Ashley H~T.H.South Senior

JulieLawsonPhotography · November 6, 2008

It's going to be pic heavy, so bear with me. CC is as always welcome. I have learned so much here and am so grateful. I hope that I've applied the CC well and that it shows. The biggest hurdle that I feel I'm overcoming is the client and I getting comfortable with each other. She and I seriously had the best time ever!!! So much fun.

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Not real sure about this one. Very bright and I didn't have an assistant yesterday to hold my foam board to block the light.

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du8die · November 6, 2008

Nice work Julie,

I'm a novice, so take these comments for what they're worth.

#1) Nice setting - looks like an uncomfortable pose. It shows in her face, I think. Maybe this was early on in the session and you were still getting used to each other. Two minor nits - There's a hotspot right off her right shoulder, and there looks like there is a concrete disc or something in the lawn just to the left of the tree on the right edge of the frame. That could probably be cloned out if you wanted.

#2) Awesome. I love the treatment you did with the sky, and the desaturation.

#3) Fantastic pose, fantastic setting. I like the aged feel of it. I'm still trying to decide if the highlighting of her leg bugs me or not.

#4 and #5) Don't really do all that much for me. Just my personal taste, but the scenery is amazing. There's just too much of it. Again, that's just me.

#6) When I first glanced at this shot, I thought "stunning." As I studied it a little more, I realized that I think where you were wanting to go here was awesome. But, there is one thing keeping this from being great. If you look by her ear, her skin "folds" in ways that are unflattering. I don't know how to fix that, but other than that, it's very striking.

#7) I think I agree that #7 doesn't really work. The bright light is not terrible, but this may qualify as a "crotch shot." I've always understood that especially with females, to avoid those.

#8) Excellent shot. Two quick nits. The shadow is a little sharp for my taste. Can that be softened (or even cloned out?). Second is the hot spot on her left arm. Just a suggestion, but try cropping that out.

#9) Again, great shot. As with above, I'm still not sure if the highlights on her arm bugs me or not.

#10) By far my favorite shot of the set. (That's a lot to say because I said that about 2,3,8 as well). My eye is drawn to the blown-out sky. Would you lose a lot in the composition if you were to crop that out? It draws my eyes away from hers, and those clearly are the focus of the shot.

Very, Very well done set. I hope my c&c isn't out of line.

I always enjoy seeing your work.

d8

crockett · November 6, 2008

Wow! Julie, this sure is a nice set overall!

I've got a bunch of nits but for the most part they are just that, please keep in mind throughout this that I feel overall this a very nice set!

The biggest overall problem I have is the placement of your watermark on a lot of images. I told you it was nits.:D

1. She seems a bit contorted or hunched. Also, watch the upskirt shoots, not real bad in this one but approaching it.

2. I love how you dropped in that background (probably to get rid of a blown out sky) it works great for me! You'll be getting a PM on how you do that from me

. You mangled her left arm when you dropped in that BG. But is an awesome capture of her face. I always get a lot of distored faces when I try jump shots.

3. Nice. No complaints.

4. and 5. Meh. The lighting seems better in 5 and I also like the closer crop.

6. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Clipped her elbow. Absolutely love her expression.

7. Yeah, yeah about the lighting but here are the big issues for me with this photo. Her face looks sunburnt, bad, Don't know if it's a WB thing or just because of the harsh light. Her elbow isn't clipped but you have to be careful putting a body part that close to the edge because when printed and framed, it will be clipped and depending upon frame choice, it can get pretty bad because she is wearing black on a dark BG and it will look like her arm approaches out of nowhere. One of my biggest pet peeves. Crotch shots. Guys and girls but especially girls. I don't know how other more skilled photographers feel but I almost always instantly kick them, if I even take them.

8. Nice! I would consider redoing the crop so we can't see the skin on the bottom of the frame. Clipping the top of the head works great with the angles and the tight crop and is of no concern to me.

9. Nice but I would have preferred you pointed the camera down further, including her entire body with less dead space above her.

10. Meh. Dirty feet. Next time, try positioning her at a bit more of an angle so you can see more of her torso, even though you did avoid the bunny ears that some people make the mistake of including. I would also use a bit longer lens for this shot. My guess this is a short lens 35-50mm and is causing a bit of a perspective problem. Finally, I would have shot from a slight higher angle simply to eliminate that streak of sky running across the top of the frame. Personally, I would like to see this same shot without her feet up in the background, cropped a bit tighter and her a bit more up on her elbows, then I think it would be a much stronger image.

Great job Julie! And thanks for sharing.

The Mack · November 7, 2008

crockett wrote:

The biggest overall problem I have is the placement of your watermark on a lot of images. I told you it was nits.:D

I agree, it takes away from the images.
maybe move it down a little?

JulieLawsonPhotography · November 7, 2008

du8die wrote:

Nice work Julie,

I'm a novice, so take these comments for what they're worth.

