Charlene Crop

Perfect! Love this. What a nice girl. Great colors and light here. Best regards

Hi, Ger! Excellent lighting! Did you use Neat Image on this? Love the smooth skin tones. Very nice, relaxed pose, too. She looks very comfortable with you and the cam.

 

Les

Now's where some info about context and your goals will start to be helpful. Technically speaking, and it pertains to this as well as most of your recent works including Alley Cat, you are really doing exceptional work and each group of new photos shows real advancement. If you're going for a commercial kind of fashion look, this works well. On that score, the skin is as it probably should be although I wish advertisers would start to realize that not all people have perfect/plastic skin and that texture in skin, even female skin, is real life. The pose and smile also mark it as a commercial endeavor. In that genre, though, I think you might want a jacket that has a little more color and catches a little more light in order to enrich the overall feel and not have dead areas like where her hair falls between her face and lower hand. That kind of deeply-shadowed area is like a black hole that should probably be avoided in this kind of shot. I would probably also enhance just a bit the highlighting on her hair on the top left side of her head, between the part and her hand. It doesn't have to be as strong as the highlighting on her hair on the right, but a little more life up there would, for me, help impart some balance and give a little more life to the photo. Looking more at Alley Cat, this may be what I was getting at there also. It would (with a little stiffening of the arm in the pose) make it in a contemporary magazine ad, etc. But that one has the potential of being a personal photo, more of an art shot. It just needs a little more letting go of the need for "prettiness" and a little more heart and soul and grit from both photographer and model. I could see Alley going in the direction of your self portrait (without needing to be quite as dark or gritty). Getting back to this one, it may even go a bit far for commercial use. It's hard for me to see anything else or feel anything else when I open this photo except "AIRBRUSH." It's quite strong. If you're doing this as a personal portrait, of course, and this is what the client wants, so be it. She's who you have to please. But if you're doing it with more of a sense of a personal vision or representation of what you'd like, yourself, out of a portrait that you do, I think you've lost the humanity that this model can obviously reveal through her gestures and her eyes. It feels almost as if her face is masked.

Fred,

 

Thanks for such honest comments. These shots were shot for a model portfolio, before I cleaned it up it was already quite soft. I have attached the shot before I cleaned up the skin (I think you will place preference with this one).

I'll try that highlight of hair and might tone it down and little and repost.

Ger..

Great colours and composition, (and light too.) You have found a great looking model. I like your new model work you moving in the right direction.

 

You do not need to rework this, it works great already

 

Best regards Tore

 

Comments and Suggestions Welcome

 

Ger..

Beautiful portrait work, great lighting and nice soft tones. Regards, Ludvik.

I understand what Fred is saying, and for a personal photo, I would agree with him (God, I wish I could look at and see a photo like he does!)

 

But I have recently read a couple of books on photographing Model portfolio's, and to me, this is a classic example of a perfect head and shoulder shot.

 

It's got what the agency would be looking for... Usable skin, a nice smile, great eyes, and great hair. This model is very attractive, and this portrait helps bring that out.

 

I think you have done this model justice, and this shot should help her in her aspirations.