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gheller wrote:
Great lens for the $$$ before I upgraded.
She looks to be a nice looking lady, but I don't think the image flatters her.
I would take her into flat light (where this lens shines). It appears she is squinting a bit and the harsh light is distracting.
Also, the position of her hands draws the eyes to them. Her hands are much bigger and brighter than her face, taking the focus (no pun intended) to the bottom middle of the frame.
Also, some more attention to detail would improve this image such as the blouse which is on one shoulder but off the other.
Red and yellow bokeh highlights behind her head should be cloned out.
HTH
greg...Show more →
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story_teller wrote:
Hi Ron,
First, you did some very nice things with this photo. The 85mm lens for this distance was a really good choice. In addition, you got some great subject separation. Her smile is relaxed and genuine. While the light on her was a bit contrasty and sharp, it was decently exposed. Given this circumstance, I would have opted for a larger and softer modifier.
Now, a couple "general" rules you should think about when posing a subject. I use the term general because rules can always be broken under the right circumstances. These will help explain Greg's comments a bit.
Lens compression - Whatever part of the subject is closest to the camera will be emphasized. In this case her hands and knee are around 18-inches in front of her face. They're predominate in the photo. Roberto Valenzuela is a very successful photographer who explained it in a way to easily understand. He said to imagine an invisible plane that's parallel to the camera sensor. As the plane moves toward the subject, what is the first part of the subject it hits? That will be emphasized in the photo. Normally you want the face and eyes to be some of the first things encountered by the plane. In this case you might have turned her legs and hands to the side and had her facing the camera at 45-degrees.
Brightness - The eye will always travel to the brightest part of the image. If that's the face, that's great. If there are other areas in the background or foreground that are brighter, you've now created viewer tension in the photo because the eye unconsciously travels back and forth from the face to the bright spots. Bright colors can also be distracting. Here's an old trick. Turn the photo upside down and observe where the distracting spots are.
Hope those help a bit.
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Thank you both for the help and suggestions. I understand and agree with you both about the hands and the knees. I am still learning how to pose ladies and make it look natural and flattering.
I agree with about using a softer modifier however, all we had was this reflector and it was one of the newer ones with the gold and silver zigzag lines. I learned a lesson about how warm and hot it really was. (That contributed to her squinting).
When we moved on, we changed it to the silver and white and used primarily the white side for the rest of the evening.
I have a few more from that evening that I will share later.
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