#1) Nice setting - looks like an uncomfortable pose. It shows in her face, I think. Maybe this was early on in the session and you were still getting used to each other. Two minor nits - There's a hotspot right off her right shoulder, and there looks like there is a concrete disc or something in the lawn just to the left of the tree on the right edge of the frame. That could probably be cloned out if you wanted.

#3) Fantastic pose, fantastic setting. I like the aged feel of it. I'm still trying to decide if the highlighting of her leg bugs me or not.

#4 and #5) Don't really do all that much for me. Just my personal taste, but the scenery is amazing. There's just too much of it. Again, that's just me.

#7) I think I agree that #7 doesn't really work. The bright light is not terrible, but this may qualify as a "crotch shot." I've always understood that especially with females, to avoid those.

#8) Excellent shot. Two quick nits. The shadow is a little sharp for my taste. Can that be softened (or even cloned out?). Second is the hot spot on her left arm. Just a suggestion, but try cropping that out.

#9) Again, great shot. As with above, I'm still not sure if the highlights on her arm bugs me or not.

#10) By far my favorite shot of the set. (That's a lot to say because I said that about 2,3,8 as well). My eye is drawn to the blown-out sky. Would you lose a lot in the composition if you were to crop that out? It draws my eyes away from hers, and those clearly are the focus of the shot.

Very, Very well done set. I hope my c&c isn't out of line.

I always enjoy seeing your work.

d8

First of all, thank you for the detailed CC. It is appreciated.
In #1 I had to tell her a lot during the day to sit up straighter. I think this is a more natural posture for her, so I just reminded her during the shoot. I didn't catch this one though and this was the best of the few that at this particular moment.
#3 Thanks, this wasn't the exact door that I wanted to shoot in front of, but the sun was killer bright so I chose this door. About the bright light, I didn't have an assistant that day so I had to make do. When I have my helper, she holds a big piece of white foam board to block the sun.
#4 and 5: I loved the negative space on the side.....it may not be for everyone though

#7: Totally agree! I even took that out of the choices for her. I knew when I saw it that it was all wrong, I just posted it on here for confirmation.

#10: I left the bright horizon for cropping. Once cropped, it won't show, I think.

Thanks again.

JulieLawsonPhotography · November 7, 2008

crockett wrote:

Wow! Julie, this sure is a nice set overall!

I've got a bunch of nits but for the most part they are just that, please keep in mind throughout this that I feel overall this a very nice set!

The biggest overall problem I have is the placement of your watermark on a lot of images. I told you it was nits.:D

I had been putting the watermark at the bottome of the photos, but figured it could be cropped to remove it if someone wanted to. I used the watermarking in smugmug. I wish they had one that was a bit lower instead of right in the middle, cause it does cover the face in a lot.

Thanks for your CC as well. I love it, it helps a lot.

jrowphoto · November 7, 2008

Julie, very nice photos!

As for your watermark in Smugmug... Here's a possibility (haven't done this, just thinking out loud).

You could create a square transparent doc in Photoshop and then put your watermark maybe 3/4 or 2/3 down within the transparent doc, and save as PNG to preseve the transparency.

I believe that smugmug just puts your custom watermark dead center, so this way the entire PNG will be centered by SM, but the majority will be transparent with your visible watermark much lower in the frame?

I *think* that should work. I personally use 2 different watermarks, one for landscape orientation, and one for portrait orientation. It's more of pain, but I then leave watermarking set to off in the gallery customization, upload my photos, and then go in and select the portrait ones and watermark with "#1", and then the lanscape ones and watermark with "#2".

John

du8die · November 7, 2008

I upload all my shots as 4x6 (either portrait or landscape). I then created two 4x6 pngs (one portrait and one landscape) and put my watermark where I want it, then applied it to the gallery as needed.

Seems to work OK so far.

Shima · November 9, 2008

These are all really great and I love your processing. I do have to say though that the placement of the watermark is a little distracting. Other than that, they're great. I think enough others have nit picked on these already, so I won't join in that party.

JulieLawsonPhotography · November 9, 2008

Shima wrote:

These are all really great and I love your processing. I do have to say though that the placement of the watermark is a little distracting. Other than that, they're great. I think enough others have nit picked on these already, so I won't join in that party.

Thanks

) I am going to work on the watermark.

jeffreaux2 · November 9, 2008

Hey Julie....a couple quick tips....

First...in #1.....whats that called...a sack dress?
..anyway whatever they call them they are popular with teen girls, but very cumbersome to do anything in other than stand up....they always seem to get much shorter when sitting. I have posed girls straight on like this in similar dresses. I usually have them lightly "knife" the dress and hem to their legs just to be on the safe side.

Example:

Also...what an incredible location in #4 and 5!! It does seem though that her face is lost in the shadows. Perhaps if she were to the left of the frame looking the other direction the light would have strck her face instead. Now that was just a nit.

Photosbychuck · November 15, 2008

I like #8, #9 & #10 the best.

Ashley H~T.H.South Senior

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