Making the best of it

[AndrewPDX]

Beautiful location, beautiful girl, but bright, bright sunlight. I had some white poster board and my speedlight, but that was about it and had to make due. What do you guys think? Is the shadow on her face/chest a deal breaker, or does the shot still work? Any other general critiques are welcome. Thanks for your input!



D5000
50mm f/1.4 @ f/9.0
1/200s
ISO 200
SB 700 at +3.0 EV, aimed at bounce board

[scootermcq]

The lighting is quite harsh, and yeah does kinda kill it for me. I can almost live with the face, it is the specular lines on her chest & shoulder that really bug me.

You really need to find open shade to shoot at this time of day, or put it off and shoot in early morning or late evening. There is no way I would do a portrait at this time, unless I was forced to (i.e. wedding and that is the time to work with) and then my head is on a swivel looking for shade with an interesting background.

[tyasa81]

Hi... imho i think it's an ok shot... the shadows like what you said is what pulls it down from a what could be amazing pic... even without you explaning i think having 2 shadows, both which are kind of strong, makes the subconscious mind think that something is off...

i dont know if you can save the pic in pp... if a reshoot is possible maybe you'll get lucky with the weather this time... or just change the time of day of the shoot...

[MrJones]

like scootermcq said, the shadows on the chest and shoulder kill it for me too.
you could however avoid them by using a white sheet or something else to soften the sun.
another option would be to just shoot with the sun behind her. the light does have some sort of direction (going right to left in this picture). shooting this way would have kept her whole face and chest with the same amount of light.
another issue is her bow which just looks weird.. it looks more like a flag in the background then a hair bow.