First Nude

This was from my first shoot. I really like the lighting in this. I

used a screw in slave flash off a white wall and a speedlight to

triger. I've done a lot more with a more sophisticated setup but I

still like this one.

 

I like the lines and the lighting on the face. I'd like to know what

others think. It might be better if a little was cropped off the

bottom though, which I think is how it prints as an 8x10.

I like it!

Great sculpting with the light. She's not bad looking either!

I like the shot. The lighting is good too; good contrasts, I think.

Beautiful picture with a proper lighting set up but, you have a merger i.e. her foot growing out of her head.

I don't like it. Pose is not good and lighting is poor. Kevin

Sorry, but the foot thing is all wrong. Looks like a glamour shot of a contortionist. The lighting and framing otherwise is nice.

I'll agree with the other guys on foot growing out of head. But no one said anything about the forehead and forearm having no detail. These are blown out - I have a very good monitor set for milliions of colors, so I think I'd see the detail if it was there.

 

I find the brightness of her arms, and the fact that they are coming together out of frame, distracting.

 

I played around with it in PS for 10 mins on my lunch hour. Above is my version. I'm not skilled enough yet to try to clone some skin tones back into the blown out parts.

 

Bob.

I like the lighting of the face, on the original, but the brightness of the left arm is distracting. I am also bothered by the way the light seems to cut off the right arm. Haven't decided if I like the foot or not. Maybe cropping, as the previous poster did, with out the Photoshop, would make the arms more acceptable. But I do believe the image of the face is striking.

Mr. Menegatos, if I could see her back right leg sort of stretched out (which means you might have to compose the whole pose again) together with her left arm stretched out, I think would make the shot more balanced.

I am sorry to disagree with you about the lighting. I think it is too harsh and ruins the picture. Also I don't think the shadows are right. For example if a wedding photographer took a picture of a bride and had the dark shadow of her nose smeared across her face my guess is she would not buy the picture.

The intent of this was in no way supposed to be that of a typical wedding shot.

I like it. I dont mind the foot out of the head as i think its actually needed to break up the dark hair and the dark background and it's vital to the composition. I like the lighting and i like the pose. You cant compare a shot like this to a wedding shot. Very nice shot.

it is amazing how people (mis)understand critique with ~find the mistakes~.the picture is really good, the pose is really good(we must exercise and try new ones for get out of the simple portraits), the contrast is good too.it is the essence in a bw picture. wedding?????what a xxxx this picture has to do about a wedding??????

good job man.

 

fernando trancoso

I like it. I never noticed the foot until you guys pointed it out and it still doesn't bother me. The lighting is great, especially as you say the print has more detail. This is not a wedding shot... it was your intention to shoot it as you have and you've done it well. When i read about what equipment you used i was inspired. I have no budget for big studio equipment and to see shots like this inspires me to just get out there and use what i have.

Bill Brant eat your hart out, maybe one day, i dont understand the nit picking either. Without the foot she looks a little like an amputie, and ill make the assumption that you have other shots from that shoot and if the foot really was the problem that has been metioned, you might have posted a differnt one or removed the foot yourself.

I like the foot. I think that it does a couple of interesting things. One it seperates the head from the background. I think the it's angle works well with the angle of the arm. Creates a nice shape and flow to me. And I love the lighting on the face.

 

I have my own darkroom now and a decent film scanner but this neg is in storage somwhere from my last move so I have yet to find it to rescan :(

 

P.S. Who's Bill Brant?

I think the pose and the lighting is perfect. The foot in the background is fine. It dosen't appear to me that she is a contortionist or that it's growing out of her head, it just appears that she's laying on a bed. This is a very beautiful photo.

And best nude, even after all the excuses and the pseudo tech crap about the lighting.

They're not excuses. A lot of people have emailed me or left comments about lighting for different photos so I figured I'd proactively help them. A lot of people think they need expensive lighting to take good pictures. I wanted to show that you don't.

On first look, I was ready to rate this a 9 and 6 but then I noticed the model's foot above her head. Would be better if that was cropped out. The mood of the photo is great though....it reminds me of a old photo of a film star in the 1950s.

the dark parts are fighting the lighter tones, works well, nice shot