Model Headshot Critique

[Rentham]

Never trust someone who gives critique but doesn't take it. So I'm here to take my medicine.


Christi by Rentham, on Flickr

Head shot of Christi, sort of half way between a regular headshot and a beauty look.

f/4.5 at 100th and 125 ISO. Shot at 140mm. Pose, lighting, retouching. Everything is fair game.

[Bruce A]

I like the shot very much Mike, but I don't know whether it's her make up or pp that makes her face look a bit too smooth and especially around the eyes - or to me it does. However I reiterate - lovely photograph!

[Nicole]

Damn, I'm in a cranky mood, I wanted to be mean

But honestly, I quite like this shot, especially the pose. The one thing that does stand out is that the skin tones are a bit mixed, but I think that is the result of the lighting. Unfortunately, it kind of makes me think that she picked too light of a foundation because of the difference between the colour of her face and the colour of her chest. But then when looking at her arm, it does match there, so I figure it's lights rather than makeup. So I'm not quite sure what the solution is. I'd probably try to lighten the darker parts a touch more so there isn't quite so much a difference. But that's personal preference, and the only thing that stood out to me.

[Rentham]

Thanks for the feedback.

Bruce, it is probably the retouch. At 100% crop on this image you can still see her pores, but out of all the images I delivered from this session this one has the most skin work.

Nicole, it is the lighting. The source is a 22" beauty dish in close, and the way she is positioned is causing some fall off and shadowing on her chest. But you're right, it can stand to be brought up a bit.

For those interested, here is the before shot with no editing:


Christi - Before Editing by Rentham, on Flickr

[ccting]

Dear Rentham
Nice pic.
a) Issit possible to ensure that the catchlight is within the black point of the eyes, so eyes perceive them as one during holistic view??

b) She has long hair, adding some light for the hair?
c) Issit a kind of butterfly lighting? Do you think it will become better when lowering the frontal lighting (and make the reflector higher a bit). I hope the lighting on the lips to be lowered a bit ;D. (same for eyes catchlight). It is based on the principle that catchlight should be at the "black spot".

d) Posing. Did the model forward her body, stretch her head ahead and look up a bit in the pic?
e) shoulder and head. She tilt her head towards shoulder to make her shoulder more appealing for more feminine look right?
f) her hair is put along the neck, to make it longer and thinner (eye perception), am i right?
g) Her shoulders do not show the same sharpness, I guess it is about 30 degree away from the lens axis?
h) The 3D look by this kind of lighting is shown by makeup, right?
i) Do you think that adding 1 rembrandt lighting without gobo which may add hairlight to her long hair will not disturb the final output? Will that adding distractive eye's catchlight ?
j) Camera level. Did you put the level higher than her eyes?
k) See the cropped image below..:I rotate and crop it.

What if you lower the frontal up light and put it to more right; and higher the reflector and put it to more left, so a exact vertical light fall in the middle..from hair to face. Do you think that is a good design?





Just asking questions to learn the basic portrait.. Currently I am learning portrait "theory" because practicing the lighting..
Ty.

[cyber3d]

What is her shot being used for? It's starting to have an edge to it as I look at it more.

My 2cents: I'd make her right eye a bit more open so it matches her left eye.



.

[Rentham]

ccting, yes it is basically butterfly lighting. There is a beauty dish over head and a silver reflector at her chest level. I've never heard that the catchlights should be the pupil (black) area of the eye, and frankly I don't agree with that at all. Some photographers are strict about placement of the catchlight, but I never cared. As long as there is a catchlight I'm happy. I didn't consider adding a hair light or rim light because I don't feel separation from the background is an issue in this shot. I also knew her hair was slightly messy (this was the last series shot in the session) and a hair or rim light would accentuate the fly away and stray hairs.

For posing, yes she is leaning slightly forward and pushing her forehead out like a turtle. That helps give shape the the jawline. For this kind of shot I get the model's body positioned how I want it then work them through a series of different head orientations. If I'm being totally honest, I don't have a set plan or specific angle I ask them to achieve. I just move them around until something looks good to me. Occasionally I'll have them move after each shot and when they hit something I like I'll ask them to hold that for a few frames.

She was sitting down on an apple box and I was standing, so camera level is slightly above her eye level. Your rotate and crop doesn't add anything to the image for me personally. What do you think it improves? I've been shooting all of my headshots horizontally to introduce more negative space. It feels more comfortable to me, and gives the eye room to travel around the frame.

[Rentham]

Originally Posted by cyber3d

What is her shot being used for? It's starting to have an edge to it as I look at it more.

My 2cents: I'd make her right eye a bit more open so it matches her left eye.

Cyber, not sure what you mean by an edge. The shot is probably just for her Model Mayhem profile. She has a ton of awesome fashion work (she has really really long legs) but no headshots.

I was conflicted about whether I should open that eye up or not. Headshots are sort of a fine line for me. I obviously do a good amount of retouching, but I try to not alter or remove anything that is permanent. Blemishes, stray hairs, make up and all of that are fine. But when it comes to actually changing someone's face I'm never sure if I should do it.

[dlambert]

I'm no expert on portraits, so take this with a grain of salt, but I like the closer crop (as shown by ccting) a lot. The extra whitespace in the original seemed not so much to balance the shot as to de-emphasize the model. I like the lighting a lot -- I'm really impressed by the control over direction and intensity. I also really like the DOF as-is, so her back shoulder starts to fall OOF a bit.

So now we come to the part where I'm totally talking out of my a$$, because I really don't know the answer to this. If you use a light directed just at her hair, could you use a a gold or maybe even reddish gel on it to make the highlights in her hair less silvery? Again, I'm way out of my area of expertise here, so I bow to those who actually know what they're talking about.

Really great work.

[ccting]

Originally Posted by Rentham

ccting, yes it is basically butterfly lighting. There is a beauty dish over head and a silver reflector at her chest level. I've never heard that the catchlights should be the pupil (black) area of the eye, and frankly I don't agree with that at all.

Yes, you never heard about this statemet because I never hear from others about this statement too. But I did observe all the photos in Kevyn Major Howard portfolio..

Some photographers are strict about placement of the catchlight, but I never cared. As long as there is a catchlight I'm happy. I didn't consider adding a hair light or rim light because I don't feel separation from the background is an issue in this shot. I also knew her hair was slightly messy (this was the last series shot in the session) and a hair or rim light would accentuate the fly away and stray hairs

.
Ok, i learn something today..how to determine when not to introduce hairlight

For posing, yes she is leaning slightly forward and pushing her forehead out like a turtle. That helps give shape the the jawline. For this kind of shot I get the model's body positioned how I want it then work them through a series of different head orientations. If I'm being totally honest, I don't have a set plan or specific angle I ask them to achieve. I just move them around until something looks good to me. Occasionally I'll have them move after each shot and when they hit something I like I'll ask them to hold that for a few frames.

Does she has basic posing knowledge? Any tips to direct how a total noob to pose for me?

She was sitting down on an apple box and I was standing, so camera level is slightly above her eye level. Your rotate and crop doesn't add anything to the image for me personally.

Sry for my bad English that cause you misunderstood. I cropped the image to show how the lighting and not the photo. That means maintain the composition but change the lighting so that you notise the highlight falls on the middle hair / face.

What do you think it improves? I've been shooting all of my headshots horizontally to introduce more negative space. It feels more comfortable to me, and gives the eye room to travel around the frame.[/

Nothing just to hear your reasoning to break the rule "shoot closer" and "fill in the frame". This is the 2nd thing i learned from you from this post.. ty.


Thanks very much for your feedback..