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Recent Portrait Session

jsf

Active member
Carlos, it was good to use a fill flash as you did, it came from the camera right position and it would have been a bit better to come from the camera left position. The nose shadow is a trifle distracting. The wooden cross beam in the background intersecting her head is a bit distracting also. It also looks to me that the ground is not level, but that could be me and advancing dotage. The multiple exposure is a nice montage, but she is squinting and there is no fill light. The girl is pretty and the shots are clear, I'm sure the parents loved the photos. Joe
 

BANKER1

Member
I agree that the fill flash should have been camera left, straight on to her face. But do we know for sure it would not have made shadows that would have been very evident? A small criticism is that the lower part of her dress is is not well lit, probably due to the angle of the flash. While I agree that background objects should not intersect the head, I do not see this as distracting in your image. Sometimes if we try to eliminate all distractions we lose the entire background or go to an area that is less attractive. Some rules have to be broken as conditions warrants.

Greg
 

etrigan63

Active member
The light falloff on the dress was intentional as the white dress would have overwhelmed the scene. My wife (gaffer #1) was holding the flash on shot right in the standard orientation (landscape) instead of the portrait orientation. Our daughter (gaffer #2) was on shot left with a silver reflector filling the shadows in. The background is nice and soft at full size.
 

BANKER1

Member
Good point about the dress. In future posts you might want to consider adding some salient points such as this to let us understand your intent with the image. I stand on my first comment. Good image.

Greg
 

etrigan63

Active member
Point taken. In my defense, it was late when I posted that. Future posts will detail more of what I was trying to accomplish.
 

jsf

Active member
Carlos I figured the light falloff on the dress was intentional and thought it showed good control. There will always be a number of differing observations from the different photographers here. An old photographer once told me "Before the photographer, there was just white paper" So every image has value, but I can tell we all want to learn our craft and do better. When I teach I include pictures that the client was happy with, but in really looking at the image I can see little mistakes, and I point that out to my students. Very few perfect pictures, but it is always pleasurable to enjoy what is good about each and every one of them. Joe
 
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