Say Hello to Isabella

[rick55]

Technically, the shot is very good, especially the lighting. However, I really find that scarf distracting. I know the colours tone in with the back-drop, but is it a shot of the girl as subject, or the scarf as subject? The colours (a little gaudy) and the style of the scarf don't seem to go with the innocent look of the model, which is the great strength of the shot.

Getting together with Rob, as Colin requested.

I think the scarf looks like a girl playing dress-up: it's light-hearted, doesn't detract from the overall mood.

I also think I would have got those wisps of hair on the right brushed away from her cheek and eye. The lighting is very good though.

I agree about the hair (as Colin did, of course), and I missed that.

Cheers,
Rick

[carregwen]

Getting together with Rob, as Colin requested.

I think the scarf looks like a girl playing dress-up: it's light-hearted, doesn't detract from the overall mood.

I agree about the hair (as Colin did, of course), and I missed that.

Cheers,
Rick

We ought to get together more often. I really enjoyed that (inserts sincere smilie here)

[rick55]

Darn! That's right, I forgot and put a smiley in there.

[Hans]

Hi Isabella and Colin,
She looks very comfortable in front of your camera for someone you hardly know. No mean feat with a early teen or young adolescent (?) I would say. I'm lucking to get my kids to sit still for more than five seconds so hair position and dressing up for the occasion is generally out of the question....by my standards she is immaculate!
I noticed you shot at f11. I have, for some reason, always tried to keep the aperture larger with portraits and f4 or f5.6 is as far as I allow myself to go. But using the critical aperture here has worked a treat with the entire subject well within the depth of field. I think I have been released...

Thanks again Colin ...among many others on CinC ;D

[Colin Southern]

Hi Hans,

Thanks for the kind words

I typically shoot at F11 in the studio because that's about the lowest power setting the lights will do (I've a total of 6000 watt seconds available if needed!) - my only other choices are to shoot F8 @ ISO 50 or F4 / F5.6 @ ISO 50 with a 2-Stop ND filter attached to the camera.

[Wirefox]

Avatar aside...I thought an avatar was a postage sized picture of a chimpanzee playing with a Nikon lens. I'm afraid I am still blown away again and again by Casablanca and Ice Cold in Alex. I do like the lighting and you have got the background light spot on. I would never in a million years have used that background because I have seen so many portraits where it looks like my Mum's wallpaper in 1968 but with the right lighting...nice. Now the scarf. I must admit that I think the whole line of the neck should be seen. It is far more flattering to the subject. At first I thought the pose was the standard 'St Bernadette' but the expression contradicted that. Then it came to me, 1930's USSR propaganda posters! And the scarf helps with that feel in the absence of a headscarf. It works very well here, nice image

Steve

[Hans]

a chimpanzee playing with a Nikon lens

...no. That was me

[Colin Southern]

It works very well here, nice image

Thanks Steve -- I'm afraid that most of the rest of it went right over the top of my head though!