Ana 12080601

Seeking a "support" point... Looking through the photos taken by

others can immediately see that the highest rated Portraits are those

made in the studio. Now, say I do not like to limit my horizons and

try to fight against the trend. The result of a disaster at least in

terms of ratings received.

---So, this photo as the concrete case: help me understand why this

picture you rate below 4? Because in my personal terms, under 4 mean

bad/wrong not just "ordinary".

On the other hand I would greatly help to understand the relation

between beauty, creativity and technically correct. Because I

personally prefer things that make me happy. What are the chances of

such an attitude in the face of the directions that accept only photos

with correct techniques - follow a lot rigid rules?

ps: without any hard feelings from me.... any idea, no matter how hard

it would be helpful.

Thanks a lot!

DanS

After you plea, for an honest and constructive comments, I'm bravely try to explain for you, as an artist myself, what is wrong with your portraiture images. OK, I try it with my pure english.

Your model is a very nice full bodied, beautiful lady. Not a professional model, very easy to notice.

Then, you mentioning, a studio setup, etc, etc.   Portraiture or full body shoots, not necessarily need a studio, many of this setting with natural background is  perfect or sometime even better then a blank backdropped studio shoot.

The problem is many in you photograph.   The background, lighting, the composition, the framing, and mostly, the posing of the model, witch is mostly in your control or supposed to be in your control. Some of your shoots, the background totally burned out, or  you chosen a very bad background. Fence, wrong tree, to bright sky, etc. Also, your camera position, eye level,  is not always beneficial to the model, or like this, the slightly pulled up skirt dose noting to the compositional effect, when you can't see the whole leg. The image has to much unneeded element in the frame, as I going to demonstrate, IMHO, how you can get more out of this shoot.  This is yours only shoot, witch has some value.

So,  you have to have a good control of the light, and tell the  model to relax, and move slightly, hand,  head, body, and you  has to shoot like a machine-gun. You need a lots of shoots to pick the right one, and by studying other peoples, mostly pros, not amateur shoots, you develop the "how-to" feeling. It is an art, more then  action or landscape photography.  Tell your model, to watch videos of photographers working in studios, and see, what the models doing.

Some expert with good english my able to tell you more, explaining more professional way, how to photograph models, portraits.

Everybody was a beginner one time. 

Cheers.

Stoica,

Anna is a pretty girl. I like the backlighting. It gives a nice halo on her hair which helps her stand out from the background -- especially if the background was darker. Her skin tone is good, as is her make-up. She is in good focus and she has very good eye contact with the camera (viewer). She has good catchlights.

The background does compete with the girl. It could be darker and farther out of focus to allow Anna to stand out better.

She is a vertical subject. It would make more sense to shoot her vertically.

Your composition is quite right heavy. You want to compositionally balance the left and right sides of the photograph. The compositional "rule" for this suggests that you position the tip of the subject's nose in the vertical center of the photograph. By positioning the tip of her nose in the vertical center of the photograph you not only have her facing into the picture, but you also have good left and right compositional balance. The tip of her nose doesn't have to be exactly centered, but this gives you a good starting point from which to subtly adjust your composition to make it visually balanced. This little rule almost always works well.

I'm not sure why she is pulling her skirt up. I would try find a better way to show off her legs if that is the purpose of her lifting her skirt. It just doesn't look like a very natural thing for her to do in this setting.

Her skirt pattern is very busy. Avoid bright colors, stripes, polka-dots and bold patterns in clothing. In a portrait the subject’s face is what is most important and nothing should draw the viewer’s attention away from the face.

It is usually not a good idea to pose your subject facing straight on to, or away from, the camera. This is not a very feminine pose. Showing your subject’s widest areas (shoulder to shoulder or hip to hip) makes those areas appear wide. Your subject will appear thinner and more feminine, graceful and elegant if turned at an angle to the camera. The lines you see from an angle have more apparent motion, interest and grace. You usually do not want to have your subject turned 90 degrees to the camera. This can make the head look unsupported. Generally, it looks best to angle your subject somewhere around 45 degrees.

It appears that you don't want to follow rigid "rules" for portraiture. I'm not sure that the "rules" are all that rigid. They provide more of a guide, but there are some "rules" that many photographers find handy. The more photographers try to be different, the more they become the same. Some photographers want their images to be unique -- to be different from what other photographers shoot. They try to move away from conventional composition and design elements. The elements of design or composition can influence how we perceive the picture. They have a predictable effect on viewers. The further you move away from the conventional, the further you move away from what is known to work. We get the term “compositional rule” in photography because it is a design element that has been shown to consistently work. Once you understand the "rules" of photography and why they are used, you can break them to achieve a specific and planned outcome. It usually is not a good idea to break them for no reason.

Nice shot,

Mark

perhaps I am mistaken (and I suppose others) about what a "4" means....I personally never took a 4 as "bad or wrong"....rather as just good...5 I took as "hey, thats pretty good there, really nice"...and 6 and 7 for upper eschilon stuff....I have no idea how these ratings are formally "supposed" to be done and if there is meant to be set rigid guidelines ideally....

