# Some C&C if you may



## Mach0 (Dec 11, 2011)

I decided to head out with my fiancé to snap some pics. She was a good sport. It was 41 degrees out. Some of these I did warm up some and some have went through split toning. Let me know on anything you think I can work on. Thanks
 1





2





3





5





6






7





8





Give a second....Have to use photobucket instead of flickr


----------



## Mach0 (Dec 11, 2011)

fixed. They are up


----------



## blackrose89 (Dec 11, 2011)

You should number your photos. I like # 1 and #6. I see a common error in your photos,  your horizons are tilted upwards in almost all of your photos. Your horizontals should be straight.


----------



## rexbobcat (Dec 11, 2011)

I like the first one. Good color and composition. Her face might be a tad too bright though. That's more of a personal taste thing though.

#3 almost seems....too sharp...for a portrait...if that makes sense. The lighting is good. It's just that it seems so sharp that it accentuates the blemishes in the model's face.

#5 I like too, except for the distracting line where the shadow ends in the background, because it goes from dark to blindingly white, and the line runs through the middle of her face.

#6 is O.K. in my eyes. Maybe a bit more contrast if anything at all?

#7 The highlights in her face are really blown out. It's also obvious that a flash was used for this portrait, and there's nothing wrong with that for fill flash. The only thing is that it has the potential to totally destroy the shadows in a photograph, and I think that is the case here. Yes, you can see her entire face when the flash is used, but in my opinion it makes it look unnatural, and it causes the hair to sheen and gives the appearance of looking oily. Her skin also has a yellow cast in this photograph.

#8 Same at #7

#9 I like the light in this one. Although you can tell that flash was used like in the previous photos, there are still shadows that follow the contours of her face very tastefully. And the backlighting from the sun is AWESOME. Very nice use of light. If I had to criticize one thing, it would be that she looks kind of uncomfortable.


----------



## badbronco (Dec 11, 2011)

they look pretty good!  One thing I noticed, I think it's your 5th one down - there's a really big shadow from the earring on her neck.  You could all but remove that with some touch up though.  I'm definitely no professional, and yours are _*way *_better than anything I have ever done - but maybe a different angle would have eliminated that shadow?  overall looks good.  I see now (and probably never would have if someone didn't point it out, the Horizon thing mentioned previously).

Nice Work!  :thumbup:


----------



## Mach0 (Dec 11, 2011)

blackrose89 said:


> You should number your photos. I like # 1 and #6. I see a common error in your photos,  your horizons are tilted upwards in almost all of your photos. Your horizontals should be straight.


 They are numbered.Thank you for the heads up on the horizon.





badbronco said:


> they look pretty good!  One thing I noticed, I think it's your 5th one down - there's a really big shadow from the earring on her neck.  You could all but remove that with some touch up though.  I'm definitely no professional, and yours are _*way *_better than anything I have ever done - but maybe a different angle would have eliminated that shadow?  overall looks good.  I see now (and probably never would have if someone didn't point it out, the Horizon thing mentioned previously).Nice Work!  :thumbup:


Thanks  





rexbobcat said:


> I like the first one. Good color and composition. Her face might be a tad too bright though. That's more of a personal taste thing though.#3 almost seems....too sharp...for a portrait...if that makes sense. The lighting is good. It's just that it seems so sharp that it accentuates the blemishes in the model's face.#5 I like too, except for the distracting line where the shadow ends in the background, because it goes from dark to blindingly white, and the line runs through the middle of her face.#6 is O.K. in my eyes. Maybe a bit more contrast if anything at all?#7 The highlights in her face are really blown out. It's also obvious that a flash was used for this portrait, and there's nothing wrong with that for fill flash. The only thing is that it has the potential to totally destroy the shadows in a photograph, and I think that is the case here. Yes, you can see her entire face when the flash is used, but in my opinion it makes it look unnatural, and it causes the hair to sheen and gives the appearance of looking oily. Her skin also has a yellow cast in this photograph.#8 Same at #7#9 I like the light in this one. Although you can tell that flash was used like in the previous photos, there are still shadows that follow the contours of her face very tastefully. And the backlighting from the sun is AWESOME. Very nice use of light. If I had to criticize one thing, it would be that she looks kind of uncomfortable.



