A couple of portraits I took for a hairdresser earlier this year. Initially she hired me for headshots, but once we got those out of the way we decided to get some moody beauty portraits too. I'm always grateful for clients who are willing to get a little creative too.
Canon 5D MKIII, Canon EF 135mm f/2.8 Soft Focus lens (with soft focus disabled) set to f/10, 1/125th sec, ISO 100. Lit using a single Neewer S101-400 with a 24" Neewer octabox and a reflector.
I think you "nailed it" with #2! Well executed! Number 1 is pretty good, but personally, I not a fan of the over the shoulder look. It just feels like an uncomfortable pose because there is too much eye sclera and sometimes the neck wrinkles distract from the grace of the body lines. Again, this is a personal thing!
Daniel, trying to find constructive suggestions to your compositions is useless for me. I am a terrible portrait photographer!
Great compositions of a beautiful woman! Both extremely well done! Top shelf!
Dan
I'm with @story_teller regarding the pose. And the tattoo is distracting me from the otherwise great portrait and attractive lady. But maybe that is your intent.
And I am an even worse portrait shooter than @Danpbphoto so don't go by what I say.
story_teller wrote:
I think you "nailed it" with #2! Well executed! Number 1 is pretty good, but personally, I not a fan of the over the shoulder look. It just feels like an uncomfortable pose because there is too much eye sclera and sometimes the neck wrinkles distract from the grace of the body lines. Again, this is a personal thing!
Thank you. I understand where you're coming from and appreciate your thoughts.
Danpbphoto wrote:
Daniel, trying to find constructive suggestions to your compositions is useless for me. I am a terrible portrait photographer!
Great compositions of a beautiful woman! Both extremely well done! Top shelf!
Dan
Thank you so much Dan. I always look forward to your input.
matonanjin wrote:
I'm with @story_teller@ regarding the pose. And the tattoo is distracting me from the otherwise great portrait and attractive lady. But maybe that is your intent.
And I am an even worse portrait shooter than @Danpbphoto@ so don't go by what I say.
I can appreciate your opinions regarding tattoos, but that is her body and it's not something that I could or would change, or hide, or judge. I view tattoos the same way I do things like birth marks: It's permanent, additionally deeply personal to the portrait subject, so in my opinion they are a very important element to a portrait that adds another level of personality to it, and is the opposite of a distraction.
1- Picture one lighting is obscuring the eye sockets (which has no relation with the dark makeup).
2- Picture one and two pose are flawed as too much prominence is given to the bulbous ball nose tip which ruins the pose.
All models with a Ball Nose should be shot square on the face to avoid emphasis on the nose shape.
3- Neck wrinkles (plis) have a very simple solution for a correct pose.
Overall very nice - great that you were able to go from a headshot session and add the creative ones. (Something I should pursue more often myself!)
I understand what some of the others are saying regarding the (pose related) neck and sclera, but I think the tattoo is a feature that adds interest (not distracting).
One thing I do find distracting is the RH (shadow) side of her nose in #1. The main vertical transition from light to shadow is fine, but then just left of it there is a dark shadow dip in the indentation, then another vertical line defining the edge between the nose and the cheek - followed by another small slim irregular darker shadow on the cheekbone. (Hope I described it accurately enough to make it clear) - the end result of all this when viewing at full length is a bit of chaos. The retoucher in me might want to try to tinker with it, but a slightly different angle (or lighting) might have been a lot easier. It's definitely not something that would be easy to see while shooting - just a minor nit that may not bother others. YMMV
1- Picture one lighting is obscuring the eye sockets (which has no relation with the dark makeup).
2- Picture one and two pose are flawed as too much prominence is given to the bulbous ball nose tip which ruins the pose.
All models with a Ball Nose should be shot square on the face to avoid emphasis on the nose shape.
3- Neck wrinkles (plis) have a very simple solution for a correct pose.
KE_Photo wrote:
Overall very nice - great that you were able to go from a headshot session and add the creative ones. (Something I should pursue more often myself!)
I understand what some of the others are saying regarding the (pose related) neck and sclera, but I think the tattoo is a feature that adds interest (not distracting).
One thing I do find distracting is the RH (shadow) side of her nose in #1. The main vertical transition from light to shadow is fine, but then just left of it there is a dark shadow dip in the indentation, then another vertical line defining the edge between the nose and the cheek - followed by another small slim irregular darker shadow on the cheekbone. (Hope I described it accurately enough to make it clear) - the end result of all this when viewing at full length is a bit of chaos. The retoucher in me might want to try to tinker with it, but a slightly different angle (or lighting) might have been a lot easier. It's definitely not something that would be easy to see while shooting - just a minor nit that may not bother others. YMMV...Show more →
Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. Regarding the neck wrinkles, I personally am not bothered by them; neck wrinkles are unavoidable in some poses, and I did want to put emphasis on her tattoo so the angle was necessary.
Both of these are spectacular; however I prefer #2 for the same reasons that Storyteller mentioned.
I think you are very lucky that you had the chance to do creative stuff that you wanted to do after you took care of what the client paid you to do. That seems like a luxury sometimes, in the line of work I do. I'm sincerely very happy for you!
Oscarsmadness wrote:
Both of these are spectacular; however I prefer #2 for the same reasons that Storyteller mentioned.
I think you are very lucky that you had the chance to do creative stuff that you wanted to do after you took care of what the client paid you to do. That seems like a luxury sometimes, in the line of work I do. I'm sincerely very happy for you!
Thank you. Generally speaking if a client and I have good creative chemistry it will energize and inspire me, so I'll ask if they're willing to model for some less traditional shots. Most of the time they're very willing. I'm also very grateful for all of my paying clients and sometimes that gratitude comes in the form of additional photos they didn't pay me for, like these.
I prefer #1. Love the warm skin tones. The lighting is contrasty enough to set some nice shadows and highlights but does not go so far as to create hot spots on her face--I think perhaps the brightness of her hand could be lowered. I like the fact that you included her entire arm in the frame. The floating hand on the face sort of portrait can get on my nerves. Although I like her arm being shot straight on to maximize its clarity, I think shifting her body to make it more open to the camera might help relax her head and neck. Just a bit of awkward tightness to the shot. Now, what I like less about the black and white is the biting clarity of her skin. There is much more texture in the shot than what is seen in the first. Not sure what could be done about that. One can lose authenticity by smoothing in post. The closed pose feels less natural here than in the first as it seems to me that much effort was made to present the tattoo. I also think the right side of her face is set too close to the edge. Perhaps setting the tattoo in the lower right would have created a more dynamic shot (implied diagonal).
Brev00 wrote:
I prefer #1. Love the warm skin tones. The lighting is contrasty enough to set some nice shadows and highlights but does not go so far as to create hot spots on her face--I think perhaps the brightness of her hand could be lowered. I like the fact that you included her entire arm in the frame. The floating hand on the face sort of portrait can get on my nerves. Although I like her arm being shot straight on to maximize its clarity, I think shifting her body to make it more open to the camera might help relax her head and neck. Just a bit of awkward tightness to the shot. Now, what I like less about the black and white is the biting clarity of her skin. There is much more texture in the shot than what is seen in the first. Not sure what could be done about that. One can lose authenticity by smoothing in post. The closed pose feels less natural here than in the first as it seems to me that much effort was made to present the tattoo. I also think the right side of her face is set too close to the edge. Perhaps setting the tattoo in the lower right would have created a more dynamic shot (implied diagonal)....Show more →
