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Archive 2012 · Amy -senior pics

  
 
Johnny B Goode
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Amy -senior pics


1.

IMG_7465-copy by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

2.

IMG_7298 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

3.

IMG_7283 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

4.

IMG_7279 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

5.

IMG_7254 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

Just the first 5 I developed. Also this was my first payed gig so I'm 2nd, 3rd, and 4th guessing everything about the images. C&C appreciated



Nov 17, 2012 at 06:49 PM
jefferies1
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Amy -senior pics


1:I think a tight crop hiding the bright spot on her head would help improve the focus on her eyes which is the best part of the image. About 1/4 into the hairline.
2: Remove some of the flyaways. I would want more contrase in the B/W. A little too flat for my taste.
3: Again a tight crop to hide the hair or clean it up. At least crop to the hairline. No need for extra room over the head. Clean up the arm hair the backlight brings out. Also more depth/contrast for the B/W.
4-5:Same hair issues plus looks like underarm hair in 5 due to position.

Overall thery have potential but needs a lot of fine adjustments for a finished look. She has great eyes so take advantage of them. Make them the focal point and hide less wanted areas of the image at the same time. That will take you from a good, but somewhat basic photo to a magazine look in seconds.I might adjust the WB in 5 to be a bit warmer. Add some contrast in 4 and 5. Not much ( maybe 5-8%) because they are on the flat side.Ok but that might help. She will like these but if you do as I mentioned above and placed the 2 samples side by side she would go crazy over the new crops.



Nov 17, 2012 at 07:49 PM
Steady Hand
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Amy -senior pics


Howdy,

First...my standard intro to anyone "new" to me on this forum...
My comments or suggestions below are not a criticism of you, your model, your talent or skill. I offer them in a friendly tone of voice and with the sole intent to help you with a second POV and set of eyes. If you read sincere questions and simple suggestions as "criticism" of you, then you will miss how I am trying to help you.

Of course this may be your own "style" or your own "vision" and I suppose we can assume that the images look just like they do because that is exactly how you like them. That is OK too. It just shows that there are differences of "opinion" on what looks good. IF these are exactly what you want and like, then by all means continue making your images look like that and have fun doing it. I can only speak for myself and what I do or do not find appealing in the posted photos. As I always say: "Follow your own muse."
_______________________

Thanks for posting the photo here. I enjoy looking at photos and it seems like there are fewer posted now on this forum. So, don't let my comments below discourage you from posting.
________

Quick Comments:

1. In general good focus.

2. She is pretty, and that always helps a photo.

3. I don't care for the light on her face (as processed) as some appear "flat" (lacking contrast)

4. One image, image one, has serious skin tone issues (probably due to use of a gold reflector on the shadow side).

5. I don't care for the poses (and compositions) in a few images. Reason? They look like all the attention was paid to focus, not enough to pose or composition. Images 2, 4, 5 are examples. These look like "weaker" images in this set because of this.

6. The yellow background color is distracting (takes my eye away from the girl) in at least one image (4....and 5 to a lesser extent) because her face (skin tone) looks relatively GRAY and dull in comparison.

7. Skin tone issues again in image 5. Notice how the skin tone varies from top to bottom. Look at bustline and shoulders and lower arms etc.

8. I suggest you repost these images at a smaller size (max 800px) as some appear too large to view on a typical viewing monitor resolution. A viewer should be able to see the entire image without scrolling or changing their monitor resolution.





Nov 17, 2012 at 07:57 PM
no_surrender
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Amy -senior pics


Steady, maybe it's just me, but your comments are confusing. There's 5 images, and you've commented as if there's 8. It might help if you labeled your comments along with the number of the image and leave overall critique to a separate line or paragraph.

Your comment #4. Serious skin tone issues? It appears to be a bit flat and underexposed due to probably putting the sun at her back, but I don't see 'serious skin tone issues'...especially not from a gold reflector. Can you please elaborate as to how you came to this conclusion?

Your comment #7. No, I don't notice it. While I agree it looks a bit dull and gray, I don't see the variance. Her lower arms aren't even visible in the image. Please explain?


