Cassandra

[macktruckturner]

First time doing a few different things. I know what I think, and want to know what you think.

 

[kurt]

Why are you wasting time with a camera? Unless of course, she WANTS you to waste time with a camera.

 

[trainman]

This is a motorcycle forum, I think you should have pictured her on a bike, this way we can call this forum a true "Duel Sport Forum".

John

 

[Tracker]

take my critique with a grain of salt
- she seems unbalanced without her left arm in the picture in some form/fashion
- fill light from lower left would be nice to soften the harsh shadows
- color temp seems a little cold, but that could just be my notebook display
- I'm not sure what her facial expression says exactly--fear, anger? would rather see warmth, happiness, come hither, ...

 

[M38A1]

My first impression was "wow".....

I'm no expert, but the overexposed washout of her hair pulls away from the portrait for me. The super white over her shoulder/behind her seems to leave a big hole. She has beautiful eyes, but I can't figure out if her left eye is two-toned or not, a hazel/brown or blue/brown combination?

I really like the bokeh and how that worked on the right side of the shot.

 

[macktruckturner]

Why are you wasting time with a camera? Unless of course, she WANTS you to waste time with a camera.

She called and asked me to waste time with my camera! Who am I to deny her that!? We've worked together before, but she stopped modeling (just like I stopped taking photos of models) for about a year and wanted to get back into it.

This is a motorcycle forum, I think you should have pictured her on a bike, this way we can call this forum a true "Duel Sport Forum".

John

She actually asked if I was going to bring my bike "next time" because she wants to get some shots on a motorcycle.

take my critique with a grain of salt
- she seems unbalanced without her left arm in the picture in some form/fashion
- fill light from lower left would be nice to soften the harsh shadows
- color temp seems a little cold, but that could just be my notebook display
- I'm not sure what her facial expression says exactly--fear, anger? would rather see warmth, happiness, come hither, ...

I brought a whole bucket of salt just in case! If it hadn't been so windy I definitely would have setup an umbrella to pop in some soft fill from the lower left. I'm not sure my speedlights have the power to have actually faced off on-axis with the sun, but I would have tried if I wasn't sure I'd have snapped another umbrella (or sent a strobe into the creek below). Cold is definitely not the color-temp response I expected! I did desaturate blues and greens a bit, and split tone highlights a bit yellow and shadows with a dash of sepia. On my "calibrated" LCD the posted shot is significantly warmer than the out-of-camera photo. I'll take a look at it on one of the (many) uncalibrated screens in the house. The expression is a bit flat IMO as well. To me it's kind of an "oh, hi... I remember you... what are you doing?" look. I'm not sure what she was going for, and I certainly didn't provide any direction to that end. I should have.

Thanks for the input!

My first impression was "wow".....

I'm no expert, but the overexposed washout of her hair pulls away from the portrait for me. The super white over her shoulder/behind her seems to leave a big hole. She has beautiful eyes, but I can't figure out if her left eye is two-toned or not, a hazel/brown or blue/brown combination?

I really like the bokeh and how that worked on the right side of the shot.

You see what you see, and are thus an expert in seeing what you see! I can see how the framing of her face w/ the backlit hair could be distracting. It does the opposite to me and kind of forces me to look between the superwhite edges of her hair. I hadn't noticed that dead white space in the upper left frame until you mentioned it, and now it's bugging me! Her left eye (the camera right one) is in fact multi-toned. It's really cool looking. Really the majority of her eyes alternate a really awesome pattern of green and blue, but her left eye has this ~60° patch of hazel in it. The first time I saw her I thought she had in some weird contacts, but those are her natural eyes.

If there's one thing L-series glass does well (as if I could narrow it down to just one thing), bokeh is its name.

Thanks for the input guys, I appreciate it.

 

[M38A1]

I saw one more teenie little thing that makes me now think about head placement. See her left earlobe? Are you looking at an earlobe or a bump on her cheek? I'm guessing just a quarter inch her looking left would have taken care of it.

Still, a beautiful gal and a really nice job IMO.

.

 

[macktruckturner]

I saw one more teenie little thing that makes me now think about head placement. See her left earlobe? Are you looking at an earlobe or a bump on her cheek? I'm guessing just a quarter inch her looking left would have taken care of it.

Still, a beautiful gal and a really nice job IMO.

.

Good catch, I didn't notice that either. I try to see that stuff through the lens before I push the button, shifting myself just a hair would have fixed that without changing the lighting any. Oops!

Thanks.

 

[M38A1]

For us total noobies, how long did this take to setup and get to the first shot? Then how many shots were done to get this one and how long?

Just curious the level of effort involved.


.

 

[macktruckturner]

Picking the location took about 10 minutes, I took about 5 test shots to see what the ambient light looked like in the exposure range I knew I could fill in with my 285HV. Another 5 or so frames to get the position of the light correct. Once that was set and I had determined the total area that I had "good light" in I just took photos when she did something I thought would look good. I think that was the sixth or seventh photo I took once the light was set.

At that location, I shot Cassandra and her friend Amy. We were probably there for 30 minutes or so before we moved to another location for another 30-45 minutes.

 

[M38A1]

I just cruised your portraits gallery. Nothing short of amazing....

Is your workhorse a 24-70 f/2.8 Prime L?

.

 

[macktruckturner]

I use both of my L-series lenses quiet a lot. If I'm in a "cramped" space, the 24-70 2.8L gets the nod, but if I have space I like the 70-200 2.8L IS to zoom in more and give me the kind of bokeh you see in this one.

 

[M38A1]

I use both of my L-series lenses quiet a lot. If I'm in a "cramped" space, the 24-70 2.8L gets the nod, but if I have space I like the 70-200 2.8L IS to zoom in more and give me the kind of bokeh you see in this one.

In the Nikon line, those are the two on my 'wishlist', but jeez they're expensive. Then again, you can see the quality of the shot via the quality of the glass. Your shots make that abundantly clear.

I'm guessing you also shoot full-frame? My D90 is a crop sensor and although some really nice stuff comes out of that body by others, I can't think but a full-frame D700 would be leaps and bounds above.

I'm focusing on glass next...

.

 

[macktruckturner]

The 5D is a full-frame body. I love it, and haven't found myself wanting the extra reach of an APS-C sensor yet. Granted, most of what I've shot since I bought the 5D has been portraiture, products, or events. If I were shooting motorsports, I'd probably wish I had the extra reach (since a crop body costs way less than a 300mm+ lens).

 

[dutchinterceptor]

The bright spots in the upper left are bothersome as is the light "fringe" around the coat but that could easily be cropped. Nitpicky but the subject's hand position seems awkward with her thumb sticking up and the lack of a left arm/hand is odd. Otherwise, nice work. Her eyes really make the shot.

 

[macktruckturner]

Thanks, nitpicky is why I posted.

The fringe could be handled with a little clone stamp work, or cropping as you suggested. All of the things mentioned here are very helpful. Things I don't notice when I look at the images myself. This stuff helps.

To think, I got into photography for motorsports and have shot exactly one race. I got into photography with NO intention of ever shooting a wedding, and some 80% of my business has been weddings.

 

[dutchinterceptor]

Weddings are great if you can stand them. I kept raising my wedding fees hoping to price myself out of business but they just kept calling. Finally had to change my phone number. Nope, don't miss 'em.

 

[macktruckturner]

I can't, really. School, and brewing beer, take priority right now anyway. I have fun with the camera, which is ultimately what it's about for me. I just like to keep things sharp for moments when I figure I could use some extra cash to buy more brewing gear!