Harley Quinn

[Manfred M]

Another couple of images from the weekend cosplay shoot. This is the Joker's girlfriend; Harley Quinn.

All these shots were taken with my Godox Witstro AD360 using a 1.2 meter deep octabox. There is a bit of ambient light component in some of the images I took, although there is very little in these two shots.



1.






2.

[Tronhard]

In the vernacular, that girl is "packin' some heat!"

As always, great shots Manfred.

[Shadowman]

Nice set.

[RBSinTo]

Manfred,
In the first shot, there are some distracting background elements immediately to the left (the viewer's left) of the model's head and neck, that would have been eliminated by a slight change of position of either the camera or the model. Additionally one of the drop-ceiling bars above her head is overly bright and should be toned down. I'd even suggest cropping the left side of the image up to the right hand edge of the vertical shadow to eliminate a bit of the background clutter.
In the second photo, the model's right eye is slightly in shadow and needs brightening and the inclusion of a catchlight to give it some life.
Additionally, the same overly bright drop-ceiling bar as appears in the first shot is a distracting element that should be darkened.
Robert

[Manfred M]

Manfred,
In the first shot, there are some distracting background elements immediately to the left (the viewer's left) of the model's head and neck, that would have been eliminated by a slight change of position of either the camera or the model. Additionally one of the drop-ceiling bars above her head is overly bright and should be toned down. I'd even suggest cropping the left side of the image up to the right hand edge of the vertical shadow to eliminate a bit of the background clutter.
In the second photo, the model's right eye is slightly in shadow and needs brightening and the inclusion of a catchlight to give it some life.
Additionally, the same overly bright drop-ceiling bar as appears in the first shot is a distracting element that should be darkened.
Robert

All very good suggestions Robert. My images tend to evolve over time and the postings are really my first retouch. I continue to look at them and over a period of a week or so, I start finding small areas that are not working and I will go back and rework them.

Unfortunately, this was a group shoot with around a dozen other photographers running around and shooting in the same area and sometimes the same model. I often found that as soon as I had set up a model, three or four other photographers would come in and start shooting my setup. That makes it very challenging to pose and coach the models; definitely not my preferred approach, but I was not in charge of the shoot.

With respect to the hot spot, I had noticed it and it is missing on some of the shots I edited later. I had caught on to the issue by the time I retouched the second Harley and the problem is missing in image #2.

The eyes are problematic with a lot of makeup and it tends to darken everything up. This is an issue with any model shoot and I generally tell the models to go easy on their eye makeup, but our definitions of "going easy" don't always align. I had already pushed those areas farily hard (for a conventional studio shoot), but went back and reworked the eyes again and did some more dodging, especially on the whites of the eyes. I cloned the catchlights to brighten up the camera right eyes.

The stuff on the back wall; I went and hit is fairly hard in post, but I'm still not sure if I like the new "look". There is a fine line between being a distraction and adding to the atmosphere of the grungy setting.

Regardless, here are the reworked images.



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2.

[RBSinTo]

Manfred,
Well done!
In my opinion, the re-worked images are better.
Robert

[pschlute]

Liking both of these.