Kyla V2

Thanks for any comments on how to improve this shot. It's one of my first

serious attempts at portraiture using off-camera flashes and softboxes.

I'm not a studio photographer but I can appreciate a beautiful portrait. A sweet and pleasant expression on this lovely young lady... Mike

I too am not a studio photographer and am in fact just toying in outdoor portraiture.

For me, this is a very good capture of a lovely young lady. My only concern is about the eye highlights.... more a reflection of the lightbox? Their positioning (to the iris) doesn't quite feel right.

An honest comment from one who tends to shoot animals and birds.... but this image was a bit of a scroll stopper for me.

Well done to you both

Regards

 

I am a studio photographer Scott, indeed I used to teach it in a college and this is a charming picture of a beautiful fresh young woman, the skin tones, composition and  lighting are fine, the only error IMO is the square catch lights in her eyes caused by a softbox and need to be made round in post production.

My comment as well:  the catch light is the only distraction in an otherwise wonderful portrait.

Scott,

Kyla is indeed a cutie with a lovely smile. I agree with Ben about the catchlights for a portrait. I find nothing wrong with them for fashion, beauty or editorial shots, but I usually do prefer round for portraits.

I do love her expression, skin tone, contrast, color saturation, eye contact with the camera (viewer), the nicely neutral background, her separation from the background, and the nice specular highlights on her lips. You could move the main light up a tad to move the shadow from her nose more towards the right (her left) corner of her mouth, but your lighting works well. Your fill also works well. Her make-up is spot on. She has excellent separation of her eyelashes. She really knows how to apply mascara well. The nicely applied eyeliner under her eyes helps to make her eyes stand out. Combined with the catchlights there is no question where the viewer's eyes will first go. You have focused very well on her eyes.

I am not thrilled about having the depth of field so narrow that parts of the subject are out of focus. An out of focus background draws attention to your subject. I find that parts of the subject out of focus will draw attention away from your subject's face to the out of focus areas. My attention first goes to her beautiful eyes, but then jumps to her right shoulder and bottom of her hair (lower left corner). I don't see anything wrong with keeping all of your subject in focus.

Notice the neckline of her top. The viewer's eyes will go to the “V” formed by the sides of the neckline and follow it down and out of the photograph because there is nothing there to stop them. If you would back up a little (zoom out) you could include where the "V" of her neckline comes together. This would give the viewer's eyes a stopping point. Her light skin wouldn't be touching the bottom of the frame of the picture and her gray top would "frame" her neck and face -- and help to keep the viewer's eyes within the picture.

If you did crop farther down you would want to move the top up a bit to include a tad more of her hair. This would lower her eyes a little within the frame. In a tight shot of the face like you have done it usually looks best if her eyes are about a third of way down. Your left and right compositional balance looks quite good.

Nice shot,

Mark

Thank you very much Mark for taking the time to explain that in so much detail. It's hard to learn unless someone is willing to teach. I hadn't thought about the neck pulling the viewer out of the frame, but you're right. I'm beginning to understand just how subtle the differences are for creating a great portrait. Thanks very much for your comments!