Critique the Community
Beauty
Submit your best beauty photo for your chance to win a free Fstoppers tutorial
Submission Deadline: Fri, 24 Aug 18 03:45:00 +0000
This contest has ended.
Voting is closed.
Congratulations to the winners!
Submission Deadline: Fri, 24 Aug 18 03:45:00 +0000
This contest has ended.
Voting is closed.
Congratulations to the winners!
It's a nice shot of her, she probably loves it and the light is gorgeous - but it's not really 'beauty'
Pretty much going to echo David Fulde's comment.
Hi guys, thanks for your opinion. Can you please advise why do you think it does not fall into ‘beauty’ category?
I am by no means an expert so please take it with a grain of salt, but for me a large part of a beauty portrait is both the lighting (especially on model face) and crop, which should be tight to head/features you want to emphasize.
When looking at this image we can first look at the light on the model's face. There really isn't any. Her whole face, outside of a few random portions, is in shadow. While backlighting may work, you need some good fill in front to really bring out some details and the like.
Crop wise you normally see them being more about the head and/or upper body. Very few will be half body like this since it is all about that "beauty" of the face, which is the most important thing for many people. Think "here is my head-shot Mr producer for Hollywood" vs "here is a nice shot of me for social media".
We can also go into how smooth the skin should be, freckle/spot removal, makeup shading, hair, etc, but all that is kind of an after thought (well at least not as important) to lighting and composing the image, which is where I think this image falls short of that category.
Again please take that with a grain of salt since like I said I am not an expert, nor am I trying to detract from the overall shot since you have a lot going right with sharpness/detail, nice lighting from behind causing some glow and such, etc. However while beauty is in the eye of the beholder, there are just some shortcomings here from a "traditional" beauty shot.
As you look at other contest entries here, look at the ones that stand out to you and try to figure out why they look so much better than the others. Usually they are taken with an idea or concept in mind and created with full control of lighting, color, background, etc. instead of what you have done here: a photo being taken of a beloved friend/family member on a nice walk.
By no means is your photo not a nice shot, but it doesn't show creative control. You didn't decide exactly what to include/not include here. It was just how everything already was. And that's the difference between a 3-5 star photo and a 1-2 star photo.