Hi everyone!
I was hoping for some comments, CC, and/or advice for these portraits. And who better to ask than this talented community of photographers? Seriously, I'm just blown away by so much of the work I see here.
I just shot these last week, so it is my most recent work. Any tips or thoughts or CC will be much appreciated. Thanks.
Musashi
First thoughts that pop into head...the hand placement on the 2nd looks better than the first. Her hands seem awkward in the first picture. Now, after really looking them over, the shadows by her left elbow (second picture) makes her rib cage look not smooth, like a girdle or something is under there, but I'm sure that's not true. And I wish her pendant laid flat on her chest instead of partially overlapping the dress...possibly a jewelry stylist could confirm. Overall, I prefer the second pic, though both are very nice.
Thank you for the feedback! I agree about the necklace, and I completely missed the thing about the rib cage. That'll be an easy fix. Thank you for pointing that out!
I like them both. I know hand placement is very important, I keep practicing where I put my models hands. Keep up the good work.
Thank you! I placed the 2nd models hands, but the first one assumed this pose on her own.
Overall, the images are great.
The devil is in the details with these images.
For one, I always feel like I'm looking down at the model rather than being the same level as them. A cm or 2 can make a big difference.
The arm placement in the first is alright, though the hands are a bit stiff. It feels like she's clawing at her hair rather than running her fingers gently through her hair which is what I think you were going for. Do you have a variation of her right arm doing something different than running her fingers through her hair? Usually having one hand do one thing and the other doing another is better.
Neaten the stray hairs in post as well.
The lighting is great. Lovely catchlights in their eyes and good control of the shadows without having that faded filtered look.
Thank you for your feedback! Yes I have lots more pics, some full body poses too, but I think variations are not so subtle. They're all quite different. I chose to edit these because the models themselves liked these.
About the hair, actually I just started photography about a year ago, so I've just recently learned how to mask hair in Photoshop, so I was trying to keep as many of the stray hairs as possible to preserve the naturalness...Did I go overboard? Looking at it again, I think you're right. I'll fix that. Thank you!
My pleasure.
Check out this video tutorial for a quick way of removing stray hair. By all means keep some in to make it look natural but there are some which can make the image not look finished.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPAvr5_CWl8
Surface blur...got it!. I'll experiment with that if clone stamp is not working for me. Thanks!
Yeah for a few stray hairs the clone stamp will work fine. If there's a lot then surface blur is the way to go. Look forward to your next lot of images!
You've gotten some good advice. Just wanted to add, I like the shots. :)
They seem a little hot(bright)... I'd back the brightness down about 15 ticks. And you gotta get rid of the tangent at the top of the frame on the short haired girls pic. xoxo