Senior Photo-Please critique

[LynnG]

Hi all,

Total newbie here! First time post and first time senior pictures. I like this photo the best, although I'm very new at this.

Thank you, any feedback is much appreciated!
Lynn

Nikon D90
f/3.5
1/125 sec
ISO 400
50mm focal length

[MrJones]

I like the colors and technically it's ok.
what I don't like is the pose. the arched back just doesn't do it for me.

[LynnG]

Originally Posted by MrJones

I like the colors and technically it's ok.
what I don't like is the pose. the arched back just doesn't do it for me.

Thank you for your response, I had a hard time choosing one photo, uncertain of that pose but liking the softness. She is my daughter and getting her to cooperate and have fun with it has been a huge obstacle; I'm thinking it might be time to hire someone she isn't related to!

[MrJones]

she won't be happy until you spend some money... no matter how good a photographer you are
that's the way kids work!

[zona5101]

Hi and welcome!
I think you got a lot of things right in this image. You balanced fill flash is well controlled, it afforded you nice catchlights although it did give you a couple of specular highlights on the lips and nose. You can probably tone done the shine in post. Diffusing or off camera flash would have helped eliminate this. The shallow dof really knocks the background adding more attention to her. I find the stands of hair to be calling too much attention. Lucky you have that nice out of focus background to make it easy to blur those out in post with little effort. I think it is well done.

[brian_dg]

Originally Posted by MrJones

she won't be happy until you spend some money... no matter how good a photographer you are
that's the way kids work!

I can relate to that.. so true to me oh! you think 17 is still a kid???

[LynnG]

Thanks everyone, all very helpful! So I decided this particular photo might be a good candidate for cropping into a head shot IF I can fix that glare on her lips. I tried but really couldn't figure it out in Lightroom. Which tool would you suggest? (I tried darkening and reducing saturation but maybe there's a better tool)

Oh, and to maintain what sanity I have left, I also made an appointment with another photographer! I wonder if she has a difficult daughter we can trade off?! None of my other daughters like getting their pictures taken either!

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by LynnG

Thanks everyone, all very helpful! So I decided this particular photo might be a good candidate for cropping into a head shot IF I can fix that glare on her lips. I tried but really couldn't figure it out in Lightroom. Which tool would you suggest? (I tried darkening and reducing saturation but maybe there's a better tool)

Oh, and to maintain what sanity I have left, I also made an appointment with another photographer! I wonder if she has a difficult daughter we can trade off?! None of my other daughters like getting their pictures taken either!

Bribery usually works well.
In lightroom use your adjustment brush with a bit of negative exposure. Go small like -.25 with a small brush. you just want to knock it down a bit.Actually, before trying that, it may be a quicker fix to slide your recovery slider to the right and see if that does the trick.

[mitchcook]

Lynn my first question is why you chose the settings you did.
Also, Did you mean to get the blades of grass in the picture as you did?

[Photologyst]

Very nicely done! Pretty girl too.

I was also taken by the pose. Next time, have her arch her back rather than hunch forward. If she doesn’t want to arch the back, at least get her to flatten it.

I would also like to have seen a bit of a head tilt for a different angle on the nose.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 * Fine-tune the tonal scale using the Tone Curve panel