p.1 #1 · Head shots of a young woman for her business
A young Latin woman I've known for many years asked me to take some head shots for her new business. Thanks for taking a look and any constructive criticism.
p.1 #2 · Head shots of a young woman for her business
On the 1st one, could you crop her arms out so just the orange is showing? There are a few stray hairs also. Looks just a little bit hot on the light side of the images, not bad, just a little bit bright. Looks like you did an awesome job!
p.1 #3 · Head shots of a young woman for her business
Just a quick couple of comments. First, these are well done portraits (maybe a bit hot on the highlights). But the question I have is how will they be used in the context of her business? What’s the intended use, and does this style of portraiture support the business, her intended market, and the media in which the photos will be used (i.e. print vs. digital)? Tell us how the headshots support the business, and perhaps the decisions made around the photographic strategy. In doing headshots, the intended use is always my first question (what, where, how, etc.).
p.1 #5 · Head shots of a young woman for her business
These are all great points and I especially appreciate being clear on how the shots will be used.
The subject has started to work as a professional photographer, largely within the Hispanic community ouf our city. She's a devotee of Frida Kahlo and wants to emulate Frida and to express some of the same artistic impulses. We ranged a little outside of the business use of the shots because of personal friendship and mutual appreciation, conscious that she might use a couple more for personal reasons.
Clipha, thanks for pointing our the details of the hairs and cropping out the arms. I probably should have asked her to use a little hairspray to keep down the fly aways, and then remove some that persisted in being rebellious.
Regarding when the brightest part of photo is on the face, how do you set your hot point. I certainly don't let it flash hot on the histogram, but I agree that I would like to see it a little less hot. I'd be interested in your rule of thumb.
p.1 #6 · Head shots of a young woman for her business
Thanks for the explanation of how the portraits relate to her business. As to your question about highlights, my experience is, first, not all highlights are bad, and, second, that to reduce them best requires either indirect light sources or more diffusion. I’m an Elinchrom guy, and I typically use a direct octa (39” deep or 53”) which is double diffused (innner and outer diffuser). I can add a difflector to the light itself, providing triple diffusion. That works in nearly all cases, unless the skin is very, very oily. Then you need to wash and reapply makeup that masks the oily condition.
p.1 #9 · Head shots of a young woman for her business
I echo all of Steve Wylie's points. Particularly that the one side of her face is too hot. When I'm shooting, I expose for the bright side. I can work the shadows however I want. In a case like this, I'd temper the highlights through a simple cloning/layer opacity process i do in PS. Really works magic.
p.1 #10 · Head shots of a young woman for her business
In the second and third her hair is blending into the darker background. You might consider a silver reflector or light right rear as a separation light. If she wants a pure black bg, a light on the bg may be out. You might try having her hold something photographic, like a camera, to give her something to do with her hands. One of my pet peeves is women touching their heads in portraits. I call them my ex wife poses: not tonight, I have a headache. Black bgs for women biz photos is not what I would ordinarly do, but it does make them unusual. Also, look at the size of her nose in the second shot compared to the other 2. I have never had anyone say make my nose larger. Compression is a function of camera to subject distance. In the second you were further away and I find it more flattering. A fine detail, but important, especially to someone like me with a multi broken ample nose. A longer lens and moving back makes a difference. Stand at the bathroom sink and look at your nose. It's about 2 feet to the mirror and 2 feet into it, 4 feet. That is what you think you look like. Take a step back and watch how your nose looks relatively smaller, take another step back. At 15 to 20 feet, my nose looks like Michae Jacksons, too much compression and at that distance I can't talk to my subject comfortably, so you need to find your favorite working distance. So try a longer lens or step back and crop. The lens doesn't compress, the distance does and when you find the working distance you like, you can chose the lens that fills the frame the amount you like. The d850 shows cropping in camera for 4:5 ratio and 1:1 ratio so I can precisely crop in camera and not have to shoot loose then crop in post.
p.1 #14 · Head shots of a young woman for her business
dmacmillan, That would be a fun collaboration, and would help her to communicate her style. I can stay back a little. If we do a second one I will suggest that.
p.1 #15 · Head shots of a young woman for her business
One point that I don't think has been made yet is the crop through fingers and cutting off the elbow. In the last shot there is a tiny bit of skin showing in the bottom left corner.
My advice is to have the final crop in mind when you have her pose. ie - where will the bottom of the photo be (not though her fingers, of course) and will you show the whole arm? Stuff like that.
p.1 #16 · Head shots of a young woman for her business
Yes pay more attention to lighting and framing. Both look rather sloppy.
I dont like the lighting in general. Its not coming from high enough and it seems as if the top of her hair hardly gets any light at all anymore. Neither looks good.
I would go for a much more even lighting. In fact if Frida Kahlo is her idol, Frida Kahlos images themselves have always completely even lighting.
For background I would chose something that references Kahlos images, too. For example a lot of her images seem to have large leafs as background, or as part of the background.
So for example a image outside on an overcast day in front of a wall with ivy would be an idea. During an overcast day, the whole sky works as a softbox, resulting in very even lighting.
You might want to reference Kahlo in respect to the clothing, too.
p.1 #18 · Head shots of a young woman for her business
I believe the hot areas in the face are completely the fault of my processing and trying to include a wide dynamic range. They were not too hot straight out of the camera!
p.1 #19 · Head shots of a young woman for her business
Sauseschritt wrote:
large leafs as background, or as part of the background.
So for example a image outside on an overcast day in front of a wall with ivy would be an idea. During an overcast day, the whole sky works as a softbox, resulting in very even lighting.
You might want to reference Kahlo in respect to the clothing, too.
A few years ago I did a much more researched Kahlo shoot using the clothing and flowers that Kahlo liked to use in her portraits.
