Back Portrait

[ChrisAdval]

Aya Stam 03 by Chris Adval, on Flickr [EXIF]


Camera Body Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Exposure/Shutter 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 53 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Exposure Mode Manual
White Balance Manual
Lens: EF-S18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

Post Processing: Used Skin smoothing technique from Unknown Photographer [here], upped the contrast, and blurred out veins in eyes (whites only). Used Lightroom 3 for color changes, and Photoshop CS5 for skin smoothing and other touches.

Looking for overall critique...

If I would to critique this myself I am bothered by the hair near neck and strings of hair, post processing removal/fix of that was impossible with my current skill level without degrading the current quality. I will hear out all critiques even though if I don't respond to each and everyone but I thank you for taking the time to respond with your critiques.

[ccting]

Dear Chris,

A great pics from you. Here is my comment:
a) eyes are clear with catchlight and eyebow - nice
b) lips is clear with highlight! with emotion - great
c) Clothes is partially suitable - moderate
d) I not sure whether you use hairlight or not, and I seldom see golden hairs.. I think it a bit brighter than face.. (not sure).
e) I think you need to straigthen her back.... looks a bit tired bend back .. (my perception). I can't see the S shape of lady..just straight..
f) Can you post the original pics for me to compare with..?
g) I wander why not 90 degree but 110 degree anti-clockwise posting
h) Did the girl stretch her neck forward upper and longer?
i) If i am you, i turn the girl's face a bit facing camera, just a bit.
j) If i am you, i will try to put the hair to cover the neck..as it looks short for me (my perception).
k) I will crop this image at minimum level like this because the cropped part introduces distraction.
l) I see soft shadow under the lips, did you put reflector under her chest level?
m) Your camera level looks too low that I see her neck..
n) I guess you need to use gobo to intro falloff at background at face level, or have more distance between model and background.. for tone harmony. Same for the white clothes and bare arm
o) I guess there was stretch of muscles near the mouth and skin @ forehead.. am i right?



It is much easier to talk... ;D

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by ccting

Dear Chris,

A great pics from you. Here is my comment:

d) I not sure whether you use hairlight or not, and I seldom see golden hairs.. I think it a bit brighter than face.. (not sure).

I used a hairlight yes.

Originally Posted by ccting

i) If i am you, i turn the girl's face a bit facing camera, just a bit.

In this image I was trying capture looking off camera. When I shoot and like a pose I normally ask the model to look at lens, then in some other directions away from the camera, and I play with different angles and orientations to ensure I have a good amount of very different options in post processing.

Originally Posted by ccting

k) I will crop this image at minimum level like this because the cropped part introduces distraction.

I generally avoid cropping as much as possible, but your crop does look good.

Originally Posted by ccting

l) I see soft shadow under the lips, did you put reflector under her chest level?

I think so, I introduced a reflector in some shots of the shoot overall.

[graciousness]

I'm so excited that your photos are improving greatly since you got your monitor calibrated. Well, the skin tones are much better!

Now, on to her pose, though.

The problem with this shot is that it shows the model's physical "fashion industry" flaw. Meaning she's not your typical skinny model and the pose is highlighting that. Her arm, being at the forefront of your lens, made her arm appear bigger. It's showing more meat than it should. Not the most striking pose you can do for women, really.

The other issue with the pose is that it shortened her neck and highlighted some extra skin under her chin that should be hidden in shadows. Low pose is great but only for women who have great, long necks and nice jawline do not have any extra skin that may bulge if the face or looking down. That hair on the shoulder didn't help that, either, as it hid the rest of her neck. You have to be very aware of women's necks and jawline as you really don't want to make their faces 'fatter' with your camera angles and poses.

She's got great eyes and you captured that, but her chin is rounded and looks long on this pose.

She's also got full lips which is nice, however, the lower lip/chin combination is not very becoming. A different angle- her head turned more towards camera - would probably be better. Also, the highlight on top or above her top lip is making her look like she has porkchop lips and that she looks like she went over the line when putting lip gloss on. Not saying she really did that, but the highlight makes it appear she did.

It would be interesting to see a photo of her more frontal but slightly turned body to show more curves. Just want to see what she would look like from different angle.

Shadow under the nose is a little too much and I think should be helped with some dodging there.

There's also some lose hair underneath her chin that should be removed.

You also need to clone some round thing on her skirt - near the camera left arm. Doesn't need to be there.

I don't know what ccting did to the photo, but it looks darker on his edit. I don't like it. Your original edit is better.

Normally, I would agree with you about not doing too much with editing women's faces and contours. However, you do want to work for an industry that relies heavily on perfecting their models. So, do what you need to do to 'perfect' your women. Unless you are doing a more photojournalism or editorial type of work that you want to present women more in their natural state.

So, I recommend for you to learn the 'liquify' took in photoshop for you to start slightly altering contours on your models where and when required.

As an example, please refer to the ediit I have done on your photo.

