Congratulations to MazeRunner for winning Feature Thread of the Week with 2 votes - View Previous Winners
As the year is coming to a close, I thought I'd add some photos I shot at my studio with a friend from a few months back.
I always try to shoot so I don't have to Photoshop. Feel free to comment or let me know what poses you'd like me to add (I may or may not have them, these were just the ones I liked).
She's very beautiful and her posing is very nice. I think you also used your lighting very well to sculpt and highlight her facial features, which is a skill that I think a lot of portrait photographers don't quite understand in terms of how to really showcase the facial features that make someone beautiful, but you clearly have a grasp on that.
I love the way the background is darker in images 4 and 5, which brings her into better visual focus in my opinion. I think the other shots with the backdrop being rendered brighter might benefit from a subtle vignette added in post for a similar focusing effect on the model.
I notice the highlights on her face in several of these are very hot. Did you feather your lighting at all, or was your light modifier aimed directly at her face?
To me as a viewer 2 & 3 are standouts. I always envy folks who can do great portraits. Great looking set of lovely friend of yours. Every time I am asked to photograph during family or friends gatherings I really get nervous as I just don’t have the right skills to do portraits. 🙄
This is one classy, beautiful, sensuous woman! I also as a viewer, mimic Paruls's comments(keepclicking). I will defer to the fine comments made but gee she sure is beautiful. So as a viewer, you did her proud!
Dan
DanielScott wrote:
She's very beautiful and her posing is very nice. I think you also used your lighting very well to sculpt and highlight her facial features, which is a skill that I think a lot of portrait photographers don't quite understand in terms of how to really showcase the facial features that make someone beautiful, but you clearly have a grasp on that.
I love the way the background is darker in images 4 and 5, which brings her into better visual focus in my opinion. I think the other shots with the backdrop being rendered brighter might benefit from a subtle vignette added in post for a similar focusing effect on the model.
I notice the highlights on her face in several of these are very hot. Did you feather your lighting at all, or was your light modifier aimed directly at her face? ...Show more →
My philosophy when shooting is to get the pose + composition + lighting the way I want it, with as little post processing as possible. The majority of my clients are older average Joes/Janes (stressed out executives, corporate white + blue collar folk, nurses, doctors, teachers, social workers, etc.), and the most enjoyable part of shooting is when I can capture images that make them feel amazing about themselves.
With anyone who's better-than-average looking, that's when I feel it is more difficult because I feel compelled to shoot in such a way so that the lighting and composition gets more relative attention than the subject's attractiveness--because they're obviously attractive, but I want to impose the skill and ability of the photographer into the photo!
Lighting is mostly direct as I used both a Broncolor para 133 HR and a para 88 as main for these, so you'll see a mix of the hard and soft from the collimated lighting. Also used a 3" octabox above as subtle fill, and 2 V-Flats on each side.
Dneufarth wrote:
Very nice set. Agree with Daniel’s assessment. I also think that your friend is an excellent candidate for some natural light portraiture.
Derek
Thanks! She always gets photos done in natural lighting. I told her I wanted to shoot her with my studio lighting so she could see the difference.
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keepclicking wrote:
To me as a viewer 2 & 3 are standouts. I always envy folks who can do great portraits. Great looking set of lovely friend of yours. Every time I am asked to photograph during family or friends gatherings I really get nervous as I just don’t have the right skills to do portraits. 🙄
2/3 I went with a faster aperture, about f/2.2 I believe. That's usually not typical with studio photography as we'd like to get the ears and everything in focus, but I wanted a bit of the separation.
The more you shoot, the better you'll get. Just keep an open mind and keep practicing! Even when I look at my work, I always see room for improvement + I ask myself "what could I have tried or done differently for a more dynamic set of images?"
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Danpbphoto wrote:
This is one classy, beautiful, sensuous woman! I also as a viewer, mimic Paruls's comments(keepclicking). I will defer to the fine comments made but gee she sure is beautiful. So as a viewer, you did her proud!
Dan
The model is lovely, the poses are attractive and the lighting is fine. Without going into much details, these are excellent portraits, Peter - I enjoy your portrait photography!
rntbot wrote:
Hot spots or not, I voted for you! She's beautiful, and you shared her beauty in a magnificent way! Thanks for sharing.
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AGeoJO wrote:
The model is lovely, the poses are attractive and the lighting is fine. Without going into much details, these are excellent portraits, Peter - I enjoy your portrait photography!
Joshua
Thank you both. Will try to upload some more shoots every now and then.
Nice overall! I agree with the comment on #6 - something very odd going on in her top.
I'm interested in the comments about the hot spots (and preventative strategies) in particular as it's something I run into on occasion even shooting headshots with 60" Softlighters/PLMs where feathering isn't as viable since the light is so big and close to them. I've developed a multi-level retouching repair method, but it's not simple. Sometime people will just have shiny skin despite my preparation instructions to avoid it.
Lupin 3rd wrote:
Personally I REALLY like #2 & #3! All the others are also nice except for #6: something with the shirt pattern makes her bust look awkward to me.
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KE_Photo wrote:
Nice overall! I agree with the comment on #6 - something very odd going on in her top.
I'm interested in the comments about the hot spots (and preventative strategies) in particular as it's something I run into on occasion even shooting headshots with 60" Softlighters/PLMs where feathering isn't as viable since the light is so big and close to them. I've developed a multi-level retouching repair method, but it's not simple. Sometime people will just have shiny skin despite my preparation instructions to avoid it.
Think for #6 it's a suede fabric where if the bristles are brushed a bit to the side, they'll glow. I attached a zoomed-in of the fabric.
Her pulling up her pants and wearing the tight top, along with the white spots made the bulges look worse. =/ I brushed over the upper spots a little bit, won't be able to change post as it's a finalist for the weekly vote (at least that's what the forum tells me when I try to edit).
@KE_Photo: Have you tried a double-diffused silver/white interior octabox after blotting skin for oils? That usually does the trick. For this set, I was using either a para 133 or para 88 as the main light because I actually like the collimated mixture of hard and soft.
