Portrait - natural light/bounce/fill

[cyber3d]

Natural lighting. Processed in PSD, mainly skin smoothing, eye highlights, blur background.

The lighting setup was kinda risky. But, The high intensity makes it interesting and flattering. Well, IMHO. Please give me some feedback, I want to know your opinions!

Thanks




Sony DSC-H9
F/2.7
Jpeg
No Flash

[Bruce A]

I like it a lot, she almost glows - I thought the lighting was nice until I noticed the shadow ring around her neck so it seems your main light was too high/close. I would have removed the cushions on the sofa and put a dark fabrice over the green striped curtains as I find all that a bit distracting. As for the pose, your lovely model's face is almost dead center, but I think you can get away with this because of her pose and I wouldn't cut of one shoulder to get her within the thirds rule. However, it's a very nice photograph.

Woops - I just read natural lighting - then next time just get nature to reposition it's lighting a bit so there's no shadow cast on her neck.

[zona5101]

ditto what Bruce said. I'll add that the skin smoothing might be a tad too much as it is noticeable especially on the right side(model left). Also bisecting the head with a horizontal element is something to watch out for and avoid...

[cyber3d]

I see what both of you are saying. I was so nervous and trying to think of everything all at once, I completely ignored the background during setup! Only later, did I notice and try to blur the background in PSD, but yes, it is still distracting).

Her skin was very smooth and shiny to begin with (just had a facial). I had no makeup people there. Completely dropped the ball in the makeup dept. I should have been more prepared. I did get rid of some red areas with PSD, maybe that contributes to over smoothing appearance.

I think I need a clear thinking assistant to remind me of what to look for during a shoot.

Thanks for the critique!

[Rentham]

Skin smoothing and background blurring are very obvious and distracting to me. The blurring in post starts to fall apart around the hair. Background itself doesn't bother me much except for the sofa bisecting her head (I do that all the time and curse myself profusely). Composition is fine in terms of being centered. To me this is a head shot, so I wouldn't get caught up in "over composing" it unless you have a good reason. Maybe just remove some of the dead space above her head to get the eyes in the top third.