Girlfriend Portrait

[wulf]

It is a common bit of advice. Here, if she was a little further to the right, the arm wouldn't be truncated at the shoulder which I think would work better.

I suppose one approach that could be tried is to do a session where you deliberately leave space all round the model, which then gives maximum flexibility in trying different crops afterwards. With that experience in hand, you can then go back to the more demanding task of doing the framing in camera - harder to correct your judgements but resulting in a larger picture.

Wulf

[scrivna]

Not cropping at the joints sounds like a plan.

Wulf - i would have left it as a wider shot but as the photos were in my kitchen i was trying to take the shots in a small space. Your suggestion sounds like a great idea though!, crop afterwards, just a little worried about the aperture if i'm taking the shots wider.

hanks for all your help guys!

[wulf]

Did you have room to step back further? For practise shots you don't need to worry too much about the background, especially if there is enough space to get your model to still stand fairly close to you and fairly far from the background (which will keep her in focus while blurring the background).

What you are really looking for in the exercise I suggested are some shots that give you maximum scope for playing around with cropping ideas so that you are then better equipped for closer work.

Wulf

[goshort]

whatever efforts u have done to achieve a sexual or ordinary photo effect, if u r trying basically, then excused. means u were not trying like trained amateur. i am seeing the light from three angles - one is coming from right and going dark below chin, other similarly covering her right cheek and thirdly there is a shadow trail below her nose. as u said u used lamps, even the best effect on her face u could get using a single light from right a little bit above and a fill-n 2nd lamp or reflector, which could maintained the serenity of her beautiful face(congrats). next since u were using lamps, white balance incamera correction would have brought her actual skin tone.

next important point is that if u were making a pose, her face could have been brought to right(not centre) to show her wrist and the fist, that the face is resting on the hand or sopporting as a prop. the comments are for this photo only. now i am sure,u will improve further and won't disappoint yr viewers or yr girlfriend(pl don"t show this post to her-the hints are for u to make her please and take out more of her beauty(if she agrees further).any how good try. best of luck.

[scrivna]

goshort: thankyou for your comprehensive comments! I'll do my best :-)

[markov]

i cant see the photo, please upload again