Dark/eerie model shot... Thoughts?

[skatingzooyork]

Overall I'm pretty happy with the shot, but I would love to get some more feedback on it!





Camera Nikon D300
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/13.0
Focal Length 28 mm
ISO Speed 320
Date and Time (Modified) 2010:12:09 19:15:13
Exposure Program Manual

You can view the entire set here: Erin Driscoll - Creative Edge Photography - Jacob Fales | SmugMug

[WooD]

I like your concept, but would have cropped it a lot tighter, and would have lost the ballons.

The house and sky look great, but she seems over exposed.

Love the location, and model.

[dave.turley]

Hi
I agree, I like the concept. The balloons don't bother my eye as much as the overall lighting. Maybe needs to be a little gloomier for a fuller impact. It definitely has an eerie feel about it though.
Dave

[Niresangwa]

Really nicely done, first off..

Took a look at the rest of the set, and this was the best of the bunch I think.. comp is much more to my taste in the posted image.

The reds feel out of place in a very neutral/desaturated toned picture, but I'm sure that's what you were going for. If I were going for something more eerie, I would have cut down on the ambient a little, maybe 180 or 250 and also increased the aperture or powered down the strobes as she is a little overexposed. The desaturation and subject work for the spooky feel, but its a pretty bright image overall.

How did you light this? I noticed the ringflash in the other images, but can't make out from the ballons what you used for key/fill. I probably could have stuck a strobe behind just to give a little separation and rim, especially I were to speed up the shutter to cut the ambient as I suggested above.

As I said though nicely done!

[MrJones]

I actually like it almost just the way it is.
only thing that bothers me is the overexposed dress.
I'm still trying to understand the lightning here as she has no shadows to be found... and the more I look at it, she seems unproportional to the house, but that might be just me

[skatingzooyork]

First off, I just want to say Thanks to everyone that commented; I do appreciate it! I will give personal replies below.

Originally Posted by WooD

I like your concept, but would have cropped it a lot tighter, and would have lost the ballons.

The house and sky look great, but she seems over exposed.

Love the location, and model.

It's funny that you mentioned that because I did get some shots similar to what you mentioned but I preferred it w/ the balloons. But also for the fact that I was originally doing this shoot because I got inspiration from a piece of art that Banksy did. It's of a girl floating away by a bunch of balloons. Here was my rendiditon of it: DSC_5052 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Originally Posted by dave.turley

Hi
I agree, I like the concept. The balloons don't bother my eye as much as the overall lighting. Maybe needs to be a little gloomier for a fuller impact. It definitely has an eerie feel about it though.
Dave

Yes I see what you are saying; if I'm going for a gloomy/eerie feel, I should have pushed it a little further! I have a very strong tendency to shoot a lot of things in high key so just toning it down this much seemed off to me. lol

Originally Posted by Niresangwa

Really nicely done, first off..

Took a look at the rest of the set, and this was the best of the bunch I think.. comp is much more to my taste in the posted image.

The reds feel out of place in a very neutral/desaturated toned picture, but I'm sure that's what you were going for. If I were going for something more eerie, I would have cut down on the ambient a little, maybe 180 or 250 and also increased the aperture or powered down the strobes as she is a little overexposed. The desaturation and subject work for the spooky feel, but its a pretty bright image overall.

How did you light this? I noticed the ringflash in the other images, but can't make out from the ballons what you used for key/fill. I probably could have stuck a strobe behind just to give a little separation and rim, especially I were to speed up the shutter to cut the ambient as I suggested above.

As I said though nicely done!

Thanks for the detailed reply! My answer is similar to above about having issues producing that dark image; so I think I will have to work on that some.

I definitely wanted to make the reds stand out between her belt, hair, and the balloons; just trying something different.

As for the lighting, I was only working with 2 lights(traveling out of state); my ringflash which I used the moon-unit attachment to make it into a large 56" softbox (high camera left) and then a Nikon strobe for a rim/2nd light. (far camera right)

Originally Posted by MrJones

I actually like it almost just the way it is.
only thing that bothers me is the overexposed dress.
I'm still trying to understand the lightning here as she has no shadows to be found... and the more I look at it, she seems unproportional to the house, but that might be just me

I mentioned the lighting setup above; as for the overexposed dress, I intentionally wanted her to really stand out from the background and maybe that's why it seems overexposed but when I view the image larger the dress really isn't overexposed; it's just a lot stronger then the rest of the shot. Which might also be the reason she doesn't seem proportional. If any of that makes sense... lol


Thanks again guys - you have given me a lot more to consider on my upcoming shoots!

[mitchcook]

Why did you add a post-processed vignette to basically every image.
At f/14.0 there shouldn't be any natural vignetting...

[sk66]

Here's my take on it...
Nice idea/pic BTW!

[skatingzooyork]

Originally Posted by mitchcook

Why did you add a post-processed vignette to basically every image.
At f/14.0 there shouldn't be any natural vignetting...

Why do people do anything? Obviously I felt that it added to the style/look I was going for. And 95% of the time there is no "natural" vignetting in any of my shots; why would that matter? These images weren't a representation of what I saw through my eyes, it was what I envisioned in my mind.

Originally Posted by sk66

Here's my take on it...
Nice idea/pic BTW!

Great rendition of it! I really do like it even darker and more desaturated!

[klam]

Nice. Well done.

The only thing I would change is to maybe remove one of the strobe reflection from the balloons. Even then, I also think having both reflections is cool because the top two ballons have eyes.