Lighting and framing

[idcrewdawg]

I did a portrait set for a couple today, and would like some feedback on lighting and framing for the set.

Seth and Court - a set on Flickr

Specifically I'd like to know if I could improve on how this particular shot was framed, but if you have suggestion for any of the others I'd appreciate the feedback.



Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 135 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

[manwez]

I like the lighting for the whole set. The framing on the pic of them in the barn (?) together seems a bit off but I can't really say why. Just something about it?

I think for this pic in particular the bar along the top of her head is a bit distracting. Could you edit that out at all? Otherwise I think its a great shot. Are they engaged? I kind of got the impression from the whole set that they didn't want to get that close to each other?

[sybren]

I agree with manwez on the beam in the background. A slightly higher camera position would have fixed that (but I don't know what would have sneaked in the frame at the bottom, of course).

The lighting looks very nice, although restricting it a bit to her head and let it fall off around her might have added some more interest.

[idcrewdawg]

Different position on my part would have been difficult. The background is a door frame, with another window. Not sure if getting higher would have put the bottom of that in the shot or not. Having her get lower would make it look unnatural I think.

Thanks for the feedback.

[zona5101]

Another possible tweek you may wish to consider is using a gradient to darken the lower half of the pic. think the lower part of the photo is competing with the top and I do not think a vingette would be the right choice.

[naeno]

It's a lovely capture. She's beautiful, and the framing is well done. The bright background and beam is a bit distracting, but to compensate I adjusted the levels down a bit on the background layer, duplicated it and darkened the background even more. Then, I added a layer mask and masked her out to bring her coloring back up. It brought the focus more on her. This really is a great capture.