au naturel Boudoir

A very appealing image. One could quibble with technical aspects, but there is such a sense of connection with the model and of spontaneity. Photography as a record of one's life, rather than as sterile art.

Barry:
Thanks for the feedback.

I agree entirely with your sentiments regarding the technical aspects of the shot, I hesitated in posting it. It was an 'end of the film' moment after returning to our hotel room; unfortunately with available light I had to push an already 400 ISO film despite being fully open @ f/1.4.

On reflection it's more a personal portrait, and given the technical constraints, perhaps one better left in the library :)

I agree with Barry that the "personal" nature of this shot is what gives it the charm - there are a million technically perfect but sterile nudes out there but real life has the emotional connection which draws you to a picture. IMHO this is what photography, especially of people, is all about.

 

Anyway, technically it's not at all bad - you have used the narrow DoF to put the emphasis on the portrait aspect. Obviously the available light is not ideal but I wonder if you could improve it with a lower-key print...

 

Best wishes, Jonathan

... I couldn't resist having a go!

Ooh, nice work there, Jonathan!

@Jonathan: Thanks for your comment, suggestion, and example - it certainly is an improvement on the original. Do you have a suggested resources on creating a low-key such as you have done? My quick attempts in Photoshop seem to lack the same punchy contrast you've achieved?

I'm afraid I don't have any source - I just play around with images by trial and error. I this pic (IMHO) the background and her upper body are too light but her derriere under the cushion is rather lost in the shadow and her face and hair do not catch the light as we might wish. So I adjusted the curve for each of the 3 zones (shadow, face + hair, all the rest) separately to give what looked to me the best balance, keeping the skin tones fairly consistent. Finally I smoothed some uneven lighting on her arm and leg which was exaggerated by the steeper curve, and applied a little sharpening to her face & hair to emphasize the narrow DoF effect.

 

It actually takes longer to describe than to do!

 

Best wishes, Jonathan

Thanks Jonathan.

 

I think it's am matter of technique in Photoshop as my method (using quick mask and creating levels layers based on those selections) leaves me with some hard edges I can't seem to lose. I have a book in the cupboard on Photoshop for Photographers, perhaps it's about time I got it out and gave it a good read after all.

 

Attached is my version, which took me about 10-15 minutes, seemingly too long :o(

 

PS> I should mention I didn't boost her top body/face as much as you as I wanted to keep a little more contrast.