Viktoriia

OPF, meet Viktoriia, sweet Ukrainian young woman who's trying to make her living in LA working as a model. I met her at LA Fashion show, we "clicked", she was in desperate need of some portfolio material, so I offered my help free of charge. For me it was a good chance to test my new studio/lights in action.
We had a very nice relaxed shoot this Saturday. It ended up a bit shorter than we planned (no sunset shots) due to some unforseen emergency situation, but we still had two solid hours of shooting, which gave us enough time to try both low-key and high-key scenarios.
I know I made a few mistakes here and there, but overall I'm fairly pleased with the results. And, most importantly, so is Vika, whose first response was "I'm blown away" - and that's after seeing only SOOC drafts.
Anyway, I spent few hours today cleaning up the results. 250+ pics were culled down to 14, and few of those I'm glad to share here


1: This is Vika:



2: We're just starting up, but already having fun



3: Later in the shoot..:



4: Going for "sad":



...to be continued...

...

5: After an hour or so of shooting we decided that we had enough low key material and switched to bikini/high-key mode:



6. Another high-key, closeup:



7: What's the purpose of having cooperating bikini-clad model and the pool and do not use them together;-)?



8: Finally, we went for some abstract:



The rest of the final results are here: http://nik.smugmug.com/gallery/4572614_YsS47

Hope you enjoyed it, 'cause I most certainly did! :wink

Hi Nikolai,

You have gone up a rung! Don't lose this girl as she can really help your work. I am not going to be posting in general fora as I'm concenrtrating on Art and News as well as work on the website. However since I intend to copy this one shot below to "Photography as Art", I can bend a rule!



This shot is special!


We need a description of the lighting and how you approached lens choice and so forth as this is a whole new page for you and us. Also what work did you need to do afterwards to the images.

Asher

Asher, thank you!

Basically, my family let me to rearrange our living room into a full-time studio.

You can see how it looks here: http://nik.smugmug.com/gallery/4537071_rk8Ca

For the low-key part the scenario was pretty much like this:




Main light ProFoto Compact-R 600 at 1/16 with 3x4 softbox, golden 3x4 reflector as a fill, sunpack 555EX on the boom at 1/64 with a DIY snoot as hair. All activated with PocketWizard.
Shot with Canon 40D at ISO 100 f/5.6 1/250s. Two lenses: 70-200/2.8 IS USM and 17-55/2.8 IS USM.

For the high-key I lost the reflector, removed the snoot from the hairlight and upped it to 1/8, also added another ProFoto Compact-R (300) with umbrella to the right of the camera pointed towards white bg.

The pool shots are either purely daylight or with 580EX on the cord in 1/8 manual mode.

The last abstract is purely available light and some ACR work.

HTH

Nik I read the comments on your posts over at Dgrin and I do agree with the posters there. The high key ligihting is too hot. If this girl has some potential, she needs a makeup artist - au naturel will not get her work. You do need to process and touch up her skin. If your decision is for your benefit as a photographer, that is one thing.

Her posing is a bit awkward. Your shots are too tight for fashion. As as Asher says, the arc of intent may please the artist. But if the shots are for her portfolio, you have not done a good service to help her. She will be lost among the competition even though she has the capability. She is pretty and has the componets to be successful. As a photographer, we are to showcase those talents. I have seen your work in depth and I know you are capable of really good work. Your PS skills are excellent. Use them here and you will both have success.

Thank you, Kathy!

Kathy Rappaport said:

Nik I read the comments on your posts over at Dgrin and I do agree with the posters there. The high key ligihting is too hot. If this girl has some potential, she needs a makeup artist - au naturel will not get her work. You do need to process and touch up her skin. If your decision is for your benefit as a photographer, that is one thing.

Her posing is a bit awkward. Your shots are too tight for fashion. As as Asher says, the arc of intent may please the artist. But if the shots are for her portfolio, you have not done a good service to help her. She will be lost among the competition even though she has the capability. She is pretty and has the componets to be successful. As a photographer, we are to showcase those talents. I have seen your work in depth and I know you are capable of really good work. Your PS skills are excellent. Use them here and you will both have success.

Click to expand...

Hi Nik,

Firstly, you know how much I like your photographic work in general. You have already been very accomplished with all kinds of photography and since you've taken upon the task of mastering studio photography, you have been improving very rapidly. Kudos are in order!

Now, coming back to these pictures, I have some C&C if I may.
I fully agree with Kathy, and I have also read the comments on DGrin.

Viktoria's complexion is indeed not very good, so she needs a helping hand from a visagist and/or post processing.But this has been repeated by many before me.

Like Kathy, I am also of the opinion that her posing is not top notch. I am not a studio photographer myself but I know how difficult it is to get your model to do the right things. My experience comes partially from watching endless episodes of America's Next Top Model (my daughter is a fan of the series so I get to watch it too, LOL). It is actually very educative. In each episode, these girls get to pose under various circumstances and the pictures then get judged by the jury. By listening to their C&C, one learns a lot. So based on that, I can comment as follows:
Firstly, she seems to have only one facial expression. She has to learn to have more than one look if she wants to get various kinds of jobs. Her eye contact with the camera must improve as well. And in some of the shots she looks visibly acting to look sensual. She has to convey a more natural expression.

Re. your bit, I can only join the comments before me about the high-key pics being overexposed.

Thanks for sharing Nik, and I hope you'll understand that I am only trying to be helpful with this C&C .


Cheers,

Cem

Cem,
thank you very much! Appreciate the C&C!
Yes, you (and many others) are correct, there are few (or many things in this shoot that could have been done differently/better. I was partially aware of them right off the bat, I'm far more aware of them now ;-).
One learns by making his one mistakes. Since it as a TF* project I don't feel particularly bad. Besides, Vika is happy

PS
I'm watching ANTM, too lol

Hi,
Lovely girl.
However the skin work on most shots is a bit blotchy and blurred.
The highkey effect is not working here for me, it's just overexposed and not a real high-key effect, look for example at the hairs.
For this effect I would have made the hairs much darker or choose a model with light hair.

Sorry, I mean it as constructive critique but I can't be enthiousastic for this series

Frank Doorhof said:

Hi,
Lovely girl.
However the skin work on most shots is a bit blotchy and blurred.
The highkey effect is not working here for me, it's just overexposed and not a real high-key effect, look for example at the hairs.
For this effect I would have made the hairs much darker or choose a model with light hair.

Sorry, I mean it as constructive critique but I can't be enthiousastic for this series

Click to expand...

Thank you Frank,
Appreciate the ffedback!
It's been awhile, I learned something since that time (at least I hope so. Bad skin, no makeup, amateurish lighting... :-(
I'll get better I promise