but if you like it, is fine.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Y.

Demian · August 19, 2011

You made the right call in not blurring the wall. I think it adds a lot of character to the shot. I think the angle of the bricks is fine, but the highlights on the wall are distracting, particularly on the darker left side of the wall.

Also, I might be totally off here (my monitor blows), but does the white balance look a little off? I'd knock the cyan down a little bit.

Other than that, great pics! You did a wonderful job capturing the model.

divamum · August 19, 2011

Pros:
- she looks FABULOUS - naturally beautiful, very engaged, and FUN.
- outfits make sense with the makeup, the light, and her overall mood
- wall doesn't necessarily have to be "blurred" - it's *neutral*, and consistent (except for the dappled light), and thus makes an appealing background. I would, however, crop all of them so the lower right hand corner is like #2, thus losing the darker bottom edge and the vertical bright line.

Cons:
- dappled light is distracting - open shade would have been better, but I'll guess it wasn't an option

. It certainly isn't a dealbreaker for me, and it does add a kind of sparkly mood to the shots, despite not being technically "correct". I think with some post work (vignettes, layer to tone them down a little, funky processing perhaps to use them rather than fight them) that light can be made part of the look and a "style"

Sure, in a perfect world I'd nail every shot, but I don't really care if I have to overshoot, other than the time it takes to go through them afterwards. Because I like to shoot very shallow DOF, I almost always overshoot on the CYA principle - yeah, it's a pain to cull them, but other than that no harm done. Since we shoot digital, it's free and the "delete" key is easy enough to push, I don't really worry about tossers - as long as I deliver of decent set of [X] shots (ie, however many I've promised as proofs - in a typical headshot shoot, usually ~150), I don't care if it's 90% or 1% of my total. Nobody sees the garbage except me, since I ALWAYS cull any shots with mistakes before uploading the proofs for the client to see!!

Bilsen · August 19, 2011

Thanks to all for the thoughtful comments.

NOW let me give you the photographer's perspective.

I like the wall as a counter texture and since it's pretty drab as a base I don't see it as distracting.
Notice how carefully we positioned her so that she has almost no dappling on her. That wasn't luck, which was not to say I didn't toss a bunch where she was dappled.
As for the wall dappling, with her dancing I saw them as kind of outdoor natural "disco" lights. My analogy would be the lights if I shot her dancing in a club. To me (and I'm admittedly a bit demented) the bright spots actually add some interest.

None of that is to discount your opinions and I certainly see the "rules" I'm breaking, but sometimes I wonder if we (including me) get a bit doctrinaire. I've shot thousands of swimsuit/fashion and, frankly, had stagnated. I'm using the suggestions from this terrific group to break out of that mold and I'm gonna make some mistakes along the way. I just don't think these were mistakes.

Next posting will be a lesson she and I both learned in doing a concept shot. Stay tuned.

HOWEVER, please feel free to continue to disagree with me because y'all have been an invaluable asset to me.

Bilsen · August 19, 2011

By the way, for anyone interested, here's a BTS out take showing the fill flash with my new $85.00 toy (radio trigger set).

I KNOW I shouldn't show my failures but they are also lessons of a sort.
Notice how she gets horrible dappling when she moves just 6 or so inches forward.
Of course, to me, she remains insanely beautiful.

zoomer · August 20, 2011

Good for you. These are the most natural looking shots you have posted.
She looks beautiful in these.
Don't love the lighting or the background....Looks like a wrong time of day shoot....I know you have to shoot em when you get em

.
To me the shots are improving...when you give in to the rest of the advice you have been receiving....instead of hanging on to the old way and justifying it, more progress will be made. It is not easy....it is a journey....keep at it.
Look for angles the eye does not normally see to add interest to the shot.

dogwood · August 20, 2011

zoomer wrote: »

Good for you. These are the most natural looking shots you have posted.
She looks beautiful in these.
Don't love the lighting or the background....Looks like a wrong time of day shoot....I know you have to shoot em when you get em .
To me the shots are improving...when you give in to the rest of the advice you have been receiving....instead of hanging on to the old way and justifying it, more progress will be made. It is not easy....it is a journey....keep at it.
Look for angles the eye does not normally see to add interest to the shot.

These are very cute, John. You're definitely getting better with each shoot.

Cindy in Motion

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