First Studio Shoot

[Olivia Price]

This was taken during a studio lighting workshop. I would like to know what you think of the lighting/exposure.....but I will take any CC you can give me We were using the natural light through the window and a gold reflector. You can find the rest of the pictures on my facebook page if you want to see more.

Camera: Canon T3i
Lens EF 50mm 1.8
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture: 2.8
ISO: 200

[zona5101]

Beautiful shot, wonderful lighting. I wouldn't change a thing.

[mshockley]

I agree with Bruce. I think the lighting is perfect. I saw your thread about portfolio building also, and have to say your portrait work is very nice! I think your doing a great job

[3bayjunkie]

great composition and beautiful girl.

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by Olivia Price

This was taken during a studio lighting workshop. I would like to know what you think of the lighting/exposure.....but I will take any CC you can give me We were using the natural light through the window and a gold reflector. You can find the rest of the pictures on my facebook page if you want to see more.

Camera: Canon T3i
Lens EF 50mm 1.8
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture: 2.8
ISO: 200

link to EXIF data? What program mode you shot this in? the information you gave is worthless to me if you shot this in full auto mode.

[ccting]

Texture: Sharp clear

Relationship between the sharp clear texture with the girl: ???

Portrait length: full length or 2/3 ?

Vertical line: Where is the horizontal line? 2 cloths hanging in front..

Focus: tag sharp at eyes with catchlight , lips.. wow.. But, when i measure your picture, i am sure that the focus point not at the eyes.. am i right? And if for 2/3 portrait length, you should cut her head on 1/3, tossu and 2/3 and leg 3/3. I am not sure, but there should be rule of third to follow, with your grid and focus point that your camera have. I read but i have forgotten the rule...

Pattern: Bricks..

Arm and tossu: gap? Do you think that lending your arms on the wall or tossue will make them look fatter? Give a bit of gap?

Color: The color of background is the middle, and you should wear the surrounding color of shirt and and pant for better color harmony in term of syntax.. but in term of semantics, i can't see what is the relationship between the two. Mix a bit yellow since the brick is quite black, making you POP up.

Negative space: Well, too much negative space will influence your portrait.. hmm

White balance card, print R=108, G=108, B=108 on a piece of paper, then stick on the brick wall, maximum zoom focus on the piece of paper, then set White balance PRESET. Finally focus again using point meter and lock the exposure setting. Ensure your exposure indicator is correct before click the shutter button. There will be slightly improve color scheme.

Light: If you wish to show the texture of the brick wall, wait for side lighting from natural, and be careful with your flash and other props that flatten the texture.. (anyway, what is the connection between bg and fg?). I personally think that diffuse lighting issit the good choice in this context. When did you take this photo? Are you able to get strong side golden lighting sometimes just before the sunset? Try use strong side lighting for contrast composition, and capture the shadow created by the light on the wall or floor. Photo = optics = light.. You might want to capture the full shadow with part of the girl.. making the viewer to think about the rest.. This may hold viewers a few more seconds on the pic, and .. that is the purpose of phototaking right?

Flash: Are you using flash? I guess you are as the retina of both eyes are so clear or because of the good natural lighting? If you are using flash, then I think you need to calculate the intensity of your flash by using the guide number, f-number, and how not to flatten the brick texture.... hmm.

Distracting color and lighting: Sudden bright and light color on top of main subject, leading eyes out of the picture directly..delete them using software?

Shape: Use the hair to narrow down her neck, use the white cloths to express body shape? The body is 100% parallel to wall, is that a great idea? Perhaps you could take a photo from 45 degree to the wall, and request the subject to turn ONLY head to you. Ideally, turn to brighter side..? Then her shoulders will see no more ------. And, can see more shape of girl's body.. more attractive.

aperture: If the bricks has something to tell, then increase the aperture to F4 and ISO to 400 (i believe 400 is still ok for noise level). After calculation, the exposure of F4, ISO400 is almost equal to F2.8 ISO200, with better DOF. Ignoring the sharpness (lpph), distortion, vigneting etc where you need to refer to MTF Curve at F4, ISO200.

Ya, can see the gold reflector on the right via the reflection of your right eyes. Both reflection of your eyes show different color.. ;D

Guessing: It looks like diffuse light from the window, and the window is facing south causing great diffuse light. Am I right?

In short, I just started to learn phototaking. I learn critizing photo before start taking them.

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by ChrisAdval

link to EXIF data? What program mode you shot this in? the information you gave is worthless to me if you shot this in full auto mode.

??? why is it worthless if shot in full auto??? The data is the data no matter how you got there.

[SusanH1970]

Lovely! Just a couple of nitpicks: her left hand is bright orange (I'm quite sure from the gold reflector). That's an easy thing to fix in post processing, though. Also, the way her left leg is up looks a bit odd - she has a toe growing out of her knee.

[Olivia Price]

Zona5101 (Bruce), mshockley (Michelle), 3bayjunkie (Colby Jack) - Thank you all! I'm trying very hard to improve This gal made it very easy she was great to work with!

ChrisAdval - Not in auto mode, I believe in AV mode. I don't have it downloaded to flicker yet but will get them on there tonight.

ccting - Um....I'm a bit overwhelmed by your critique....I'll need time to digest

SusanH - Thank you! I totally missed the toe and the gold hand I will have to pay closer attention

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by zona5101

??? why is it worthless if shot in full auto??? The data is the data no matter how you got there.

because a "photographer" who shoots in full auto only did the composition... nothing else that is worth deserving to crediting the "photographer." It's no different from a point and shoot, cell phone camera, etc... a photographer knows and understands aperture, ISO, and shutter. A full auto shot means and screams out "I don't know what is aperture, shutter, and ISO!"

If you shot it in full auto and I saw it shot in whatever settings in critique forums... how would me giving you advice to change your settings? How would you understand that if you shot that photo in full auto mode where the camera choose the settings?

If I see the EXIF data, and see it wasn't shot in manual I just don't comment anything about the settings or advice on the settings, only composition, colors, post processing, that's it because it would be a complete waste of my time mentioning anything about the settings if the person didn't control the settings completely.

Originally Posted by Olivia Price

ChrisAdval - Not in auto mode, I believe in AV mode. I don't have it downloaded to flicker yet but will get them on there tonight.

Thank you.