Thank you. Actually, number 7 had the flash camera right. It was about 1 In the afternoon and that bright light is the sun.  I might have messed up the highlights in lightroom. Thanks for the heads up. I'm gonna mess with it. Let's see what can be salvaged. This was her first time taking pics like this and some people were staring and I noticed she started getting uncomfortable. Thanks for your time 

Ps ---- lets just say after 25 mins of driving, I realized I left the freaking soft box at home. Bare flashed it lol.


----------



## Mach0 (Dec 11, 2011)

Are these any better??


----------



## manaheim (Dec 11, 2011)

1 seems fine, I guess... the brick wall though... so cliche.

2 has some alarming issues with her facial tones... may want to airbrush that.

3 seems a bit too far away and impersonal... and the black detail is totally lost.

6 and 7 face washed out, issues with skin tones.

8 black lost again.

Poses seem a little awkward in some cases.   Think about some lighting to overwhelm the sun and such.  Do some research on posing.


----------



## Mach0 (Dec 11, 2011)

manaheim said:


> 1 seems fine, I guess... the brick wall though... so cliche.
> 
> 2 has some alarming issues with her facial tones... may want to airbrush that.
> 
> ...



Thanks. I changed them up some. See the post right above. Thanks for your reply


----------



## manaheim (Dec 11, 2011)

My comments actually included your changes.


----------



## Mach0 (Dec 11, 2011)

manaheim said:


> My comments actually included your changes.



Sorry, I thought I might have been a bit slow in the refresh/respond rate. Any suggestions on lighting to overwelm the sunlight? Or perhaps, choose a time of the day when it isnt so strong?


----------



## photo guy (Dec 12, 2011)

I think your photos are fine.  Not all horizons are perfect. Sometimes it depends on how a person stands.  Good Work


----------



## MrsLittle (Dec 12, 2011)

They are nice, however, I think you should do some minor skin smoothing to rid the blemishes.


----------



## Mach0 (Dec 12, 2011)

photo guy said:


> I think your photos are fine.  Not all horizons are perfect. Sometimes it depends on how a person stands.  Good Work


Thanks 





MrsLittle said:


> They are nice, however, I think you should do some minor skin smoothing to rid the blemishes.


I did some more work in cs5 and it looks much better. I just have not posted it here. Thank you.


----------



## o hey tyler (Dec 12, 2011)

Mach0 said:


> manaheim said:
> 
> 
> > My comments actually included your changes.
> ...



Yes. I'd go for a try when it's closer to dusk. Your flash was probably on full power trying to illuminate your fiancee. I also think it was a bit to hot to expose her skin properly. You probably could have turned it down 2/3 a stop just to fill in shadows. 

What exactly is your flash setup? Do you have a light stand for it, or do you place it on the ground? Or was it on camera hotshoe flash that you were using? It looks to me like it was off camera, but I don't want to assume. Also, did you shoot these in Raw? 

I disagree with Photo Guy, as I think with portraits of someone that are posed and you cared enough to use flash, the horizons should be straight. It would make for a less distracting element. As a matter of fact, I shot a 5K race yesterday (first time doing so). I got a lot of good shots, but I noticed after I edited them and posted them to facebook, that I didn't fix all of the horizons. There were some where my verticals were leaning to the right. Seeing them now, it really bothers me, and I want to go back and fix them.


----------



## Mach0 (Dec 12, 2011)

I have a vivitar 285. It was on 1/2 power I believe. I mounted it on a light stand. I intended to bring a soft box but realized 3/4 's of the way there, all I brought was the speed ring. I can tilt the horizons in free transform. Ill do it in a little bit. The flash was camera right on the " sunnier pics."I wanted to fill in the shadows of the sun. I still didn't compete with the sun. Maybe a huge diffuser will do the trick next time or just a diff time of day.


----------



## o hey tyler (Dec 12, 2011)

Yeah, I usually try to shoot when I can use flash to illuminate my subject and I can get detail in the sky to balance out the tonal range. You'll notice a huge difference if you start shooting around sunset. Keep it up!


----------



## Mach0 (Dec 12, 2011)

o hey tyler said:


> Yeah, I usually try to shoot when I can use flash to illuminate my subject and I can get detail in the sky to balance out the tonal range. You'll notice a huge difference if you start shooting around sunset. Keep it up!


Thanks. At least I have the live in model lol. In cant wait to reshoot once its warmer than 35-40 lol.


----------

