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Archive 2011 · feedback sought

gregfountain
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · feedback sought

Did some head shots for some stylists at my wife's salon today and I'm looking for some feedback as to how well these turned out.

I shot these with a, 18" square softbox as a key, and a shoot through umbrella for fill and hair highlights. Both were used with SB600 speed lights.

Thanks for looking and your comments are appreciated!

Greg

Mar 14, 2011 at 09:54 PM

Jim Rickards
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · feedback sought

I think the camera height on the first few shots was too low. You have a "look up" perspective in those.

Nevertheless, some good results they will like.

I like the #3 shot (It's always good to put numbers on your pics), even though I don't like the arms leading the viewer's eye out of the frame on each side.

Mar 15, 2011 at 06:51 AM

gregfountain
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · feedback sought

Thanks Jim. I struggled with the crops a bit in that i had to crop them for the purpose the stylists were asking for vs. my own particular tastes, which was to include their entire upper torsos. The one with the girls with her arms leading off the frame at a diagonal was probably the most unnatural of them all all. The actual final images will be cropped even more (strickly headshots) as some of the shots will be submitted to Redken, who has certain requirements....thanks for taking the time to leave feedback!

Greg

Mar 15, 2011 at 07:39 AM

eeneryma
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · feedback sought

I like the frames that you've created around your portratis. How did you create these? Did you use special software?

Mar 15, 2011 at 07:56 AM

gregfountain
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · feedback sought

The frames I used here are offered as part of the upload subscription service on FM...

Greg

eeneryma wrote:
I like the frames that you've created around your portratis. How did you create these? Did you use special software?

Mar 15, 2011 at 08:02 AM

Eyeball
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · feedback sought

I would assume that the hair is a pretty important part of the story here but I think it blends in with the background too much. A hair light, backlight, and/or different background might have helped.

Mar 15, 2011 at 09:09 AM

gregfountain
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · feedback sought

Eyeball wrote:
I would assume that the hair is a pretty important part of the story here but I think it blends in with the background too much. A hair light, backlight, and/or different background might have helped.

Very good point, And in the future I will be insistent on using a lighter background! I did have a backlight, but the one I had was halogen, my flashes of course are 5200K and I was contending with florescent overheads....so I nixed the back light. I suppose I could have gelled the flashes, but once we got going it was non stop. This is where I learn to take more control of the scene and as you point out, it was a good lesson.

Greg

Mar 15, 2011 at 09:20 AM

dmacmillan
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · feedback sought

I think there's lots of good things going on here. With a little tweaking of your setup, you could generate some first class images for your wife.

If you could pick up a cheap speedlight, optical slave and stand, you could make a DIY snoot out of black paper and use it as a hair light. Experiment with different power settings.

Too bad the second model raised her chin that high.

Mar 15, 2011 at 01:17 PM

cmillc22
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · feedback sought

nice series and agree with hair light and kicker and a little higher on the camera angle also i would cleanup all those stray hairs to make for a clean hair style. the last one she looks like the hair is making her tip forward

Mar 15, 2011 at 02:17 PM

bsirjani
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · feedback sought

I agree with those above that there are lots of great facets to these images. The biggest thing that I think would have helped here is using a lighter-colored background. Given how dark it is, you lose a lot of the detail and form of your subjects. The skin is lit very well and the hair is accentuated, but you have a few models with darker hair, so it is lost in the background.

Just my $.02

Mar 15, 2011 at 02:35 PM

gregfountain
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · feedback sought

Thanks for the comments. It's obvious to me now that a lighter background is in order and if I can get them to shutoff the overhead lights, I can use the halogen lamp that does have a snoot and barn doors for the hair, without sacrificing skin tones. And the poses....well, again, I'll have to exert more control in the next one!

Greg

Mar 15, 2011 at 03:26 PM

jfinite
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · feedback sought

Nice and contrasty, well done!

Mar 15, 2011 at 04:17 PM

alohadave
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · feedback sought

gregfountain wrote:
Thanks for the comments. It's obvious to me now that a lighter background is in order and if I can get them to shutoff the overhead lights, I can use the halogen lamp that does have a snoot and barn doors for the hair, without sacrificing skin tones. And the poses....well, again, I'll have to exert more control in the next one!

Greg

You probably won't need to turn the lights off. Your strobes are providing all of your lighting, and most indoors are very dimly lit, in photographic terms.

An easy way to check if the ambient will be a problem is to take a meter reading with your flash settings, with the flash turned off. If the ambient is 3 or more stops underexposed, them the ambient will not contribute to the shot and you can leave them on.

It's no fun to shoot in the dark, and there is no reason to in most cases.

Mar 15, 2011 at 04:37 PM

gregfountain
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · feedback sought

Thanks Justin and Dave! I suppose if I plan on getting more into this type of photography, and I probably will because it was a thrill for me to see the joyful expressions of the people involved, I'll need to invest in a light meter....thanks for tip on the overheads Dave. I took a couple of test shots and to my eye, the skin was off when the halogen was on, but there were probably other factors involved...perhaps light bouncing off of several mirrors in the vicinity that I didn't think would be an issue....

Mar 15, 2011 at 04:51 PM

meriirem
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · feedback sought

These pictures are pretty fine, but I wish you would've done more pp on the skin.
Also, on the #1 picture, there could be more light on her face, cause now she has turned her face a bit away from the light.

Meri

Mar 15, 2011 at 06:05 PM

gregfountain
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · feedback sought

Thanks Meri. Anything specific about the skin? I thought it was pretty well toned, but I'm open to suggestion! They were all wearing make up, so it's not their natural skin tone, but I did warm it up a tad...

Greg

Mar 15, 2011 at 06:15 PM


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