Home · Register · Join Upload & Sell

Moderated by: Fred Miranda

New fredmiranda.com Mobile Site

New Feature: SMS Notification alert

New Feature: Buy & Sell Watchlist

FM Forums | People Photography | Join Upload & Sell

Archive 2018 · Girl and her guitar

friscoron
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Girl and her guitar

From a senior portrait shoot last month. And she's smiling!

I don't post many pics of my subjects smiling.

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4895/31151499907_1317801d63_b.jpg

Nov 28, 2018 at 11:25 AM

dmacmillan
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Girl and her guitar

Nice! Could you "borrow" a little background from the right of her and clone it over the car to the left of her?

Nov 28, 2018 at 11:35 AM

friscoron
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Girl and her guitar

dmacmillan wrote:
Nice! Could you "borrow" a little background from the right of her and clone it over the car to the left of her?

I thought about doing that, but the car didn't really bother me that much.

Nov 28, 2018 at 12:11 PM

Peter Figen
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Girl and her guitar

The car was the first thing I saw. Probably would have just moved the camera to the right and have her block the car but it's too late for that. Pretty easy fix. It's a very pretty shot Ron, but I don't think that sweater is super flattering to her, at least from that angle and you likely had not much say in that either. Just out of curiosity, did you shoot any vertical shots of her. That would have put you closer to her and blown out the bg even more. Pretty guitar.

Nov 28, 2018 at 12:52 PM

friscoron
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Girl and her guitar

Thanks, Peter. All right, maybe I need to rethink the car.

I did shoot some tighter vertical shots of her when she was on the sidewalk. The background called for a vertical there. Here, I wanted to capture the scene and I like how the branches create like a canopy effect over her, so I'm really happy with the landscape look.

Nov 28, 2018 at 01:23 PM

Shepherd_in_CO
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Girl and her guitar

Loving the landscape look too. I hate to say it, but I agree about the car, it's the first thing I noticed. But, if you and the client like it in there, keep it in. Sometimes I think we over sanitize our work. I broke the eye and nose merge rule this week because the look on the model's face was fierce and I wanted to capture it. Beautiful senior portrait, thanks for sharing.

Nov 29, 2018 at 10:35 PM

phototiimo
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Girl and her guitar

friscoron wrote:
I thought about doing that, but the car didn't really bother me that much.

Now that it's been pointed out, it's all I can see lol

Nov 30, 2018 at 04:09 AM

phototiimo
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Girl and her guitar

Shepherd_in_CO wrote:
Loving the landscape look too. I hate to say it, but I agree about the car, it's the first thing I noticed. But, if you and the client like it in there, keep it in. Sometimes I think we over sanitize our work. I broke the eye and nose merge rule this week because the look on the model's face was fierce and I wanted to capture it. Beautiful senior portrait, thanks for sharing.

What's the eye and nose merge rule?

Nov 30, 2018 at 04:11 AM

Shepherd_in_CO
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Girl and her guitar

phototiimo wrote:
What's the eye and nose merge rule?

Old school portrait rule of not having the pupil merge with the nose when you have the subject's face partially turned from the camera. You are supposed to have some space separating them.

Attaching the first photo I could find in a search, it isn't my photo and I mean no disrespect to the photographer that took it by using it as an example to illustrate the concept.

Nov 30, 2018 at 08:24 AM

phototiimo
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Girl and her guitar

Shepherd_in_CO wrote:
Old school portrait rule of not having the pupil merge with the nose when you have the subject's face partially turned from the camera. You are supposed to have some space separating them.

Attaching the first photo I could find in a search, it isn't my photo and I mean no disrespect to the photographer that took it by using it as an example to illustrate the concept.

Gotcha, that's what I assumed it was. Thanks

Nov 30, 2018 at 09:49 AM

friscoron
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Girl and her guitar

The thing is about the car is that I don't really like altering pictures just for the sake of doing it. The car was parked there. It belongs there. It draws your eyes away from the subject the same as the tree trunks do, as well as the leaves, the shift in colors from yellow to red and the sprinkle of green. She's standing in the middle of the street. That car belongs there more than she does. I've thought about this, and whether it catches people's attention or not, it still doesn't bother me. If it was out of place, then yeah.

