suggestions if you will

[cosmicma]

i took this photo ( along with others ) while at FOI on tuesday the model was lit with a single model light and no flash was used
i love this kind of portrature and i have to say i am very pleased with the result considering the conditions but i don't really do a lot of this kind of thing and other peoples opinions matter



Creation date: 09/03/2010 14:55
Camera: Canon EOS 50D Lens Canon 24 - 105 F4 L
Focal length: 90 mm
Aperture: F4
Exposure time: 1/30"
ISO speed rating: 400/27°
Program: Auto exposure
White Balance: Auto
Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode

[Richspr]

Good details and tones in this good capture of MonModel, the only think I would suggest is to clone out the white item on the fur hat.

[rob lloyd]

Not too happy with this I'm afraid. That light shoulder and the angle of the arm make it look very unatural to me. Rob

[CSD_Images]

A flawed beauty. Monika is a lovely model to work with but there is a number of faults in the image.

The fur 'hat' looks distorted and leaves the crown of her head exposed, plus there is a white seam showing. Overall this is one of the biggest flaws.

Lighting on the face fine, however the light on the shoulder is the second biggest flaw. It's stealing focus from the face as it's the lightest point of the image.

The crop is a bit too tight which results in the arm/shoulder being clipped, I could live with this but for the arm dangling in the air with no real purpose. If it was for a jewellery shot I'd understand but not for a fashion/head shot.

Remember an image is made of little elements, whilst some can be overlooked too many and it wrecks the image. These three flaws shows little attention to detail. Something that all photographers suffer from at one stage or another no matter how good they are.

Post work is fine though and you have a clean tonality throughout the monochrome which is good.

[grumpygeorge]

i like the image but agree with the fine tuning critic. its very constructive in content.

[cosmicma]

thank you for your input especially from CSD_Images i have to say that the white seam is a piece of jewelry ( i think thats what your refering to ) but the the crown of her head didn't even cross my mind and something i have taken on board
i realaised about the shoulder when i was post proccesing but to be honest when i took the shot it wasn't something i was looking out for i will in the future
i did intend a tight crop concentrating more on the face than anything else and this is exactly why i posted the image for critique as i said in my first post i was quite pleased with the result but without a trained eye with a lot more experience to give crituque i will learn nothing
i do very little portraiture i'm usualy pointing a lens at feathered things i still have a lot to learn when pointing the lens at other subjects

another from the same model with a slighty different pose



Creation date: 09/03/2010 14:56
Camera: Canon EOS 50D
Focal length: 80 mm
Aperture: F4
Exposure time: 1/25"
ISO speed rating: 400/27°
Program: Auto exposure
White Balance: Auto
Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode

[tiler65]

The biggest fault I see in these images is the shadow under her nose. I am slightly cofused by how this done because it appears that the keylight is camera right.

How come there are such strong catchlights when only the model light was used?

There must be some other light source.

[cosmicma]

The biggest fault I see in these images is the shadow under her nose. I am slightly cofused by how this done because it appears that the keylight is camera right.

How come there are such strong catchlights when only the model light was used?

There must be some other light source.

no other light source apart from ambient light within the building
the model light was held in a 3ft x 1ft ( approx ) silver reflector with no difuser so the bulb was visible
it was held to the front ( my right ) and slightly above the models head with the bulb about the hieght of the models eyes at about 2 or 3 feet away

i must admit thats a strange thing under her nose not really noticed it untill you pointed it out

[tiler65]

Looking at this further, look at the shadows of the bracelet, they are very directional as if light is coming from above. This would explain the nose shadows.