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Archive 2015 · Jeanne's belly

  
 
DianeinCR
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Jeanne's belly


This is my first maternity shoot and the first that I have taken the lead on in finding and booking the client, as well as planning and shooting the session. I challenged myself to work with only natural lighting and have tried to pay attention to posing my client in an attempt to flatter her.

I am looking for feedback on how I have done with each of these challenges. I'm also interested in any suggestions for improvement either in processing these, or in ways to improve my next shoot.

Diane



© DianeinCR 2014


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© DianeinCR 2014


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© DianeinCR 2014


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© DianeinCR 2014


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Jan 21, 2015 at 09:20 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Jeanne's belly


Well, congrats on finding / booking ... that's a step that some folks find daunting.

As to the images ... my overall thought is that of "glowing" that emotes association to pregnancy. With that in mind, I might look to lift the tonal values of her face somewhat and see if you can draw a tonal connection between her face and her belly ... most notable in the first & last images as a creative element.

In the last one, I'm not crazy about the vertical drapery lines ... competes with attention to the star of the image. You could blow those out in post, or at least soften them, I think.

The 3rd one is a little awkward for me as the crossed legs pose isn't the most flattering, but it does have a kind of raw vibe to it. I do like the setting @ bedroom, but hmmm @ pose with the foreshortening that is enlarging the legs / toes. Nothing better to offer, atm though.

2nd one ... I really dig the color theme connection between her dress and the booties. We see a similar color connect in the first one ... BUT, that is a connect to the drapes, i.e. no real emotive value there.

The first one could possibly benefit from pulling up the brightness in her face as mentioned before.

Portraiture is not my forte, and it has been a VERY LONG TIME since I photographed a pregnant woman, so take my .02 for what it's worth @ about half that much.

Creative license is all up to you, but here's a ROUGH (pp @ small jpgs) example of what I'm thinking about for last one.

There is one more thing (maybe), but I really can't help you much with it ... her emotive expression seems to be a bit stiff. We can lift her tonal values toward "glow" but her facial tension doesn't seem there. I recognize it because ... that's how almost ALL my portrait work would go. I sucked at getting the emotive out of people ... yet I could shoot weddings just fine, because I didn't need to extract the emotive, just capture it as it naturally occurred.

Not sure if the intent here was for a more "thoughtful" vibe ... but a little more soft smile probably wouldn't have hurt anything for at least one or so. I think the first one has the best facial emotive of the bunch. My guess is she was thinking about the photographic process also ... probably need to keep her thinking about her baby a bit more.

Karen ...







Jan 21, 2015 at 10:51 PM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Jeanne's belly


A little rotation to say more "out" and a bit less "down", slightly less gamma, some chin and neck retouching, and a bit of a crop?







Jan 22, 2015 at 01:36 AM
Almass
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Jeanne's belly


Hello Diane


Pic 1

- Comp: Vertical (curtains) + Horizontal (skirt stripes) + neg space (white + white blouse)
We are asking for trouble.
The skirt color does match the curtains but horizontal stripes tend to fatten and she would be much better with a single color skirt or vertical stripes.

- Lighting: Natural light does not mean we do not have to help it. A small kicker or reflector is needed to bring back some light on her face

Either you have pp'd the image or your camera is not able to recuperate the shadows as her hair is lost in a dark shadow with no hair details.....or camera operator miss metering.

I recuperated as much as poss the light on her belly and brightened her face.
Lightened the curtain to match the ambience.

- Posing: Pregnant or not, she is a woman and we need as you said to flatter her figure starting from the top.

1- Double chin: Lift and D&B
2- Back neck: Round and tuck in
3- Front neck: Round and tuck in
4- Lower Back:Arch in
5- Smile: I could not help but flatter her smile a bit more

The white belly contour is lost against the neg white

The hero is the face and belly, crop out the skirt and the blown out hair top......











Pic 4

Comp: She is squared up to the camera however the bed is angled. The two tone pillow is not helping the comp.

The camera dipping angle and framing works well.

Lighting: Natural light + Bed light temp needs to be balanced. We need to draw the eye to the face and belly.