I think you are a bit hung up on the idea of these things being as you said "rigid in your mind"....but many people like myself, we are not formally educated...we do our best to offer an honest opinion after viewing the photo and giving our opinion via rating...are the ratings wrong?  Perhaps....??

I would have given this one a 5 likely  -I find it perfectly pleasing...but I imagine it would not be that hard to imagine folks giving it a 4....again, supposing that for those people it is just a generally pleasing portrait...

My good habit, I always check out other photographers works, whom given me a  comments. (?)

Cheers.

Hey Dan! why so much concerns regarding rating? Say, you've got 5 rates - one from mentally challenged guy, the other from lady with family troubles, the other from old chap with oversized ego - then what? For me one good comment (like Laslo's) equals a hundred marks, and I need rates ONLY for bigger exposure. Take care, Vlad

I think Bela pretty much summed up every point I was going to make,  very eloquetly too I might add. And the subsequent crop has optimised the image to its full potential.

One thing that you might want to consider though is that ratings are just numbers and will not improve your photography. Where as here, constructive feedback can help gain a broader perspective of your work and help with suggestions for improvement. I think you were wise to ask for honest open feedback.

One other thing you should always bear in mind is that the vast majority of comments on PN come from photographers, albeit of different experiences and skill levels. The perception of what is right and wrong from a photographers viewpoint is totally different from that of a casual observer and as such the former can often be interpreted as hyper -critical. As photographers we learn certain values, skills and techniques and very often these manifest themselves as "rules" .  The fact is there are no "rules" or "rights and wrongs" other than the ones we choose to obey in order to obtain a distinct type of effect or result. We are free to express ourself any which way we choose through the medium of photography, however if consistancy and generally pleasing aesthetics are your goal, then the appllication of the afore mentioned "rules" should be adhered to. A friend of mine once said "learn all the rules first, then you can break them".......As it is I'm still learning them : - )

On a positive note, I think the best elements of the image are the perception of warmth and consquent glowing skin tones. I think the sharpness and eye contact are also good.  I would have rated it 5

Best Regards

Alf

Thank you all for your comments!

I found many good advice but above all, the feeling that there are still people with the rapprochement to that passion. I think that I missed the most now. The truth is that usually I try to encourage others as possible and perhaps sometimes I feel like I need to be supported.

Anyway, perhaps PN is not where you expect to solve your psychological problems ;) But this time helped...

Thanks again!

DanS

I think the most is already mentioned here, and I agree don´t care to much about ratings its like a roulette depending of the personal taste of the peple seeing your image.

some teqnical feedback, I like the croped version someone made becouse you had a bit of too much highlights in the background right now. the eye is drawn to the brightest or most contrast full aria.

The light is hitting the arms of the model its in good balence but it makes it her lightest spot. and draw the eye from the face.

Rules are med to be broken and its ok for me, one rule you have broken here is to always trhy to keep the camera as a paralel plane to the subject.

if you nkeep it as aparalell plane between th rhe eyes and her belly you are always in the safe aria.

The classic S curve is good to use to, in this shooot you have a good tilt on her shoulder but is on the bent leb side so she must be standing on something that is uneaven.

I can give you along lisr of "rules" but the trught is I like it as it is. you have a great model the light is giving you a lovely glow in the colours and over all it works great for my taste.

But for higher ratings I think you have to go main stream and get more "likes" on the shoot. and then its alot of ruels you can use.

But I think its lovely work, keep it up and continue develop your style!

Best regards Tore

I know several of the folks who have offered comments as you requested, and even though I haven't read through their responses, I know you received some good feedback.  I'll offer a few comments, and I'll bet that I end up repeating what has already been said.

I am glad that you got sufficient light on the model's face, considering how bright the background is -- you and your meter were not fooled by the brightness all around the model.  The background is very bright, and the water in the stream is even blown out, and this is not aesthetically appealing.  Either you need artificial light to balance the light on your model with that in the environment, or you need to move your model to a different environment where the light on her face relative to the background can be more easily managed.  That for me is the big concern; fix the balance of light and you'll then be ready to think about less-flat lighting, facial expression, attire, vertical versus horizontal format, and probably a number of other issues that don't immediately jump out at me but which have been mentioned by others.  I'll go back now and read them for my own education.

Thank you for starting this conversation.

I also tried to do some portraits and was very challenged so I really appreciate that you have asked these questions so we can all learn. This is one of the things I like most about PN. Yes there are some folks who will rate harshly but ask a solid question and people will usually go out of their way to help as evidenced here by all of the positive feedback.

I stopped asking for ratings a long time ago because they were just of no value to me from a learning standpoint. Getting a numerical rating doesn't help me get better as a photographer and then I also learned there are folks who rate their mates high no matter what. So I just ask for help, ask for comments and critique and very often I am rewarded with thoughtful insight about my work.

I like your photo but I also think the background is too bright and competes too much with the model. I like that she's photographed full on from the front but her hiking her skirt and not being able to see all of her legs takes away and doesn't add. I have learned that doing portraits in the evening light is better than mid day as the light is so much softer....more complimentary. Midday sun is very harsh.

I'm not a technical person so there is little I can add to that aspect regarding making this a better photo but I will say to keep working and keep posting and thanks for making this a learning experience for everyone.