DFW: Finding Style Portrait Workshop - June 29th

[dlanter]

I finally got around to going through the rest of my shots from Sunday. I trashed a bunch, marked several to look at again later, and picked out a few to process and share. Below are a couple that I thought turned out pretty nice.

One thing that I noticed is that one of the models (Kristen, see my previous posts) seems to look better with a soft even lighting and Ashley, below, looks best with more contrast and a more dramatic style and I'm not sure why this is. This is just my opinion of course, but it sure could be useful to learn to be able to determine this at the time of setting up a shoot.

What do you think?

[HotHolly]

Hey Dan! Im still having serious mouse issues, so Im gonna try and post this and see what happens.

I think that anyone can have their portrait shot using dramatic lighting. I've had moms request it for babies. Ashley's coloring was darker (long dark hair, dark makeup and liner) and when we chose her clothing, I put her in that deep red out of preference for dramatic lighting that runs warm on the color spectrum, rather than cool. The formal shots of Kristen - she was wearing a cool color (teal blue). When you try to make a cool color have warm processing, it kind of looks at odds with nature. Ya know what I mean? It just doesnt look right. Debbi posted some dramatic shots of Kristin in that warm gold wedding gown. Her WB looks neutral - slightly warm on my screen. Short version - know which colors are cool (blues & greens, etc) and which are warm (reds & golds, etc) when choosing your lighting, wardrobe, and PP. Here is some more info on color theory which is helpful to know.

I like #1. I like that you have her off center and balanced her gown within your frame to fill her train in the rt 1/2 of your composition. This may just be my preference - and its a great shot (so grain of salt) - but I wish I could see the bottom of the gown. It makes me wish the crop was tighter or looser. You have nice differentiation b/t her hair and the black background. Good job.

#2 is very intense. It looks like she's gonna kick my a$$. Smooth her lips a little bit in PP. They look a little dry. And the next part has more to do with her hair. I think Peter had a thread on girls with this hair style on here somewhere. I like you angle and how the light is falling on her top facial planes. I wish her bangs were back just a little bit so that shadow wasnt falling across her forehead-eye in a Zorroish Z. If her bangs were back just a little bit you'd get the eye well lit and that side of her face would be filled out a little more, making it a little less linear. I like your framing and comp in this one. Her shoulders off set like that are great too.

You should be really proud of both of these shots.

[dlanter]

Thanks Holly for the critique and advise. I will keep it all in mind on my next shoot.

[PaulP]

Here are a couple of mine for critique and comments.


I find the black in the upper corner distracting, any suggestions?



Thanks in advance.

Paul

[HotHolly]

On #1 - I agree. This kind of shot usually looks best almost directly over or down on the same level. However, the angle you shot from is popular too. You can do a tighter crop to get rid of the black or smudge out the gold in PP. Dont mess with the pattern.

Like your framing on #2. Nice pose. Subject set up/ posed contrapposto like we talked about. Good clean shot. The main suggestion on this one is her bangs. They are casting an unflattering shadow across her forehead and cheek. You can lighten in PP. Its something to watch for. Long hair is awesome to work with, but you have to watch how the shadows fall across the face. Good stuff.