jennifer_spencer

Great lighting, beautiful color, beautiful girl and a lovely pose.  But I wish I could see more of her face and head.  I think the focal point (her face) is too far up in the right hand corner, too close to being out of the frame.  If this was a crop of a bigger shot, how about giving us the crown of her head?  I feel like it needs another 10 or 15% on the right side and the top side to work. 

Hi - I really like the complementary colors you've got here, and the great sharpness of focus.  That's excellent.  It's very textural, and you feel like you can reach out and touch it. 

 

I am uncertain as to whether the extra pollen on the lower petal (around five o'clock) contributes or just distracts.  It makes you notice the sharp, sharp focus, but it's a little dirty-looking.  The pollen on the petal next door, at seven o'clock, on the other hand, looks natural and adds to the dimension on the petal.  I might have knocked some of the pollen off that five o'clock petal with a make up brush, myself, but that assumes you had time and opportunity to do so. 

 

I would not vignette this much either.  It's too heavy handed.  Just back off about 15-25% and it'll look a lot less contrived, IMHO.  I'd love to see just a little more the petals of this flower, and I cannot.  But I do love the shape you've chosen for your vignette, with the green showing in the right rear of the flower - good work there. I might even crop the bottom just a little bit more to add some tension against the right side. 

 

Hope this is helpful - your shot is really beautiful. 

I love the warm light on the field and the cold light in the undersides of the clouds. It definitely tells me exactly what time of year it is - no doubt is possible. Composition is beautiful, with the wood stacks and the trees on the right drawing the viewer into the background. The colors are lovely.

Good expression, good background to set the scene and give us more information about the subject and his location.

 

The eyes are very dark, though. If you had some fill light there it would be better. You might try dodging the left eye socket. From far away or on first impression, the eyes read just a shade too dark.

 

I hope that is helpful.

Great composition. Just great. Does Tarzan know about this guy? To me it looks like Tarzan about to jump off of a tree limb with a vine, out into the jungle.

 

I wonder if you have dodged the man's head - I think I see a bit of a ring there, even in the larger photo? You might want to tone down the dodge effect on the left of the man, and around his head some. I think it is a little heavy. But I can find nothing else I would change at all.

 

It's very clever. The lines are perfect.

I love the colors in this. The upside-down reflection of the scene in the drops is a nice reversal of those colors. The offset of the subject slightly to the left is nice.

 

I wish all three primary drops were in focus, however. That top drop is perfectly in focus, gorgeous. The middle (large) drop is less focused and the bottom column-type drop is not focused. I can't tell if that's from shallow depth of field or shutter speed, but I am thinking it's depth of field. If I had just a bit more focus on the main water structures (the bottom drop structure and the top ripple), this would be fantastic. So, maybe close it one-half to one stop more and see what happens?

I like it.

 

The rest of the reddish tinges in the picture really help the composition. I find my eye immediately going to the red door with the pin outline, then to the next bright light on the left (about waist high) but I get distracted by the large brick backlit piece over the main sign "REDPIN". Since that's in the right hand corner of the image, I go right out of the image after that. The light colored bricks end up leading me out of the picture. I am wondering how it looks if you simply crop out the REDPIN sign all together, or maybe shoot closer to the red door next time?

 

Overall, a great job.

Dear Stephane,

The model looks very well lit. The dress is perfectly lit IMHO. I can see the texture in the fabric but it's not distracting, and I can see it's black but it's still reflective.

 

The white in the hat is a bit hot, going in a line from her right eye to the top of her hair knot. I think that's more a matter of opinion than a certainty, though.

 

I am wondering what is going on with her right arm and hand, however. Is it me, or does the hand seem disproportionately large? An effect of your lens choice or camera angle, perhaps? The skin tone on her forearm does not seem to have natural shading; it does not match the fingers, and there seems to be a tone change at the wrist. Her fingers seem natural but her arm does not, you know? Is the arm Photoshopped? The color and texture seems unnatural - sort of smooth and plastic. If you did some deeper fleshtones or more shading on the forearm near the wrist, I think it might help. Did the arm look like this originally?

 

I think lighting is not easy. Your other portraits, that I saw, were very well lit. Taking a longer-body shot into account with clothes and accessories and hair is tricky. It is always easier for someone to say what could be changed after the fact. It's a good job, overall. Good dress fabric choice and good job especially lighting that fabric.