Jessica

[travis4567]

Back in the studio after a long hiatus, an impromptu session with my friend Jess.

[Saorsa]

Very good with a couple of caveats.

The eye is out of focus on 3 and the well focused hair draws you away from her face. A little more hair forward and both hair and eye in focus would be excellent.

The bright red spot on the lip is very distracting.

[dennybeall]

Her skin looks a bit pale to me but that may be the real her. Don't know what to say about the third one. Is that an artistic effect or what, just looks like way over sharpened with extreme noise to me.
Like the expressions but would fix that zit on the lip......

[Manfred M]

Travis - the images all look a tad distorted. It looks like you were shooting with a wide angle to normal lens.

You should be using something longer; your model will look better if you do.

[ashcroft]

She has very pretty and very intelligent looking eyes, especially in shot #1, which I prefer. Regards the lens, Manfred, it's a 35mm on a Canon Rebel, so that's 50mm full-frame. I don't do portraits but I think 100mm is best on a FF, or about 80mm crop-frame? They say macro lenses are good for portraits.

[dje]

I like shots 1 and 2 Travis. She does have lovely eyes and I like the natural look to these shots. I'm happy to look at shots like this rather than some of the artificial looking ones on the covers of fashion magazines.

I don't have any expertise on portraits but the lighting looks good to me too.

Dave

[Shadowman]

Great looking model, face nicely exposed, not too keen on the black backgrounds.

[IzzieK]

Travis I am not expert on portraits and would like to try some more soon but I think the lady friend's lips is a little bit dry. Lipgloss or Chaptstick will fix it on top of her lippy, cure her cold sore too. I like her eyes and her hair.

[Downrigger]

Nice series. I wonder which she prefers... or you. I think the captured direct gaze in the first is quite arresting.

[Manfred M]

Now that I've had a chance to sit down in front of my computer, instead of my iPad, I see things in a lot more detail (and have access to your file's metadata).

First of all, you are shooting a great looking model who poses very well. I always find that the hardest part of portraiture is getting the subject's personality to come out and it looks like you've nailed that really well. I like the slightly reserved look you have captured here.

I see you are shooting ISO 400, generally fast apertures f/2.2, f/2.8 and f/2.6 with shutter speeds ranging from 1/50th to 1/250th. I also see a single rectangular catchlight in your model's eyes. Would I be correct in assuming you are shooting natural light from a window that is behind and to the left of you? I'm guessing that it is just above eye level, looking a the spot lights and the shadows in a couple of the images. Somthing higher would probably work even better.

Something funky seems to be happening with images 3 and 4. Your model's left eye (camera right) seems to have gone almost a yellow colour in both. Image 3 has some strange blue gray colour cast on her hair and some really odd pixellation all around her head. There is a hint of the blue in image 4 as well. I'm not sure what is going on here, but this is really quite strange.

I like your composition in images 1, 2 and 4, but 3 is a bit strange. Look at her right eye as it shows up just past the nose. You are getting decent shadow detail in shots 1 and 4, but I find 2 and 3 a tad flat.

From a technical standpoint, I would re-iterate that the distortion from the 35mm lens bothers me. You should be shooting with at least a mid-range telephoto; i.e. something that is larger than the FF equivilent of 80mm. I would probably not use anything shorter than a 50mm lens on the body you are using for headshots.

Another thing to consider; when shooting at shallow DoF from close up, it is critical that you focus on the eye(s) closest to the camera. Other parts of the image can be a bit soft, but not that eye. I find a bit of softness in all of the shots in this respect, especially #3. For this type of work, I will go to single point focus mode, lock focus on the eye and then recompose to take the shot. I do a lot of my portraiture using shallow DoF, but in studio work, with strobes, I tend to be in the f/11 range as I don't have to worry about the background sharpness when shooting seamless. Shooting at f/11 tends to be fairly forgiving, but I don't think you have enough light to do that.

I also wonder a bit about the lighting in the room; it does look like you are fighting mixed lighting. The skin tones look fine in some places, but in others, I see a green / cyan or yellow colour cast.

[Manfred M]

They say macro lenses are good for portraits.

Yes and no. It's not so much the macro lens, but the focal lengths macros tend to come in. I know a number of Nikon FF shooters that favour the 105mm Nikon macro lens for portraits. Canon, Nikon and Sony all offer 70-200mm lenses for their FF bodies, and these are ideal for most portraiture work.

[rpcrowe]

It has been mentioned about the focal length and the dry lips. Lip balm or lipstick can really help the lips. In the absence of the above, requesting your subject to moisten her lips with her tongue before each image is shot will help.

There are several things that bother me about these images. First is that her freckles appear more prominent in some images than in others. The slight scar on her right cheek under her eye attracts my eye. Lastly, there is quite a variance in color temperature among the images. I suggest that you get a white balance target (such as the WhiBal card) and include it with each change of lighting.

One other thing that i keep noticing and to tell you the truth, I would not know how to minimize it or even if it should be minimized. Jessica's eye lashes on her bottom lid end quite a distance before the inner corner of her eye.

[rpcrowe]

I'm happy to look at shots like this rather than some of the artificial looking ones on the covers of fashion magazines.
Dave

I think that Dave is alluding to a fashion magazine PP which might look something like this..



I agree that the OP shots look more natural. However, her eyes seem to be the center of interest in the later edit. There is nothing that is taking "my eyes" away from her eyes which are absolutely drop-dead gorgeous...

[Downrigger]

I'm happy to look at shots like this rather than some of the artificial looking ones on the covers of fashion magazines.

So true for me too! Our culture is so obsessed with smooth/flawless. This is so much more real and interesting.

[travis4567]

I love you guys, I'll try not to stay away so long. All the points made are great, especially Manfred and Richard, agree with almost all your observations. I was reluctant to post these but I just said "What the hell", her eyes make the shots
This session really was impromptu. I was really just testing out some lighting techniques in the studio and asked Jess to sit for me. She asked if I wanted her to put on makeup or anything and I just said No, I'm just testing some lighting effects and backgrounds.
When I started processing them I realized how beautifully she photographed. Yes it was the wrong lens for portraits, yes the white balance is off and her lips need some chapstick.
Can't wait to get her back in here for some real work.
Thanks again guys, enjoyed all the comments and feedback.

[rpcrowe]

If you can shoot this lovely lady under controlled conditions, with a bit longer lens and if she were wearing makeup - I think the results will be delightful...