The girl in the window II

[Javier]

[Javier]

[Javier]

[Shadowman]

Very nice, I like the cropping on #1 and 3.

[John 2]

Three very nice captures Javier. You are lucky to have such a natural model. I particularly like 1 and 3. The softness on the face in 3 is very appealing. One thing you might try though is to selectively sharpen her eye. Lovely work.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Javier,

I am finding these immensely helpful to me to develop (I hope) an eye to analyse portraits (and shoot better myself in future).

So here are some observations and thoughts about the location and the (I guess) natural lighting that provided and of course, the shots. I do not consider myself an expert and am constantly learning from threads like this when others comment.

The location of shots one and two here has quite a brightly lit very pale toned background and while the light angles on your model are very nice, the quantity of light on her is just a bit too dim (compared to the background). In an ideal world, if there had been a diffusion blind that could have been pulled slightly across to reduce the amount of light falling on the frame work without affecting the light on your subject, this would have been great.
Arguably, the blue (oof) blooms in the foreground are just a tad dominant - and blocking a little too much of our view of the model.
Those things said; I suspect you were shooting in a hotel or restaurant (as customer) and did not have the freedom to start moving things around or playing with any roof blinds - I'm just voicing what ideally would have been necessary to help out if photography were the sole aim.
Also, I haven't suggested any on camera fill flash since that would destroy the subtle modelling that the natural light is providing on her.

In #1, which is a good shot with a great expression captured, I feel the colourful vase of flowers is competing too much with your model, especially as you have composed or cropped to show us all of it. When shooting, we need to decide what the subject is (portrait or flowers) and not try to include too much. Therefore, I would try a much tighter crop, with just half the vase and also take almost all the bit on the right hand side to re-balance the composition with regard to the direction of her stare. Then I'd try some dodging and burning to improve the background to subject lighting ratio.

#2 works much better because we're not as 'engaged' with her, it is (IMHO) a candid shot of a young woman reading a magazine in pleasant surroundings. There are a few background bright spots I would clone out to avoid distractions and I'd rotate it a bit counter-clockwise.

If #3 was shot through glass (with bright reflections in), that kind of explains the veiling flare across her face, but I wonder if it would stand a bit more contrast overall. The only other thing that strikes me about her pose is that her neck seems just a bit too long and I might try cropping from the bottom edge to remove some, perhaps* even as high so as to remove the neck strap of her dress, I think this would help position her eyes and lips better in the frame.
* If I did take that much off the bottom, the top edge might need a slither off too.

Your views may differ, but I hope you may find at least some of my ramblings helpful, or at least thought provoking.

I also acknowledge that it is one thing to be able to recognise these things while looking at photos after the event as opposed to being able to recognise the subtleties at the time, with everything else going on. The thing I take away from this is not to rush if I find myself in similar circumstances.

Any more?
Can't get enough, can I?

Cheers, Dave

[ccphoto]

Using an expanded mid-tones luminosity levels adjustment layer will accomplish much of what Dave is suggesting. Afterward, a slight selective sharpening on her eye, lips and nose with help define her mood.

[Manfred M]

These are nicely conceived images, Javier, but there are some fairly minor tweaks in execution that would make these images a touch stronger.

Image 1 - the subject's face is in shadow. A bit of light here (off-camera flash or a reflector (if the light can be directed that way) pushed at the subject's face, which is in shadow, would open up that part of the image quite nicely. As we are now looking at post-capture improvements, a bit of dodging the face in the image would help too.

I find that the flowers sitting in front of the subject are extremely distracting. In general, things sitting in the foreground need to be in focus, and here they are such a significant part of the composition that this is not working as well as it should.

Finally, a comment I made on the first posting of this subject, the white balance seems to be off a tiny bit as we have a slight blue colour cast throughout the image. Reducing the blue by adding yellow would correct this and warm up the scene.


Image 2 - All of the points made about Image 1 apply here as well.

Image 3 - There seems to be a bit of overall softness or perhaps a bit of flare here. It is partially due to the focus being off a touch. In a portrait, the eye camera need to be tack sharp, but is not. Here the focus seems to fall on the lips and the ring in the model's nose.

I'm also not fond of the white part of the window that partially obscures the subject's camera left eye. That and the pearl earring that seems to be coming out of the side of her head seems a bit odd as well.

[madcrow]

I like your images, two is the standout shot.

[bnnrcn]

I especially like #2 I would crop it from the top and go for a square frame as the top part doesn't add to the image very much. I would also fix the blue color cast on her skin.

[rpcrowe]

I like the last one (but the nose ring turns me off - no fault of the photographer). Perhaps a bit of selective sharpening of her eye and lips might be in order...

[Javier]

Thanks.. very much¡¡¡

[Javier]

These are nicely conceived images, Javier, but there are some fairly minor tweaks in execution that would make these images a touch stronger.

Image 1 - the subject's face is in shadow. A bit of light here (off-camera flash or a reflector (if the light can be directed that way) pushed at the subject's face, which is in shadow, would open up that part of the image quite nicely. As we are now looking at post-capture improvements, a bit of dodging the face in the image would help too.

I find that the flowers sitting in front of the subject are extremely distracting. In general, things sitting in the foreground need to be in focus, and here they are such a significant part of the composition that this is not working as well as it should.

Finally, a comment I made on the first posting of this subject, the white balance seems to be off a tiny bit as we have a slight blue colour cast throughout the image. Reducing the blue by adding yellow would correct this and warm up the scene.


Image 2 - All of the points made about Image 1 apply here as well.

Image 3 - There seems to be a bit of overall softness or perhaps a bit of flare here. It is partially due to the focus being off a touch. In a portrait, the eye camera need to be tack sharp, but is not. Here the focus seems to fall on the lips and the ring in the model's nose.

I'm also not fond of the white part of the window that partially obscures the subject's camera left eye. That and the pearl earring that seems to be coming out of the side of her head seems a bit odd as well.

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