Natural Beauty - C&C Welcomed

[KimC]

One of the goals I have set for myself, is to take the best image I can, of women of a certain age; honoring the richness of her beauty and spirit on that day and not trying to make her look years younger.

Personally, I have had two sessions with a photographer where I paid a significant sum, only to be flat lighted (I now know what that is now) so that a wrinkle, nor anything else would show on my skin. Are they beautiful yes, but it made me sad, as that was not who I was on that day/year...

I had a fun session with a woman of a certain age this weekend and wanted to share a couple...

#1



#2



#3 - decided to add one more - my personal favorite as it was a candid and shows her playfulness.

[rpcrowe]

I like both images but, I do like image #2 the best!

[Digital]

Kim, very nice set of images.



Bruce

[IzzieK]

I am with Richard...I like both but #2 has a better pose...and her personality shows a little bit more although it will be nice if you can put more emphasis on her hair by blurring the background a tad more...

[KimC]

Thanks for viewing and commenting Richard - appreciate it.

I like both images but, I do like image #2 the best!

[KimC]

Thank you Bruce for taking the time to comment.

Kim, very nice set of images.



Bruce

[KimC]

Hmmm, I don't know why the color seems to change a bit here -- her hair is not that dark on my Mac. I had done a lighter version too (perhaps it will not look lighter once loaded here thou - we shall see) -- her it is Izzie. Thanks for commenting

I am with Richard...I like both but #2 has a better pose...and her personality shows a little bit more although it will be nice if you can put more emphasis on her hair by blurring the background a tad more...

[Shadowman]

All very nice.

[Rebel]

Hi Kim,

I know next to nothing about portrait photography but these look pretty good to me!

Also I have had problems with my photos look a lot different on my Mac screen (although mine is a laptop), I now have an LG monitor to connect my Mac to process all my photos on and I think its made a big difference. If yours is a desktop, perhaps just the screen calibrated?

[Manfred M]

An interesting project, Kim.

As our cameras tend to record differently from the way we see things, your interpretation through the use of lighting and camera angles and focal length are going to impact how the person looks. Longer shots are going to downplay certain characteristics while close ups will tend to accentuate them. I generally find that women tend to look better when the light is more diffuse.

While I like the shots of your model, I think I find you should pay a bit more attention to the backgrounds as they all don't quite work as well as they might.

[William W]

One of the goals I have set for myself, is to take the best image I can, of women of a certain age; honoring the richness of her beauty and spirit on that day and not trying to make her look years younger.

It occurs to me that Image #2 depicts nowhere near the same amount of “spirit on the day” and “richness of beauty” as Images #1 and #3.

Why is that so?

*

Image #1 captures a helluva lot of ‘spirit’ and ‘richness of beauty’- and then some.

I suggest being always aware of the leading limb, in this particular case the L. Leg. The knee, calf and thigh occupy as much real-estate as the face, the blue is a dominate colour. I’d suggest you consider cropping it.

Good shot. It achieves the goal as was described.

WW

Addendum:

5:4 (10:8) Aspect Ratio Crop



3:2 (6:4, 12:8) Aspect Ratio Crop:

[IzzieK]

William...As usual, excellent crop examples...both crops are more appealing, especially the second crop...

Kim...I was viewing your post yesterday in my laptop which is not calibrated when I noticed the background. It is just too merging with her hair. Here in my desktop on a bigger screen, it looks a bit better and the hair is more noticeable..still I am not happy that you put her near that bar...am I getting weird here? I still like that pose....it reminded of Michelle Malkin's pose when she came out with a do-over. She just did not look like "any Asian" -- she became a beautiful Asian. We are talking of physical beauty here not her brain, mind you...but her background was really good -- I would think that she was shot behind a green screen so the separation was excellent. If you can do that to this lady by separating her from the background, it will be nice...just a thought....

[bnnrcn]

Hi Kim, I don't shoot portraits but those look very nice to me I prefer the lighter hair in#2 and I prefer William's first crop. Did you use a speedlight for the first two images or is it ambient light?

[chauncey]

FWIW...I never do people shoots without using a XRite passport for spot-on colors regardless of lighting.
If I change anything...out comes that passport.

[KimC]

Thanks for always taking the time to comment John.

All very nice.

[KimC]

Thanks for your comment Matt.

Good to know. I do have a Mac Desktop and the screen is calibrated. I think some sites compress/modify pics slightly. They always look different on my iPad, but I expect that.

Hi Kim,

I know next to nothing about portrait photography but these look pretty good to me!

Also I have had problems with my photos look a lot different on my Mac screen (although mine is a laptop), I now have an LG monitor to connect my Mac to process all my photos on and I think its made a big difference. If yours is a desktop, perhaps just the screen calibrated?

[KimC]

Thanks for your comment Manfred. I did learn more about light with this project -- what was flattering and what was not. I agree about diffuse light.

I am a bit confused by your comment on backgrounds. I know you have been away, so perhaps that's why you couldn't elaborate. When you have a chance, can you share specifics as to what you meant as it would be helpful to me? Is it that the inside shot BGs blend with her, should she have been further away so they blurred more, etc? Thank you

An interesting project, Kim.

As our cameras tend to record differently from the way we see things, your interpretation through the use of lighting and camera angles and focal length are going to impact how the person looks. Longer shots are going to downplay certain characteristics while close ups will tend to accentuate them. I generally find that women tend to look better when the light is more diffuse.

While I like the shots of your model, I think I find you should pay a bit more attention to the backgrounds as they all don't quite work as well as they might.

[KimC]

Thank you for commenting Bill. The 1st is also my favorite of this group.

Yes, I agree about the leading limb -- I learned that with Sheep Girl thanks to your comment on that post. I thought because her knee was pointing towards her a bit and her hand was on top, as well as the shallow DOF, that it was ok. I do see it was taking up too much real estate in the image and your crop only strengthens the image. Thank you for "showing" me how the image could be improved.

It occurs to me that Image #2 depicts nowhere near the same amount of “spirit on the day” and “richness of beauty” as Images #1 and #3.

Why is that so?

*

Image #1 captures a helluva lot of ‘spirit’ and ‘richness of beauty’- and then some.

I suggest being always aware of the leading limb, in this particular case the L. Leg. The knee, calf and thigh occupy as much real-estate as the face, the blue is a dominate colour. I’d suggest you consider cropping it.

Good shot. It achieves the goal as was described.

WW

[KimC]

Thanks for commenting Izzie. I think I need to goggle Michelle Malkin as I have no idea who she is :-)

William...As usual, excellent crop examples...both crops are more appealing, especially the second crop...

Kim...I was viewing your post yesterday in my laptop which is not calibrated when I noticed the background. It is just too merging with her hair. Here in my desktop on a bigger screen, it looks a bit better and the hair is more noticeable..still I am not happy that you put her near that bar...am I getting weird here? I still like that pose....it reminded of Michelle Malkin's pose when she came out with a do-over. She just did not look like "any Asian" -- she became a beautiful Asian. We are talking of physical beauty here not her brain, mind you...but her background was really good -- I would think that she was shot behind a green screen so the separation was excellent. If you can do that to this lady by separating her from the background, it will be nice...just a thought....

[KimC]

Thanks for commenting Binnur. I agree on both counts :-)

The 1st two images had an ice light and a reflector.

Hi Kim, I don't shoot portraits but those look very nice to me I prefer the lighter hair in#2 and I prefer William's first crop. Did you use a speedlight for the first two images or is it ambient light?