Red Girl

Hi,

please tell me your opinion about this, usually polarizing, portrait of a young woman.
The Image is not really "modelfriendly" but somebody will like it, I hope.


Giorgio

Giorgio,

It's slightly large for my MacBookPro. It's nice to have white space around an image so this be be one to have about 80% of this size. She's a sympathetic model. since we don't know what context this photo should be considered in it's difficult to say it meets the needs of the shoot. I can only say that there's enough interesting in her face and troubling in the presentation that it's worth looking what you have done in lighting her. The light seems fairly hard. So I imagine you have not a large box near her and you have it up high at some distance.

I wish we could have some background. This is harsher than your previous picture of the girl with thew window shadow falling on her. Someone could, of course call attention to hair edges blown out on her left and the way the background is lit or say the cropping is well, you know yourself......

I happen to like the picture for it represents a human being not a plastic derivative.

Two features I have great potential for artistry if you wish. These are the shadow of her lashes and her hair. These are odd and could be worked on. Having said that, the lighting seems somewhat untidy in that, in the end, the eyes are not well illuminated. There's a harsh bright transition between her hair on the right and her face. What was that? Any changes of one or the other should be refined with an adjustable edge by using a mask. But maybe its something other than post processing?

Thanks for sharing. It wold be instructive to know your lighting setup.

Asher

Asher,

I'll try to give some background in my broken english.

The shoot was made in a break during a fashion shoot for a friends boutique. She was really angry about something I forgot and I've tried to get her laughing. As she looks like this I ask her to keep the expression, move the light stand closer to her, because we moving too much in the set, grab for the Camera and take the shoot. After the Shutter releases, she breaks out laughing loud... ...the expression we see has really nothing to do with the situation it comes from.

The Lighting is only one 8" reflector with a 30º grid attached about 1 1/2m above her and a bouncer laying on the floor, to get a catch light in the eyes. I use a ND Filter to shoot wide open (f3.2). The BG is terribly overexposed due to a seamless white setup (Two hidden flashes pointing to the BG) and to little distance. The light on the (images) right of her face is from the background light too. We move around to much while joking and she doesn't give a second chance to me...

The post processing consists of playing around with gradiation curves only. I don't really like much post processing.

One of the ideas for the shoot was to show a real human wearing the clothes. The series isn't that harsh like this shot, off course. I'll ask for permission to show some of the images.

Thank you for watching
Giorgio

Giorgio,

Have her sit by the window on an overcast day or in the early evening. Use a white card on the opposite side and change the angle to add enough light to the other side.

That will give a beautiful image and allow her to slow down for more shots with lights; but hold off on extra lights. Add only one light at a time and get the best and then add a light for the b.g. and only have 1 stop extra for that or have a stop under and use shadows for your composition.

I really like the idea of working with a girl who looks real. Keep it up!

Asher

The first thing I noticed that sort of stood out as a potential issue is the drastic jump between the focus on either side of her face. The right side of her face, and her hair especially, is very clear and defined, where as the left side of her hair sharply comes out of focus. Was this intentional? I think it's a great start, though.