If I was to correct your photo, I would have tucked in the extra bulge under her jawline/chin, stretched her neck a little more, cinched her waist a little, and cinched her arm a little. I've done this just to show you the difference a little bit more edit work can do to correct flaws and sell your models a little bit better with your images. It only took a few seconds.

Remember that image is everything in the fashion industry. The image has to be not only beautiful, but 'flawless'.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Grace

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by graciousness

I'm so excited that your photos are improving greatly since you got your monitor calibrated. Well, the skin tones are much better!

Now, on to her pose, though.

The problem with this shot is that it shows the model's physical "fashion industry" flaw. Meaning she's not your typical skinny model and the pose is highlighting that. Her arm, being at the forefront of your lens, made her arm appear bigger. It's showing more meat than it should. Not the most striking pose you can do for women, really.

The other issue with the pose is that it shortened her neck and highlighted some extra skin under her chin that should be hidden in shadows. Low pose is great but only for women who have great, long necks and nice jawline do not have any extra skin that may bulge if the face or looking down. That hair on the shoulder didn't help that, either, as it hid the rest of her neck. You have to be very aware of women's necks and jawline as you really don't want to make their faces 'fatter' with your camera angles and poses.

She's got great eyes and you captured that, but her chin is rounded and looks long on this pose.

She's also got full lips which is nice, however, the lower lip/chin combination is not very becoming. A different angle- her head turned more towards camera - would probably be better. Also, the highlight on top or above her top lip is making her look like she has porkchop lips and that she looks like she went over the line when putting lip gloss on. Not saying she really did that, but the highlight makes it appear she did.

It would be interesting to see a photo of her more frontal but slightly turned body to show more curves. Just want to see what she would look like from different angle.

Shadow under the nose is a little too much and I think should be helped with some dodging there.

There's also some lose hair underneath her chin that should be removed.

You also need to clone some round thing on her skirt - near the camera left arm. Doesn't need to be there.

I don't know what ccting did to the photo, but it looks darker on his edit. I don't like it. Your original edit is better.

Normally, I would agree with you about not doing too much with editing women's faces and contours. However, you do want to work for an industry that relies heavily on perfecting their models. So, do what you need to do to 'perfect' your women. Unless you are doing a more photojournalism or editorial type of work that you want to present women more in their natural state.

So, I recommend for you to learn the 'liquify' took in photoshop for you to start slightly altering contours on your models where and when required.

As an example, please refer to the ediit I have done on your photo.

If I was to correct your photo, I would have tucked in the extra bulge under her jawline/chin, stretched her neck a little more, cinched her waist a little, and cinched her arm a little. I've done this just to show you the difference a little bit more edit work can do to correct flaws and sell your models a little bit better with your images. It only took a few seconds.

Remember that image is everything in the fashion industry. The image has to be not only beautiful, but 'flawless'.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Grace

Yes this helped a lot, I'll play with liquidfy a bit but as you mentioned about going for a photojournalism or editorial type of work with a natural tone, yes I am... which won't be accepted in fashion photography when shooting commercial advertising but natural tones will be more toward my personal work in my career and publishing my own books/magazines that feature my own work or/and publish others with that natural tone that the world should see and less fakeness, but thats more of an personal artsy route than my commercial route w/ strict guidelines route like fashion photography.

[Niresangwa]

Agree with the improvement technically on the shots from this series, but I also agree with the posing issues Grace brought up.

If this were a guy, he would look like he just got caught peeing against a wall. It's just one of those things, like kids squatting down looking like they're...well, you get the idea.

What software are you using for PP?

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by Niresangwa

Agree with the improvement technically on the shots from this series, but I also agree with the posing issues Grace brought up.

If this were a guy, he would look like he just got caught peeing against a wall. It's just one of those things, like kids squatting down looking like they're...well, you get the idea.

What software are you using for PP?

Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5

[Mark Engelhart]

First off, your lighting is very nice in this image. I always seem to take note of that in all your images first as of late. There are some things to remember during the shoot that can help you avoid some of the issues that have been brought up. You have probably heard or read most of these, but I find myself getting caught up in the moment and not doing these things as well and have recently been using an assistant to just check for little details like hair, clothing etc. that way I can focus on lighting and poses. Here are 3 observations

Clothing selection: Unless this young lady was a size 2 that cut of sleeve from the back is always going to be unflattering. Sometimes we just have to conclude that we are not going to be able to push through an obstacle. It helps to have the model bring several outfits so you can take part in the clothing selection so that the end results can be better.

Camera angle: the loss of neck and the emphasis on the arm could be from the lower than usual angle that you shot from. Maybe if you were at least at the neck level it would have lost some of the “hunched over” feel.

Finally, (this is the one that I tell myself before I let my finger hit the button on a female shoot) “S”-shapes: this will accentuate the neck, torso, arms etc. like in your image an arched back, maybe her right hand up near her chest, shoulder or even face. Those S shapes just make the most out of their features.
Hopefully, this will be of help to you.