It's been too long - Senior 2010

[cman78]

So I have not been contributing lately. I have had some time to lurk quickly but we have been really busy lately. Starting a real business is time consuming. Dealing with lawyers, web designers, business registration, tax setup, insurance, payroll..... and on and on and on. Plus the last two months have been the busiest we have ever had.

So on to the contributing part. We had the opportunity to hang out with a wonderful young lady here at St Louis' Missouri Botanical Garden a couple weeks ago. We had a blast and turned out some great images. It's always a compliment when the parents and the senior tell you "you make this really hard we can't pick which ones we want, we love them all" of course to which my reply is "well lucky for you they all are for sale "

I will post some work we did with Megan a couple years ago when we first started shooting digital. Long before the Camel and LONG before any of your help has showed up in our work .

Enjoy and C&C are more than welcome

1.


2.


3.


4.


5. And a couple back at the studio


6.


I really would like your feedback on #5. Did I get the tilt right?

[patterfr]

Looking good Charlie.
GOod luck with everything.

[KellyL]

Lighting looks nice and balanced on number 3. The others are moving towards great compositions, but the lighting between the background and foreground is somewhat distracting. It may just be me, but I try to keep the background darker than the foreground. Our eyes concentrate on the brightest area in the image.

Good luck in your new venture! I wish I could take the leap as well!

[kenwae]

A delightful series....I like the outdoor shots more than the studio, but that's just me.....and of the outdoor, like #3 best...

[felix.reichardt]

overall nice i would say. I think the colors a slightly off in the outdoor ones (or time to recalibrate my screen).

#1:
- looks overall over exposed even if the subject might be exposed correctly. needs additional lighting to get the backgrond correctly exposed.
0 I like the idea but think the framing could be a bit closer, she is a bit lost in the image

#2:
0 again, she looks a little lost in this one.

#3:
+ my favorite
0 a little less DOF would make her stand out more.

#4 and 6:
0 her expression not so nice around her mouth, not really a keeper I would say

#5:
+ nice overall with good short lighting
- kinda blurry or OOF

[woojiebear]

really nice set pretty girl

[jesus]

Very nice work!

[cman78]

Thanks for the comments/

Originally Posted by KellyL

Lighting looks nice and balanced on number 3. The others are moving towards great compositions, but the lighting between the background and foreground is somewhat distracting. It may just be me, but I try to keep the background darker than the foreground. Our eyes concentrate on the brightest area in the image.

Good luck in your new venture! I wish I could take the leap as well!

I agree. Two things about this shoot that I didn't like. One is you have to be out of the garden by 4pm so we started at 2pm The first shot is one of the first ones we did. She really wanted it and I didn't want to take too much of our time by setting up the flash and getting exposure right on. In a perfect world though I shoot for subject being the brightest for sure.

Originally Posted by felix.reichardt

overall nice i would say. I think the colors a slightly off in the outdoor ones (or time to recalibrate my screen).

#1:
- looks overall over exposed even if the subject might be exposed correctly. needs additional lighting to get the backgrond correctly exposed.
0 I like the idea but think the framing could be a bit closer, she is a bit lost in the image

#2:
0 again, she looks a little lost in this one.

#3:
+ my favorite
0 a little less DOF would make her stand out more.

#4 and 6:
0 her expression not so nice around her mouth, not really a keeper I would say

#5:
+ nice overall with good short lighting
- kinda blurry or OOF

Thanks for the detail Felix very helpful. I agree with #1 as stated above this isn't my fav of the bunch. I will play with the crop though and maybe see if I can better balance things in LR.
#4 and 6 is a bittersweet for me. I really wanted the "introspection" look and her eyes pull it off very well. Her mouth however she just looks mad.
#5 I think is the compression from LR for the simpleviewer gallery. It is sharp in LR.


If anyone is interested the rest of the gallery is here Megan Gostling | Senior 2010

[cman78]

Originally Posted by KellyL

Good luck in your new venture! I wish I could take the leap as well!

Thank you. The helpful thing for us Kelly is my wife is a photographer as well. So while we can open a business and she can work full time on that, I get to keep my day job and keep paying bills.

[Benji]

Charlie,

In addition to what was said above I add the following:

1. She looks uncomfortable and a little scared. Uncomfortable is OK, scared is not. I love the gate.

2. Don't stack hands or knees, you did both in one image! Love the bridge.

3. Torso posed square to the camera. Lighting is good, position of her right hand is boring. Love the dock!

4. Static and uninteresting pose. Her face looks blotchy for some reason.

5. The 1-3-2 lighting/posing technique would have done wonders here. It needs a hair light to brighten up her hair. I prefer them leaning the opposite way.

6. These shots are extremely difficult to do. Lets run through a check list.
a. Turn torso clockwise to 45 degrees (away from camera.) You have about 30 degrees.
b. Sit tall - NO SLUMPING OVER.
c. All hair centered in her back. No hair under her chin, no hair looking unkept on near shoulder.
d. Fill light in front of nose, not above camera.
e. Main light way behind subject so it makes a diamond shaped triangle of light on the closest cheek under her eye. the nose should not break the far cheek line.
f. Near arm should be slightly bent.
g. On low key images you must use a kicker light opposite the main light to lift the shadows on the back side of the image up to where there is detail in them.

I've posted an example to show you what I'm talking about.

Benji

[cman78]

Thanks for all the info Benji. Especially on #6.

5. The 1-3-2 lighting/posing technique would have done wonders here. It needs a hair light to brighten up her hair. I prefer them leaning the opposite way.

Yup I kicked myself later for not doing that. Would you say hair light should be opposite the main on this one?

3. Torso posed square to the camera. Lighting is good, position of her right hand is boring. Love the dock!

I agree about the posed square, but what would you suggest to do with the right hand? More on the right leg? More bent?

[Benji]

Originally Posted by cman78

Thanks for all the info Benji. Especially on #6.
Yup I kicked myself later for not doing that. Would you say hair light should be opposite the main on this one?
I agree about the posed square, but what would you suggest to do with the right hand? More on the right leg? More bent?

Yes, I would have positioned the hair light behind and above aimed down at the dark area.

On the other pose, I would have told her "turn clockwise until I tell you to stop" then when I saw something I liked I would have had her stop. I would have then asked her to position her arms and hands based on her new pose. What that would have been I'm not sure.

Benji