It's sort of like taking a picture of someone with the ocean in the background. Do you remove all the seagulls? Do you remove all the ships at sea? At what point do we leave well enough alone, and let the scene be natural.

Having said this, I'm not trying to debate this, or win an argument (not that this an "argument"). We all have different opinions. I like to hear opinions from people who see things differently than I do. But in the end, I have to make the decisions on my images. And trust me, sometimes, I do decide to change the backgrounds out, replace the skies, remove cars, etc. But I decide that for each image.

And trust me, next week... I may feel differently about this.

Nov 30, 2018 at 02:37 PM

Peter Figen
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Girl and her guitar

Ron - I don't see how taking the car out is change for the sake of change, which most of us are probably not in favor of. It might belong there, but if you had just move two feet over it would have disappeared. If the entire street was lined with cars it would be an entirely different shot and you might have chosen another location because all those cars didn't support your portrait. I mean, you take out pimples, right? This is just a big out of focus pimple. Another way to look at it is to ask whether your intent is to document the scene with her in it or are you making a statement about your subject, which then includes everything in the frame as commentary. And who knows, you might take it out and decide it looks better with it in, but at least look at it both ways.

Nov 30, 2018 at 03:07 PM

friscoron
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Girl and her guitar

I'm extremely confident that I was aware of the car when I took the shot, Peter. I would not have wanted to move her to block the car as she would have not have been in the middle of the street, which is exactly where I wanted her. And if I would have moved to the right to use her to block the car, again the composition of the shot would change. The composition is exactly what I want.

As for removing the car, I'm going to completely agree with you that it would not be a distracting element if it was removed. And yes, I remove pimples. Even if it is distracting, at this moment I am not bothered by it. But like I said, ask me again next week and I may roll my eyes at the idea that I initially left it in.

Nov 30, 2018 at 03:48 PM

Elliot Kramer
Offline
•
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Girl and her guitar

Here's something you won't hear too often, but I actually think you should have used a smaller aperture. There is way too much blur in the background to the point that it looks unnatural to me. The subject seems to be floating in space a little or perhaps as though this was green screened. The edges around her seem too sharp. Since you did not want to remove the car in an attempt not to alter reality too much, then perhaps it should be of some concern that this is not what the scene looked like in real life at all. Otherwise really nice work! Thanks for posting!

(By the way, I am back after being away for a year or so. Unfortunately this site doesn't seem to remember my previous 10 years of membership or my thousands of posts. So, it looks like I'm new here, but I'm not).

Nov 30, 2018 at 10:16 PM

nolaguy
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Girl and her guitar

Forget the car... it's the pesky elf photo bombing between the trees on the right that really twists my knickers. I hate those little f****rs. HATE 'em.

Other than that, lovely shot Ron.

: )

Dec 01, 2018 at 03:13 AM

Danpbphoto
Offline
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Girl and her guitar

Heh Ron...the car was an after look for me. She caught my eye immediately and the wonderful bokeh sort of hid the car for a moment.
Personally yeah I would get rid of it but from a initial focal point, she has it!
Dan

Dec 01, 2018 at 09:57 AM

friscoron
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Girl and her guitar

nolaguy wrote:
Forget the car... it's the pesky elf photo bombing between the trees on the right that really twists my knickers. I hate those little f****rs. HATE 'em.

Other than that, lovely shot Ron.

: )

I was wondering when someone was going to mention that.

Dec 01, 2018 at 01:53 PM

nolaguy
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Girl and her guitar

friscoron wrote:
...But like I said, ask me again next week and I may roll my eyes at the idea that I initially left it in.

Coming from notorious album-cover-shooter Peter (whose work and tireless capacity for detail I greatly admire), I do get his observations, but to me, the photograph is lush and gorgeous as is, Ron. And I agree with you that it would be a completely different shot without the composition as is, including the landscape orientation.

Sometimes we sacrifice the few, for the good of the many - or something like that.

Dec 02, 2018 at 10:28 AM


FM Forums \| People Photography \| Join Upload & Sell

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.