Portrait shoot - July 1, 2015 - C&C Welcome

[fotugraphy]

Hi, going forward on my photography venture I stopped and clicked another shot. Can you please review it and let me know what exactly is missing for it to make it much better?

I have also did some Color Toning in the image which can deviate it slightly from natural colors but i have tried my best to keep the skin tone almost natural.

Please provide your views and suggestion with composition, frame, crops and processing.

Thank You

PS : Please click on the image for lightbox screen view (Highly recommended)





Update #1: Cropped from left, right, top and bottom with 5 : 4 crop ratio, with removed some color toning which i did purposely and removed sharpness from the wall. Eyes brightened too.


Update #2 : Cropped in 1:1 format

[Manfred M]

I don't like this one quite as much as your previous shot, Raj (although it is still a very nice image).

Three things strike me about this shot:

1. I think it looks a bit muddy, which suggests that the white point is off (I did check); a

2. I think you need to tighten the crop. The background is competing with the model and if it were my shot, I would take down the top, left side and especially the right side. I think square crop might work best here; and

3. I find that the model's eyes are a touch too dark (shadows). A tiny bit of dodging would fix that.

[Dave Humphries]

I agree with all Manfred's points Raj.

I'm not even sure that on this shot the camera is focused on the subject, the wall on the right of the image looks sharper than she does, which is a shame.

I have been following your shots of this model and she's certainly photogenic.

You might want to try a little exercise on your shots - get it on screen, with the desired crop, then shut your eyes for 30 seconds, open them for just one or two seconds and mentally list all the items in the composition that your eyes are drawn to.

Then deal with them in PP if they are not the subject, which might be by any number of techniques; crop off, blur, darken (burn) and with regard to the subject, what do you notice; dark eyes - lighten them.

Try it on this; I bet your eye is drawn to the bright, sharp blocks of stone on the right - which took them off the subject - see what I mean?

Cheers, Dave

[Shadowman]

Nice composition, I think a full figure shot would be more suitable for a model wearing this style of clothing.

[Geoff F]

Manfred has already said what I was initially thinking. At the moment that strong piece of wall is competing against the model.

However, I suspect there was an option here of having the hard wall working with the soft model instead of being in competition.

With this shot the hardness of the wall is in sharp focus then a softer area of wall focus with the model alongside that area so the wall becomes the dominant item.

If the hardness of the wall was directly alongside the model, or slightly behind, I think you would have produced an interesting mix of hard and soft textures together. With the wall gradually fading into the distance as it does now.

But we are being ultra critical of this image which in all honesty is quite good. We are comparing it against absolute perfection; which is always easier to do after the shot has been taken.

[fotugraphy]

I don't like this one quite as much as your previous shot, Raj (although it is still a very nice image).

Three things strike me about this shot:

1. I think it looks a bit muddy, which suggests that the white point is off (I did check); a

2. I think you need to tighten the crop. The background is competing with the model and if it were my shot, I would take down the top, left side and especially the right side. I think square crop might work best here; and

3. I find that the model's eyes are a touch too dark (shadows). A tiny bit of dodging would fix that.

thanks a lot for your kind review and suggestions They are really helpful, I have updated the image in the description just as suggested. Sorry i havnt mentioned about the color toning i did in the image. I have updated it in the description now

[fotugraphy]

I agree with all Manfred's points Raj.

I'm not even sure that on this shot the camera is focused on the subject, the wall on the right of the image looks sharper than she does, which is a shame.

I have been following your shots of this model and she's certainly photogenic.

You might want to try a little exercise on your shots - get it on screen, with the desired crop, then shut your eyes for 30 seconds, open them for just one or two seconds and mentally list all the items in the composition that your eyes are drawn to.

Then deal with them in PP if they are not the subject, which might be by any number of techniques; crop off, blur, darken (burn) and with regard to the subject, what do you notice; dark eyes - lighten them.

Try it on this; I bet your eye is drawn to the bright, sharp blocks of stone on the right - which took them off the subject - see what I mean?

Cheers, Dave

Thanks a lot for your valuable review and suggestions on the image. I have tried this exercise just as suggested and it worked well, I will do the same when i will process the next image from the scratch.

I have also updated the description of the thread with the suggestions applied in the image.

[fotugraphy]

Nice composition, I think a full figure shot would be more suitable for a model wearing this style of clothing.

thanks for your kind review and suggestion. I do have full body figure shots, I will create the thread for the review very soon with it

[fotugraphy]

Manfred has already said what I was initially thinking. At the moment that strong piece of wall is competing against the model.

However, I suspect there was an option here of having the hard wall working with the soft model instead of being in competition.

With this shot the hardness of the wall is in sharp focus then a softer area of wall focus with the model alongside that area so the wall becomes the dominant item.

If the hardness of the wall was directly alongside the model, or slightly behind, I think you would have produced an interesting mix of hard and soft textures together. With the wall gradually fading into the distance as it does now.

But we are being ultra critical of this image which in all honesty is quite good. We are comparing it against absolute perfection; which is always easier to do after the shot has been taken.

thanks a lot for your valuable review and suggestion Geoff. Please feel free to be more critical, as it will help me to create better images. Thats why i put my images for review so that members can go really critical with their reviews and I'm very much open to the critics, this is how i learnt from here.

I will surely keep your suggestions about the background in my mind for my next photoshoot.

[Geoff F]

The 5 x 4 ratio edit is the one for me. Just enough hard wall to provide some alternative texture without being dominant.

[fotugraphy]

The 5 x 4 ratio edit is the one for me. Just enough hard wall to provide some alternative texture without being dominant.

Thanks a lot for your valuable review , i will keep 5 x 4 ratio