Hi all.
I recently did a shoot with a beautiful young lady who volunteered to come in and sit for our class. She is a 16 year old looking for some acting/ commercial headshots.
The ones in the green tops are completely unretouched. The "dark" one I did a little bit in lightroom only... brightened the eyes a little and a little skin smoothing...but I'm kind of thinking it might be a little overdone. I was going for a dark, kind of "vampir-ey" look. But I know I'm weak in Post processing. I'm trying to get stuff as close as possible in-camera before I start really getting into Photoshop.
In case you're wondering... I've only owned a DSLR since about November.
I'd love a little CC, especially on composition, lighting and color. (I don't have a calibrated monitor... so I'd love to hear if these look good color-wise.)
Thanks,
Chip
I had posted a while ago... but I didn't discuss posting them with the model's parents.... they have since given me permission to post them.
In terms of lighting I find too much light on all of the images. By "too much" I mean too little shadows, not too much power. That's making the face equally bright and thus looks wider (not so emphasized on this tiny girl but but just FYI). The darker image seems underexposed on my monitor. You can make darker looking image without underexposing parts that are meant to be visible.
You don't need to use so many light sources. It makes the task much harder. When you use many light sources you have to fine-tune their ratios not just to have a visible subject but to have a subject with the "right shadows". The "right shadows" is "right" in your eyes. Of course this above may be the look you are going for but as you asked for CC I'm sharing my opinion.
The first 3 are strange because you are above the model and she isn't even looking at the camera. It feels like you are shooting over another photographer. As Tihomir said, your lighting is too symmetrical. You need to have a key light and then fill light rather than multiple key lights all at the same power. The skin tone in the first 3 are a bit too orange and you could use a cooler white balance. The final image has potential but it feels like a test shot rather than a finished image. Get a better pose going. Work on her emotion and facial expression.