• 0
  • 0
stuart smith's picture

let's go to the movies

Nikon 810

Log in or register to post comments
3 Comments

Very classic, very stylish, great shot.

Good colors and skin tone. I really like the expression and the mood of the photo. If you don't mind, I have just a couple points of constructive criticism.

1. The shadow areas are a little crushed for my taste. It might look really nice if there was a little bit of detail in the shadows on the face instead of completely obscuring the top of her eye and side of the nose. The hair towards the top of the frame is also soooo dark. You can see its form, but no detail. I really like the edge lighting from camera-left, it provides just enough detail and dimension to that side of her face and her cheek on that side has a nice tone in the shadows, but then it goes a little too dark for my taste by the nose and eye. It might look really nice if you feathered a hair light from behind the subject on camera-right so that it barely fell on the hair on the top and side of her head without spilling onto her cheek since the key light is already doing a great job on that side of the face.

2. The color of her eyes is beautiful and really draws the viewer in, so in this instance (not always) I would have tried to capture this shot with much smaller pupils, so as to enhance the amount of that awesome greenish/grey color from the iris. There are a million ways to achieve this, but at times I've even resorted to using a small flashlight with a momentary switch that I would shine on the subject's face, and release a split second before hitting the shutter and triggering the flash. It feels a little silly at first, but it is a quick way to get that look if it is what you are going for. One last thing about the eyes is that, because they immediately draw the viewer in, it is the first place where I often notice a slightly heavy handed retouch. I think overall you did a pretty good job not letting things go overboard, but the whites of her eyes, to me, appear a bit too clean and bright. Scale that back just a little and it might just take it to another level.

Again, I really like this photo a lot, and it is not my intention to be rude or harsh in anyway, I just wanted to share what I thought might help take this photo from really good to amazing.
Cheers,

Alex

This reminds me of a George Hurrell portrait, well done