New ones

[Karl Bailey]

I've been a little nervous about posting these seeing all the great work of others. I think these are better than my first offering but I will let you be the judge. These are all pretty much as were taken. I'm not any good with PS so I cropped them and did a few adjustments in Picasa but that is very limited. This is my friend, Brandy Raye. Thank you in advance for your comments and critiques.

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

​

 

[Asher Kelman]

I've been a little nervous about posting these seeing all the great work of others. I think these are better than my first offering but I will let you be the judge. These are all pretty much as were taken. I'm not any good with PS so I cropped them and did a few adjustments in Picasa but that is very limited. This is my friend, Brandy Raye. Thank you in advance for your comments and critiques.

[/URL][/IMG]​

Karl,

This picture is very simple, natural and unpretentious. Brandy has a lot of tattoos and you have included them well. The use of a shirt allows us to concentrate attention to her face and then ask about her life story.

With such images of partially nude subjects, simplicity works well. Is there a reason why you have included lines crossing vertically or horizonally in the series of images you share?

If you don't have a space with a clean background and really do not need those lines, (and this may be your choice), consider getting a 4ftx 8ft styrofoam core backgound sheet. They are black on one side and white on the other, cost $65 to $95.

The other pictures seem gritty. I find your one B&W version of her lying on the ground is clean and well done.

Asher

 

[Jerome Marot]

So you did manage to talk Brandy out of sleeving her right arm:

http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17074

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Karl,

Thanks for sharing these nice shots of the adorable Brandy Raye.

On the technical front, the tags "

show up on either side of your images. It seems that these tags appear twice in the formulation of your link to the image. I don't know how you construct these so I don't know how that happens.

But with the extra tags out, the image presents like this:

​

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Asher,

The other pictures seem gritty. I find your one B&W version of her lying on the ground is clean and well done.

Why am I not seeing this?

By the way, I had not realized that this forum section was "moderated".

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Karl Bailey]

Thank you for the comments. The lines were just because I didn't have anything to put behind her. I noticed they were a bit distracting when I was editing. I like the idea of the styrofoam. I really apprciate your insight. Brandy is really easy to work with and I try to capture the emotion in her. Not sure how successful I am, but that's what I look for.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Thank you for the comments. The lines were just because I didn't have anything to put behind her. I noticed they were a bit distracting when I was editing. I like the idea of the styrofoam. I really apprciate your insight. Brandy is really easy to work with and I try to capture the emotion in her. Not sure how successful I am, but that's what I look for.

Karl,

In this picture, I rather like that strong series of vertical lines behind her, as they serve as a useful anchoring feature and contrast to her wonderfully relaxed body posture.

The rectangle of bright of back-illuminating shower glass covering the right side, brilliantly balances her body. That and the two fixed dots of her nipples complete a great
composition.?

[/URL][/IMG]​

However, the other pictures seem to suffer from the odd lines as they don't appear, at least in my reading to contribute to any success of their respective compositions. ?

Some folk insist that no line or pole should appear to be going "through", ie behind, a subject's head. You can see that here, that you have in one picture shown that, (like most aphorisms), they do have a ring of "truth" but must not be considered as hard and fast rules.

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

White styrofoam sheets for backgrounds and guan light sources to replace light boxesi

For background, I sometimes just clear away "stuff" from a wall, just enough to have coverage with some margin all around my subject.

Then in Photoshop I will simple replace everything else with the color and texture of the clear wall.

BTW, styrofoam panels are available from any decent photography store and will last for years. They also make great replacements for a giant light box as one simple directs whatever flash one has to bounce off the huge white surface!

 

[Asher Kelman]

The black side of a large styrofoam board in photography! Often the boards can be obtained with a paper covering: white one side and black on the other.

Both sides can be used a backgrounds............... (and one also can shine light on it to make it any level of black, grey or white you wish, at your whim, as long as you have the flash power on hand.

There's another quite sophisticated creative use. Especially when using window light, one can help to prevent reflected light illuminate the side of the model nearest to this black surface. This helps in building a more dimensional and gently sculpted 3D form.

Asher

 

[Karl Bailey]

So you did manage to talk Brandy out of sleeving her right arm:

http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17074

Jerome,

She hasn't done it yet but when we were going over the photos she noticed that the majority of her tattoos were on her right side. She felt like it was uneven. I guess we'll see.

 

[Karl Bailey]

Hi, Karl,

Thanks for sharing these nice shots of the adorable Brandy Raye.

On the technical front, the tags "

show up on either side of your images. It seems that these tags appear twice in the formulation of your link to the image. I don't know how you construct these so I don't know how that happens.

But with the extra tags out, the image presents like this:

​

Best regards,

Doug

Thank you, Doug. I'm not very savvy with the forums. I was just copying the link from Photobucket (the IMG ones) and then clicking on the "Insert Image" icon and putting the link in the space provided. How do I fix that?

 

[Karl Bailey]

For background, I sometimes just clear away "stuff" from a wall, just enough to have coverage with some margin all around my subject.

Then in Photoshop I will simple replace everything else with the color and texture of the clear wall.

