two from the weekend Becca and Lou

[peter]

So what do you think of thses it seems I do more amd more b/w of late.

[Stephen]

Re: two from the weekend Becca and Lou

So what do you think of thses it seems I do more amd more b/w of late.

Peter, all credit to you for having a go with these ladies, esp never having met them before (or is this a second shoot?) However I'm going to be brutally honest and mention a few things I think may improve the overall effect of the images.

Firstly, and this is a personal thing, I'm a big fan of getting eye contact in a portrait, and I'd like to have seen that with these. Secondly the first shot seems to lack any real contrast, again a personal thing perhaps. Thirdly the position of the eyes in the frame. For me the first shot has too much space over the head and therefore the eyes are too low. In the second shot, the eyes are at the right height but too far to the left

[peter]

Re: two from the weekend Becca and Lou

Hi Stephen

No thanks for the feed back I am much happier if people tell the truth the just say it is a nice picture. I know what you are saying about the eye contact and will really keep that in mind. Also I see what you mean about the eyes in the frame again something I must keep in mind. Having said that I do believe that it is not always a case that you need full eye contact. As for the contrast these were done using light room and some presets with a few odd tweaks so maybe I need to go back and look at these.

Oh and these are all from the one shoot but as I have said elsewhere they do want some more photos done and as I need the practice who am I to say no

[peter]

Re: two from the weekend Becca and Lou

Hi Stephen

does this one work better for you she is giving more eye contact and also the left eye as you look at the picture is on the crossing lines in the rule of thirds.

[Stephen]

Re: two from the weekend Becca and Lou

Hi Stephen

does this one work better for you she is giving more eye contact and also the left eye as you look at the picture is on the crossing lines in the rule of thirds.

Yes that certainly works better for me Peter, though eye contact should not be written in tablets of stone, its my preference and I like this better than the earlier shot. Have you also thought about lightening the eyes, even using some fill in flash to create a catchlight. Lightening the white of the eye often works, and zooming in to the pupils then with the dodge brush on about 15ish just stroke the pupil area in a rotary action. Just a few thoughts

[peter]

Re: two from the weekend Becca and Lou

Yes that certainly works better for me Peter, though eye contact should not be written in tablets of stone, its my preference and I like this better than the earlier shot. Have you also thought about lightening the eyes, even using some fill in flash to create a catchlight. Lightening the white of the eye often works, and zooming in to the pupils then with the dodge brush on about 15ish just stroke the pupil area in a rotary action. Just a few thoughts

I will admit to not doing a lot of work on these photos. The girls were very keen to see them as they went off to France this morning which meant I had to drop them of the disc of photos last night . I really am trying to get my head around fill in flash as I always seem to have the flash set to high but do understand the importance of the fill in light and the catch lights. I will keep that tip in mind about the dodge tool.