Photo Critique #148
tuts workshop

Photo Critique #148

on Aug 3rd 2012 with 14 comments

Friday Photo Critique is our weekly community project, where we publish a photograph submitted by one of our wonderful readers, then ask you all to offer constructive feedback on the image. It’s a great way to learn more about photography, express your viewpoint, and have your own image critiqued!

Quick Ground Rules

  1. Play nice! We’ve deliberately chosen photographs that aren’t perfect, so please be constructive with any criticism.
  2. Feel free to offer any type of advice – composition, lighting, post-processing etc.
  3. You can also link to photographs that you feel offer a great example of this type of image shot exceptionally well.

Without further ado, here is this week’s candidate for Friday Photo Critique!

The Photograph

Photo Details & Inspiration

  • Canon 60D
  • 50mm
  • f/3.5
  • 1/250
  • ISO 100

My sister-in-law asked me to shoot some portraits for her modeling portfolio. I was trying to capture something simple that shows her beauty using only natural light.

Photographer: Bob Pease

Please let us know what you think in the comments – how would you have approached the scene or taken the photo differently? A massive thank you to everyone who commented last week.

The most constructive and helpful comments will be featured on the site. Interested in submitting your own photo? You can do so here!

 
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By

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

I was raised in the suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio. After high school, I left for Western Kentucky University where I obtained degrees in photojournalism and cultural anthropology. I am currently employed by CityBeat, an arts and entertainment weekly in Cincinnati. The work I am doing here is very rewarding and I suspect it will continue to be. I am available for freelance work in all areas of photography.  

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  • http://yashmatunited.blogspot.com Tom

    She is very pretty and has incredible eyes. I think the composition is pretty good, but I think it might work better a bit wider. more like a 6×6 or step back a few steps to get a wider shot. Great coloring, lighting and depth of field, imo.

  • Kurt

    Your subject is beautiful! As the other comment posted indicated, her eye’s are indeed striking and looks as though her eyes are sharp as a tack! In post I might experiment with color and sharpening to bring them out a little more, but without overdoing it. That however wasn’t the first thing I noticed, that being her right arm is parallel with what looks to be a chair behind her. I might have moved her arm before squeezing the shot off. Lastly, perhaps adding some black to the exposure might make it pop a little more, but I really like the softness that 50mm and 3.5 give the image. I hope that is helpful!

  • Thinkeye

    The following is only opinion of a beginner, so don’t take it too narrowly.

    Great model and great image. I like the pose and the light. Some notes for the next time:

    Model:
    - Decent, careful make-up (for nose and cheeks) might help removing small skin artifacts from otherwise perfect face.
    - Be careful to relax forehead muscles to keep it smooth.
    - In composition like this, let at most one stripe of cloth around the neck, or choose at least same, or similar color. Pink or black are both OK, but not at the same time.

    Photographer:
    - Move your subject further away from background to allow the depth of field to play its role in fixing of the eye onto the subject.
    - Find a background with lower contrast and avoid recognizable shapes in it. Let the contrast arise between subject and background and not between shapes in background.
    - Avoid parallel lines in background and foreground in this type of images, they carry the eye away from subject.
    - Try to vary white balance a litte. The image color space appears to be shifted a bit to yellow. See also the next point.
    - Examine the histogram. Great prize question is: What’s wrong with the red channel and which areas of the image are affected? Try to remove small bit from blue and green channel to improve the color ratio in favor of red.

    Hope my comments help you, if even a little bit.

    Happy shooting !!!

  • Joe

    Subject, lighting, composition all good, but the fence in the background has to go. My eye keeps going to the parallel line of the fence (parallel to her arm) It just keeps sucking my attention away from the main subject.

    • Little Red Frog

      I completely agree. I like the lighting, colours and clarity of the image. Striking eyes indeed.
      But that banister parallel to the arm and being so close “really” bothers me. Different colour, orientation or a shorter depth of field my have fixed that.

  • http://www.iMediaNamibia.com Alan Hendry

    Great subject I would give more space 3 steps backwards and find a background thats quieter, her right arm is getting mixed with the handrail and get her to drop the arms, as when you move back the left elbow will be to prominent in the composition.
    I looked at your other pics and you seem to want to fill the frame a lot, which is ok with the right subject, but then for me there are no hard and fast rules, well done.

  • Karen Bruechle

    I am only an amateur photographer, so I hope it is ok that I make a comment.

    The first thing I was drawn to in the photo was her arm being parallel with the handrail on the steps. I would think the first thing you should notice is your sister in law and her beautiful eyes.

    I think the natural light looks great.

  • Betty Stepp

    The model is striking. I think the pose is pretty good, but I would have moved her away from the background. It is distracting. Also, I would like to see a slightly wider shot.

  • L XH

    My two cents of a beginner.

    - Lighting is really good! And those eyes are fantastic!

    - The parallel between the arm and the chair behind is a bit too striking. Perhaps ask her to change pose? Or maybe you can change your angle.

    - Maybe lower your camera a little too, or ask your model to raise her head higher instead of looking up, it makes he forehead wrinkle (or you can post edit it away, your choice).

    - Perhaps take a few steps back (like what everyone else said), and move let her head rest further to the right of the frame.

    - And an after-thought, maybe she can rest on something since she’s already making a really relaxed pose.

  • http:think7photo.com Bob Pease

    Wow, you guys seriously rock my socks! Thanks to all for commenting, this was my first model photo shoot so there were a lot of things I did wrong, but the photos came out quite nicely. I have some awesome feedback from you for the next time we shoot that should really take the photos to the next level. You guys are awesome!

  • http://cameraguyzack.blogpsot.com Zack Jones

    She is a lovely woman. You did a very good job of capturing her beauty. One thing that jumps out at me (other than railing as others have pointed out) is that you chopped off both of her elbows! Poor woman :). A half a step back probaby would have taken care of that problem.

  • Geoff Matheson

    I’m certainly just an amateur, but I hope this is useful. The intention of your shot is clear: all the focus should be on those striking eyes and face. With that in mind, I found the fluorescent pink strap on her shoulder to be quite distracting, as well as the previously mentioned parallel lines with the fence/bannister.

  • http://123.vn 123.vn

    I Love her eyes :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/larkinsmallphotog Larkin

    I am an amateur as well, but here are a few things that popped into my head:

    Why is this model with an alluring look on her face, sitting on a porch?
    I find the background, which is quite mundane, to be distracting to the subject matter – a model. The background doesn’t seem to be germane to the subject at hand.

    Also, I can see her contact lens circles – which is great, it means her eyes are totally in focus, but if that is editable, you might want to do so.

    Honestly I’m finding it a really awkward angle all-together. It doesn’t look natural, or comfortable (it kind of looks like she has a crick in her neck), or even like it was a moment that was caught on “film.”

    This has to do with both the photographer and the model. A model shoot (or anything that isn’t candid) is a collaboration between photographer and model. It’s your job as the photog to bring out the best of her personality, to capture her looks, her emotion, her mood, to elicit that, and to know what will look good as an image. It’s also her job to know how to move and pose her body in a way that makes sense, and which will have aesthetic appeal.

    I agree about the shirt straps – they don’t add value here. In this sort of semi-suggestive pose, I find them distracting, and bare, clean skin would have more aesthetic appeal to me personally.

    This close up, with the background as discussed (I don’t think it needs to really be “there,” it doesn’t add to the story, but detracts from it), I would have blown out the background with f/1.4, and dialed the ISO to at least 200, and probably would have given a touch less exposure.

    (As I’m giving a ton of feed-back, feed-back is always welcome on my photos! :-)

    Love and snapshots,
    Larkin