While I do appreciate your feedback, sometimes it doesn't seem to be very consistent.


To the OP, not much to add that hasn't been said already, but I did notice a significant difference in the eye color between the images. I can't tell what her true eye color is when looking at the different images. Be careful when you process/edit your set that the eyes, and overall skin tone and color for that matter, match. I fall victim to this as well...we just have to be cognizant of it.

Kevin



Nov 17, 2012 at 08:47 PM
Steady Hand
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Amy -senior pics


no_surrender wrote:
Steady, maybe it's just me, but your comments are confusing. There's 5 images, and you've commented as if there's 8. It might help if you labeled your comments along with the number of the image and leave overall critique to a separate line or paragraph.

Your comment #4. Serious skin tone issues? It appears to be a bit flat and underexposed due to probably putting the sun at her back, but I don't see 'serious skin tone issues'...especially not from a gold reflector. Can you please elaborate as to how you came to this conclusion?

Your comment #7. No, I don't
...Show more

It seems you are confused. So, I will try to clarify a bit.

I made 8 comments. Read the comments more carefully and you will see they apply to the images that are discussed in appropriate comment. So, another comment says: "one image, image one" meaning that comment is about the first image (image 1). It is not my first comment. I thought that was obvious. But, obviously you are reading my comments differently and that is probably the cause of your confusion. I suggest, read them again and do not look at the item/comment number as indicating the image number.

Comment #1 is a general comment, about ALL images, it is not ONLY about image 1 (except in a general sense, as image 1 is part of the set of images).

Etc.

Hope that helps.



Nov 17, 2012 at 09:03 PM
Josiah Jones
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Amy -senior pics


Not seeing any pictures...??


Nov 17, 2012 at 09:52 PM
no_surrender
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Amy -senior pics


Steady, thanks for clarifying. Would you mind answering the two questions I asked regarding your comments? Thanks

Kevin



Nov 17, 2012 at 10:56 PM
Johnny B Goode
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Amy -senior pics


Sorry I took them down. Here's another one from that session. Note I didn't take them down due to the comments. I do appreciate the comments and need to work on the post production a bit more. I took them down because I realized there's better work I can do with them. I have lots more to sort through as well. Thanks again for the critiques.


IMG_7307-2 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

My question with this, are the trees too much? Is the flair by her neck too distracting?



Nov 18, 2012 at 12:50 AM
CW100
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Amy -senior pics


Johnny B Goode wrote:
Sorry I took them down. Here's another one from that session. Note I didn't take them down due to the comments. I do appreciate the comments and need to work on the post production a bit more. I took them down because I realized there's better work I can do with them. I have lots more to sort through as well. Thanks again for the critiques.

My question with this, are the trees too much? Is the flair by her neck too distracting?


the tree work in forcing the eye to the model, the flair is not distracting






Nov 19, 2012 at 07:16 AM
Johnny B Goode
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Amy -senior pics


We did 2 sets. One on Saturday afternoon, the 2nd Sunday morning. Here are some from the morning set:

1.

IMG_7865 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

2.

IMG_7857 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

3.

IMG_7837 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

4.

IMG_7795 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

5.

IMG_7793 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

6.

IMG_7683 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr



Nov 19, 2012 at 09:32 AM
Johnny B Goode
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Amy -senior pics


7.

IMG_7658 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

8.

IMG_7620 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

9.

IMG_7617 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

10.

IMG_7614 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

11.

IMG_7592 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr


Again this was my first paid gig so any critiques would be helpful. I've sold photos before but never had someone approach me and request I take their senior pics.

Thanks for all the comments so far, please keep the feedback coming.



Nov 19, 2012 at 09:35 AM
Eyeball
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Amy -senior pics


You have some solid images here. I like your second set better but I think a good amount of the difference is in the post-processing. In general, I would say you could improve on:
1. Post-processing
2. Lighting
3. Posing
. . . more or less in that order of concentration but 1 & 2 are close. I like your posing for the most part with the exception of a few with cropped arms.

Usually, you want the subjects face to be dominant in these types of pics. By dominant, I mean brighter or at least as bright as the rest of the elements in the frame. You want to be aware of anything else in the frame that is going to distract. For example, that fluorescent orange shirt is a real eye-puller.