BTW, styrofoam panels are available from any decent photography store and will last for years. They also make great replacements for a giant light box as one simple directs whatever flash one has to bounce off the huge white surface!

Thank you Asher, lot of good information for me to consider for the next time. I'm hoping to be able to practice some more soon. I've had a few people ask me to do shoots for them but I don't feel comfortable doing paid assignments until my work is much better. I don't want to be just a GWC. It's a learning curve and I'm pretty near the bottom. I look at the submissions on here and they are really awesome. I really appreciate all the advice and comments everyone offer.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Thank you Asher, lot of good information for me to consider for the next time. I'm hoping to be able to practice some more soon. I've had a few people ask me to do shoots for them but I don't feel comfortable doing paid assignments until my work is much better. I don't want to be just a GWC. It's a learning curve and I'm pretty near the bottom. I look at the submissions on here and they are really awesome. I really appreciate all the advice and comments everyone offer.

You might do well to read the open letter to Dave Butcher. It could have been addressed to a bunch of different folk. Dave just got chosen as he had questions at the time I thought of writing about starting with serious photography. One hurdle we have to get over, one way or another, is the admission t,hat we merely purchased a camera and then have a great deal of enthusiasm....but not much experience and skill.

With endless enthusiasm one can have the energy to to acquire the skills. But you are fortunate in already having some excellent skills in finding a worthy model and then taking a great picture. Good thing you hadn't been trained at a photography for school, otherwise, likely as not, you'd never have posed her against the vertical rod on which the shower door is mounted. it turns out that you learned on your own to experiment and indeed this worked.

Still, haphazard backgrounds and messes are distractions in most amateur pictures. Some purists refuse to remove one piece of litter from an otherwise pristine photograph! I have no such qualms as photographs, unless for legal or insurance purposes, are not meant to be statements of the facts, just enjoyable renditions of what the scene might evoke when viewed as a picture.

Actually, it's not a bad idea to do some commercial work. It will force you to think on your feet! The best job is to be an assistant to a Wedding Photographer on the weekends. You can provide coverage of the reception and dancing as this allows you to do a lot of deletions of duds and still have a lot to show for 2-4 hours work....and pay! Take pictures of friends shaking hands or sharing drinks, sitting on a park bench or just chatting outside a store. Do some 40 and then select the best 6 and show them to a wedding photographer to get an assistant's job! The main photographer has plenty of work doing all the formal shots. You just have to turn up in clean clothes and real shoes and do coverage. Frame carefully.

Do the first 2-4 weddings as an assistant for free if need be. you have to get lots of experience and make as many mistakes as one can and get that out of the way.

Meanwhile, shoot this same model every 3 weeks and give her one good print from each shoot. Keep working with her as she seems to be comfortable with you and you are being productive. Even one good picture in a session is fabulous.

You are fortunate to be humble in this and yet have the drive and potential for doing good work.

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

I've been a little nervous about posting these seeing all the great work of others. I think these are better than my first offering but I will let you be the judge. These are all pretty much as were taken. I'm not any good with PS so I cropped them and did a few adjustments in Picasa but that is very limited. This is my friend, Brandy Raye. Thank you in advance for your comments and critiques.

Karl,

It might be useful to compare these two pictures.



The first one has little light on the face, in fact the picture seems underexposed.

[/URL][/IMG]​

Note that the lighting puts thick undifferentiated dark shadows below her right eye. Shading below the eye to reveal the globular nature works very well when it's very soft and gentle, not just a uniform dark ring. Part of the reason for this is that you don't appear to be using a sheet of white card or other reflector at 45 degrees held below her face so we open up those shadows.

In my practice, I adjust the head to get the light and then in post processing open up the shadows as need be, but doing that in post is not a good idea. Better than rescue a picture, light it correctly in the first place. Just lean a giant white card against a chair back at 45 degrees and prevent it sliding on a shiny wooded floor by placing a book there!



Next, of course the face has to look right in that pose. What kind of expression were you looking for. She's a pretty woman but this only shows really well in the second picture.

[/URL][/IMG]

​

Here you have beautiful natural light coming from her left side. The eyes now are beautifully set in her face. He lips are now not exaggerated by shadows, but are still rendered dimensional.

Why, because you have diffuse wonderful light reflecting of a big surface.


This site should be your main setting as there is so much to learn just from this lighting. For example, you can rotate her head, have a black card on her right side or any number of modifications. You might add a small amount of light from a ring light flash or else on your camera pointing back to a white cards or better shooting through a small $10 translucent white nylon umbrella.

But with light like this, you are already close to the finishing line!

Asher

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Karl,

Thank you, Doug. I'm not very savvy with the forums. I was just copying the link from Photobucket (the IMG ones) and then clicking on the "Insert Image" icon and putting the link in the space provided. How do I fix that?

Dunno for sure - I never work that way.

It may be that the link from Photobucket is already wrapped in "

" tags, so you just need to post it into your post (not using the "insert image" button, which puts those tags on).

Maybe.

Asher will probably know better.

Best regards,

Doug