- Post: I have circled in blue the bits which need to be cloned out.

The bed sheets and the lighter tones have been re balanced to give more weight to her face and belly.

Her belly is slightly greyish as too high in C and K. If you cannot see it, take a reading with the eye dropper.....I shifted to a warmer and lighter tone closer to the face and chest.

This pic is a winner and you should spend most of your time perfecting the PP.

Both images were done on a laptop and the comments should be the guide while the images as a rough reference.

Good job









Jan 22, 2015 at 01:43 AM
DianeinCR
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Jeanne's belly


Excellent suggestions Kent, Karen, and Almass!! Once again I have great feedback from which I can grow. Thank you!!

This client was all about soft images, blown out backgrounds, sun flares, and grainy textures. Being that I had no bright sun to work with on the day of the shoot, I was going for the soft and blown look. I took a stab at grainy but it was a quick add on and I was not well prepared.

Almass - I can easily clone out the blue circled areas all except the toe. How/what should I be doing with that, other than touching up her pedicure?

Diane




Jan 22, 2015 at 10:01 AM
ben egbert
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Jeanne's belly


Takes a lot of courage to pose for shots like this. I have often thought that women are at their most compelling when pregnant.

I am not able to offer much in the way of critique but the second image is my favorite but only slightly ahead of the first. The blur in the last does not work for me.



Jan 22, 2015 at 11:24 AM
Almass
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Jeanne's belly


DianeinCR wrote:
I can easily clone out the blue circled areas all except the toe. How/what should I be doing with that, other than touching up her pedicure?

Diane



That is precisely what you should do. Touch up her pedicure.

I looked at the file and obviously it does not have enough res for a retouch and you should have a larger file.

The target area is the toe and more precisely the toe nail. When we look at the toe nail, we identify 2 areas that need touching up.

1- The French pedicure which is white unless it is white catching the light...it does not matter. We need to get rid of the white.

2- The toe nail is casting a shadow under the nail which makes the white even stronger.

There are many ways to retouch:

a- Clone the white area by sampling from the pink nail color
aa- Using a brush and sample the pink nail color.
aaa- Use the Liquify filter and push the pink to cover the white

You always retouch on a separate layer and in case you use the brush method, make sure your Flow is at a low percentage and the layer set at Luminosity.

Rinse and repeat for the shadow under the nail....on a separate layer.
For the shadow, you sample your clone or your brush from similar tone skin.

It will look something like this.......









Jan 22, 2015 at 02:42 PM
Almass
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Jeanne's belly


While you are at it. There is a nasty shadow under her lip left which needs to be addressed as well......

Does she have a nose piercing? And of course there are some freckles on her leg and belly....I don't know if she wants them or not?














Jan 22, 2015 at 03:09 PM
DianeinCR
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Jeanne's belly


Almass - I had to laugh at myself when I realized that what was bugging me was also bugging you. I jut never considered fixing it by giving Jeanne a pedicure. From this point forward my clients will always be well groomed.

Thanks for the list of ways to "fix" these sorts of issues. I will work with all three and see what provides me the best results.

Also, thank you ALL (Kent, Karen, Almass, and Ben) for taking the time to respond.

Ben - I do think that it takes a great deal of courage for a young woman to expose herself to being photographed this raw.

We had talked about which shots she wanted, and I had asked her about trying this shot. She was very honest and said that though she had interest in trying it, she wasn't sure she could do it when the time came.

I think that many women desire to have a shot like this, but will not ask for it. And even when it's offered, it does take courage to step forward and expose herself.

I am thankful that Jeanne trusted working with me enough to take the shot.

Thanks for posting that your favorite shot is the second. I appreciate all feedback. My client's first pick is the first one. Mine is the third.



Jan 23, 2015 at 10:13 AM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Jeanne's belly


Perhaps a bit more ephemeral?








Jan 23, 2015 at 03:49 PM
DianeinCR
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Jeanne's belly


Karen - your rework certainly does help with the legs issue.


Jan 24, 2015 at 10:35 AM





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