Liam

This is near the beginning of a two roll portfolio session for this

young man who is a student of a national modelling school that I have

recently begun doing some work for. I chose the location based on

variety and the beautiful sunset light that it gets all over the

campus. This was shot early in the session when the sun was still

fairly high. I really prefer low sun angles on people so I decided

to place him out of the direct light and bounce some back onto him

with a flex-fill. (held by his mother and a friend in a stiff

breeze!) And of course I am always looking for interesting

backgrounds, and one of the few NICE things about a high sun angle is

the shadow patterns.

 

This photo is representative of the proof print. Just level

adjustments in PS to compensate for a cheap scanner.

I just had a look at your portfolio and found the dolls series much more interesting than this, but well, let's not compare entirely different genres...:-)

So, how is this as a model test ? In my opinion, it is quite ordinary, with 2 or 3 things that actually disturb me.

1) The expression. I find it quite empty, honestly.

2) The pose. Modeling agencies care to see how a person caries his body and the dress he wears. Here, the body is "folied" - excuse my English if this isn't the correct word - and we can't tell anything about these 2 parameters - except that he's a bit skinny and has reasonably nice shoulders. For model tests, I'd suggest to keep things simple - portraits and full lenght shots where the model is standing and "unfoiled"... Expressions matter a lot since that helps people to judge whether the model has an actor's abilities or not.

3) The light: like you I like late hours of the day, but the problem I see here is that the head and his left arm get a lot more light than the rest. Looks a bit awkward imo, though a tad less contrast could have worked fairly well.

4) The background is a bit too sharp and too strong (with many lines), and therefore takes attention away from the person.

5) Why crop the feet ? Bad looking shoes, I guess..? :-)

Basically, overall I see a 5/5 here, and there is room for improvement.

Regards.

I find the missing feet a bit distracting. I think the location is very good, good pattern created with the shadows. The left side is a bit too dark for my eyes. The shirt stands out as the only strong colour in the shot, but I actually like that.I like the skin tones on the left arm but the right hand/arm seems a bit too bright.

I like the picture. The cross hatch background is a tad busy I think. Less DOF perhaps in this case. I think I'd have gotten closer for a head and shoulders type shot.

I agree with the comment on the model's expression. Maybe a bit more tension?? I have trouble with feet so I noticed that right off. This is a nice portrait -- I like the background.

I like the background, but I too find the cropped feet distracting. The lighting seems a bit bright on the arm and right side of the face.

my browser doesn't seem to want to load pictures today so until i fix it i guess i will just respond to your fabulous comments.

 

Marc- could you please elaborate on "unfoiled". i don't understand what you mean here. (and your english is fine by the way. much better than my french)

 

i find the puppets more interesting too, but this is the area where i feel i could use improvement the most right now. i like shooting people and really want to become expert at it.

 

unfortunately there isn't much that i could do about the expression at the time. we did improve later in the shoot as he relaxed a bit. but he is a very young, awkward and extremely shy fellow. my contact at the school who refered me for this gig said that when she first met him he would not even look at her he was so shy. we feel his family is using the school to improve his sense of SELF and not so much to follow a career in modeling.

 

so i agree that the expression is very empty, and this bothered me at first. then it sort of grew on me as an unusual alternative to other shots in session that follow your advice more closely.

 

the light is about the best we could get for this location and i kind of like the contrast. but this is where i wondered if i was more in love with my light and failing my subject/mission. and fashion seems a very strange and wonderful genre to me. there seems to be a wide latitude available for creativity but within narrow constraints that i haven't quite figured out yet.

 

i was going to do a shorter DOF version but forgot in the rush to keep up with the ever changing light. that is the tricky part of magic hour shoots.

 

5) Why crop the feet ? Bad looking shoes, I guess..? :-)

 

YES!!!!!

 

 

 

you cut his feet ! background is nice

For me the shot lacks personality, either yours or the model's.

 

There are some great shapes here to work with:

 

1) The rock and the background. Sit your model on the floor leaning sideways against the rock - arm over/around it if possible.

 

2) Get down to a better angle (not sure what higher background is like).

 

Working with this type of light requires homework and preparation.

 

Plan this shot and you have a 9/9 in your portfolio, hope for the best in a creative moment (although spontaneous) you are lucky to bag an 8/8.

 

Your work is good and 'viewable', I look forward to seeing more.

 

Drew