Senior portrait for critique

Pretty girl- lovely expression but photographically, a near miss.

Problems:

 KEY- You have a low-key subject, a more or less low-key background with high-key clothing.  Her blouse is the hottest highlight in the portrait, therefore it distracts from her face.  The highlight in the fabric are blown out and lack texture.  Darker clothing would be more suitable for this subject- she has dark hair, the background is dark and her face would then become the motif of her portrait.  If you can't consult with the seniors, at least an instructional letter should be sent to them in order for you to have some control over your dress requirements as to tonal and color harmony.

CAMERA POSITION-  This is neither a head and shoulders portrait or a 3/4 length portrait.  The composition has her truncated just below the bust line- this is not graceful  or flattering- she seems very heavy and she is probably not. Because her body is almost dead on to the camera her figure is not flattered.  A more feminine pose is achieved by turning the shoulders away from the main light source and the head turned comfortably (not strained or twisted abruptly) toward the light source.  This makes for a more graceful line and allows the light to skim the clothing and render better texture- this is most important where wedding gowns are concerned.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL-  THIS IS WHERE THE YOUNG LADIES AND THE MOMS WILL SHOOT YOU DOWN!  The blouse is not sitting right there- check out the neckline and near shoulder.  This seldom comes from ill-fitting clothing- usually it's from a bad posture or not having the subject make adjustments before the shoot.

CONTRAST-  There in not enough detail in the hair- an additional reflector can sometimes remedy that problem.  Here it seem that the entire image is beyond the range of the camera system's dynamic range or something happened in Photoshop to increase the contrast-  The hair is too dark and the skin tone is too light.  There seems to be some back-light in the background- sometimes moving the subject a few feet away can allow the back-light to catch the hair creating a lovely glow.  Using a reflector rather than an off-camera flash works beautifully with this kind of set up in that you see what you are getting.  I find that the facial lighting is too flat and that may be because you have not established enough of a ratio between the flash output and the available light.

BACKGROUND USAGE-  There is a big hot spot  to the right of the subject- this is distracting.  Perhaps of you place that hot spot directly behind the subject it would have yielded some useful highlights on the hair.  Again this is a case of low-key/high -key disunity. 

I hope that this kind of critique is not like throwing an activated  hand grenade at you- it is not intended that way.  If you had entered this image in a print competition the items listed as "problems"  would have cost you lots of points.  On the non-technical side, some of theses things can cause customer dissatisfaction as well.  Although most folks are nor aficionados of fine photography and a nice expression will usually sell portraits, however, any kind of distortion cause by bad camera angles or posing  issues can send up a red flags in the eyes of a client and cost you sales.

SOME GENERAL ADVICE-  Nowadays, with more and more automation being built into cameras aand flash systems, photographers are losing more and more control over their images.  What is the old saying about driving skills?  Is it "you have to drive you car not allow you car to drive you".  It's all about skill and control.  Automation has it place when there is no time to adjust you camera and are trying to capture spontaneous action- let's face it- it cat be a godsend. In professional fine portraiture, however, all of this automation can prove to be be detrimental.   

Where there is time to work with your subject and make all the finite technical adjustments  it is best to go manual.  Even autofocus can be a pain if you are doing selective focus or if you want to have you subject somewhat off center.
Using simple methods and equipment, masterful portraits can be made without much fuss or bother.  Ostensibly, automation is supposed to save time, however, with totally automated caners systems, photographers spend so much time compensating and trying to "fool" the system into going beyond its factory settings that in the final analysis it it tale less time and causes less distraction to make a few manual settings and concentrate on communicating with the subject and creating the mood he or she wishes to express in the final image.

Photoshop is a wonderful tool as well but too many photographers are shooting sloppily and depend too heavely of post production manipulations to save their images. Photoshop can enhance already good images that are made in the camera but overly manipulated less than perfect images never look as good.

I sincerely hop this helps you.   Ed

 



 

oops,  here is the image.