The Boss

[dragon76]

Actually I wear the pants in the relationship. She just tells me which one to wear.

[bnnrcn]

I really like this image Dean Very nice BG and your model stands out nicely.It's a pity that she has sun glasses on and we can't see her eyes.

[rpcrowe]

Absolutely lovely lady. There are actually two ways to view this image:

First: as you have cropped it as an environmental portrait showing the area to the rear...

Second: as a vertical closer crop portrait of your lady

IMO: both of these are equally as nice....

Whichever way, I think that selecting the bright sky and lowering the brightness just a TAD might be appropriate

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Dean,

With regard to your wife's brightness relative to the sunlit background, the sky doesn't bother so much as the sunlit buildings either side and I think I would attempt to tackle these with a couple of 1/3 or 1/2 stop gradient filters applied to the left and right hand sides of the image.

I agree with Binnur that it is a shame we cannot see her eyes.

That said, there are many good things about the picture; focus, DoF, white balance, etc.

The important question is; what does she think of it?

Well done, Dave

[ionian]

Ok, first of all, great picture. I agree with the comments about seeing her eyes but I'm guessing this wasn't necessarily posed like some of your model pictures.

For me, I find that the issue is that the background is correctly exposed but the foreground (and your subject) is under exposed by around two-thirds of a stop. This could be corrected in post with curves, but it's a similar thing to your picture "window to the soul" so I wondered if it is something you'd want to think about at the capture stage.

If you are happy and have achieved the look you want, then ignore the rest of this post, but if you can see what I mean, read on.

How are you metering? If you use spot metering you can guarantee correct exposure on the subject, but in this case your background would then be over exposed. I'd prefer this myself in my own images, because I'll often add a vignette or radial filter to tone down the background exposure in post.

I think the best way to control it would be flash, off camera and high speed sync in these bright conditions, and then you can control the exposure of the background with shutter speed. This may, of course, be more gear than you want to lug around - but you seem to be shooting more and more in this style so it may be worth thinking about.

Look, it's not a big deal - I love looking at your pictures - but in my very lowly opinion, this could be the slight improvement that your images need to make them outstanding.

I hope this helps in some way!

[Shadowman]

Nicely exposed, however to me she almost blends in too well with the background. I would almost prefer to see overall contrast, deep depth of field or some additional processing to help separate the layers.

[IzzieK]

This shot is not as pretty as your posed models but she is one pretty lady allright...I cannot add to the previous comments.

[dragon76]

Thanks Ladies & Gents!

The sun-glasses were to show that she is all about business and devoid of emotion (although, I did make a few shots without the sunny). Also, I wanted this shot to be like fashion magazine kind of shot so I squashed the highlight and shadow a bit to achieve that look. I hardly ever do tight crop type of shots outdoor. In studio yes, but outdoor I let the environment into my shots even at 200 mm. I like to include & retain elements like time & weather condition of the day, season of the year (if possible) etc. I like viewers to be able to feel those elements when they look at the image.

Dave, she's the toughest critic & I got just a pass for this one and all the other ones that I've made.
Simon, I do shoot outdoor portraits with ND & strobe .