p.1 #2 · Some new portraits (Military and Seniors)
Excellently-captured portraits, Evan! I enjoy them all. The senior in the second portrait was looking away. I am sure you took a similar portrait with the senior looking at the camera in that pose. Somehow, I thought the eye contact there could be more engaging. Just a minor nit pick...
p.1 #8 · Some new portraits (Military and Seniors)
Just a couple of minor suggestions. These are from the "If I was doing it" perspective, so please take them as such. These are perfectly acceptable images.
In number 1 I would have put a fill board or fill light, camera right to bring a bit more light to the left eye. That would have also minimized the eyeglass frame reflection against the dark hair and provided more detail on the dark dress. The image would still be a bit mysterious, but the left eye would have been a bit more engaging to me.
In number 3 I would have probably bounced some fill from beneath to slightly lighten the dark area under the chin. A sliver reflector bounced up could have also highlighted the ribbons a bit more.
In number 4, the fill board, camera left would have been for the same reason as number 1.
These are all just tweaks I would have done. The poses, expressions, attention to detail, background are great. Well done!
p.1 #9 · Some new portraits (Military and Seniors)
AGeoJO wrote:
Excellently-captured portraits, Evan! I enjoy them all. The senior in the second portrait was looking away. I am sure you took a similar portrait with the senior looking at the camera in that pose. Somehow, I thought the eye contact there could be more engaging. Just a minor nit pick...
Joshua
She's a lovely young woman but a trend I noticed is any time she made direct eye contact I got a heavy-lidded look that eliminated catch-lights unless I dropped my key very low. I tried nearly everything but never got an expression I loved with direct engagement. All of the best photos and ones that looked most like her to me she was looking up and away slightly, which I felt worked with the overall feel of the shot. So totally picking up what you're putting down and tried to get those variations but this is why I went for the shot I did.
HallieS2011 wrote:
Love these. Great color, poses, and lighting. Would love to know your OCF setup!
Danpbphoto wrote:
Just fantastic brother!!!! Just really fine images. All composed and presented impeccably!
How's the "youngster" Got his Airborne wings yet??
Dan
Haha the kiddos are good. Little guy is definitely fearless wildman and will probably do dumb things like his Da one day. Thanks!
story_teller wrote:
Just a couple of minor suggestions. These are from the "If I was doing it" perspective, so please take them as such. These are perfectly acceptable images.
In number 1 I would have put a fill board or fill light, camera right to bring a bit more light to the left eye. That would have also minimized the eyeglass frame reflection against the dark hair and provided more detail on the dark dress. The image would still be a bit mysterious, but the left eye would have been a bit more engaging to me.
In number 3 I would have probably bounced some fill from beneath to slightly lighten the dark area under the chin. A sliver reflector bounced up could have also highlighted the ribbons a bit more.
In number 4, the fill board, camera left would have been for the same reason as number 1.
These are all just tweaks I would have done. The poses, expressions, attention to detail, background are great. Well done!...Show more →
This is an excellent critique and I'm pretty sure you've got some formal training (can't see your site). You obviously know what you're talking about and have experience offering critique! I wish there was more talk like this on the board. I'm going to respond to a few things purely because I think they will make for an interesting discussion, but please don't take any of this to be argumentative. I suspect you already know some of the things I'm going to talk about but I'm going to elaborate for the general audience.
1&4 are very similar images in my lighting approach, and I'm working to achieve a chiaroscuro effect that I find very attractive personally but can be challenging. Both shots are two light setups with a broad-lit feathered key and on-axis large modifier fill. The chiaroscuro effect I love happens when you have a gradient across the backdrop caused by a feathered light source where the darker side of the backdrop achieves separation from the subject by contrasting with the key-lit side of the face, and the shadow side of the face achieves separation by being darker than the lighter side of the backdrop creating a dark-light-dark-light pattern. It was commonly used in painted portraits and when it works its one of my favorite things to see. I mention this because decreasing the light ratio with a bounce card or increased fill on these shots would bring the shadow side closer to the value of the brighter side of the backdrop, minimizing or eliminating the desired effect. I could fight that by making a more abrupt transition across the backdrop using a gridded modifier more aggressively (leaving me a lighter light side with more room to fill) but then it can start to look unnatural. Its a delicate balance! Obviously I could also discard the effect and throw on a kicker to get separation in the opposite direction, but this would take the feel of the shot in a radically different direction. Anyway, this approach is not to everyone's taste but I'm also a sucker for high ratios in general.
So anyway I guess my response is that I think in order to follow your suggestion I'd probably need to adjust my background gradient to get the separation I'm looking for, which would certainly be an option but would risk looking unnatural. Maybe I'll be a little more aggressive with that next time and see how it pans out. That's a long drawn out explanation for some of the lighting choices I've made and perhaps will be useful to some. Thanks again for the great feedback!
Got his Airborne wings yet?? 