Along that line, I think many of your B&W conversions have her skin/face too dark. You could correct that easy by re-doing the conversion and lightening skin tones.

You could kick these up a notch for this young lady with a small amount of skin smoothing. If you have Photoshop, here is one cool technique:

http://www.varis.com/video-tutorials/new-skin-smoothing-techniqu.html

The key is to keep it subtle. Just a tiny bit is enough to gently smooth out some of the tiny blotches on her face.

You could also back off on the sharpening on a few of these. That may be accentuating some of her skin imperfections. An example is #4 in the second set. I can see sharpening halos around her hands, nose, and teeth. Her hair is also starting to take a straw-like appearance.

Zack Arias likes to repeat "head in a clean place" to his students like a mantra. It's not a bad idea at all to have that in your mind as step one to these kinds of portraits. You did great on this score in both sets with the unfortunate exception of #11 in the second set. She looks like she has an antenna coming out of her head. That is such a cool shot otherwise that it might be worth spending the time to clone out those rods in PS.

Regarding lighting, I think you just need to be more aware of how the light is falling on your subject (particularly the face). Give that as much or more priority than location and posing. You want to give some nice sculpting and dimension to the face. For a solid standard, a soft light in front of the subject slightly to the side and slightly (~45 degrees) above the subject works pretty well. Your excellent example of this is #11 in the second set.

If the light is too far to the side you get a two face effect like your #1 in set 1 (or a little bit in your tree image). There are times that that can work and provide a dramatic effect but I would use it sparingly in senior photos.

If you shoot in total shade, you can lose the dimensionality of the face unless you have a reflective source of some kind (wall, reflector, etc.). You can see this loss of dimensionality in 3, 4, and 5 of the first set. You can do some dodging and burning in post to bring some dimensionality back but it takes time.

Here is how I would judge your posted images:

Pretty great as is: #2, set 2
Pretty great with a little more post-processing: #2S1, #1S2; #3S2, #7S2, #8S2, #9S2, #10S2
Pretty great with some significant post-processing: #1S1, #3S1, #4S1, #5S1, Tree, #4S2, #5S2, #6S2, #11S2

Just to be clear, I am not promoting post-processing as the end-all and be-all. I do think it can take senior photos up a notch though if it's consistent with your style. I also think that working on post-processing while you are working on improving other aspects of your photography can be a great learning experience. It can also be a great motivator - after about the 10th time you have to spend a half-hour cloning out a distracting element from an image or making lighting adjustments, you will begin to pay more attention to those things when you take the shot.

I think your work shows a lot of promise. Keep at it.




Nov 19, 2012 at 12:01 PM
Johnny B Goode
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Amy -senior pics


Thank you for taking the time to give me an in depth write-up. I agree, I have another set to develop today and I'll go back and work on the images you identified. I'm only asking for $100 so I probably won't spend hours on the post production but I'll take what you said an apply it to my future work.


Nov 19, 2012 at 02:42 PM
Charles Gallo
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Amy -senior pics


NOT technical, but on #4, the first thing that draws my eye is her nails - they really really needed to either be 1)Redone, 2)Polish removed or 3)Touched up in post


Nov 19, 2012 at 02:50 PM
Jim Rickards
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Amy -senior pics


I wonder why you took the photos down? Doesn't that make the comments disconnect from the photos?

If I comment on the second set, will you take those down too?



Nov 19, 2012 at 02:54 PM
Johnny B Goode
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Amy -senior pics


no, I put those up in a haste to get comments and didn't focus on the presentation. The first set *Should* be back up. Part of it was also limited space on flickr/me wanting to free up more space for other photos.


Nov 19, 2012 at 06:19 PM
Johnny B Goode
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Amy -senior pics


Been editing the one's I posted here today. Here are a few more:
Set 3.
1.

IMG_7342 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

2.

IMG_7293 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

3.

IMG_7351 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr

4.

IMG_7253 by Pete the Irish Guy, on Flickr
(is this last one too blown out, I don't often do this look)




Nov 20, 2012 at 12:42 AM





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