WGRII

Nikon D700 camera, Nikon 24-70mmf2.8 lens
ISO-159, F6.3, 1/125 sec., 58mm
Strobe light at approx. 20% with a 36" octagonal soft box to photographers right and a white reflector to models right. Gray paper backdrop.

Ekeeton

This is a bright an cheery portrait of a lovely young lady. I like it a lot and I think you did an outstanding job at capturing the subject's personality, which to me is the primary goal of portraiture.

From a technical standpoint, to my taste, the specular and shadow edge transfers are a little too hard. Only my opinion

WGRII

Ekeeton, Thanks for your input.

flathead27ford Loc: Colorado, North of Greeley

Nice, but would powder the two shiny areas on her face.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Nice expression. If you want a detailed critique and some editing ideas, I'll be please to make a few. suggestions.

Ed

WGRII

Mr. Shapiro,
Yes, I would greatly appreciate them.
Thank you,
Walter

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

My pleasure!

Nice casual portrait! Good job on the style and the expression. Some of the issues I am going to point out maybe because our monitors are no in synch so I'm basing it on what I see on my screen.

This is a medium key portrait. I mention this just to point out In a low-key portrait it is best to have the subject dress in darker clothing, use a darker background so the subject's face is the brights vale in the image and therefore will attract most of the attention. In a high key portrait the subject should wear white or light colours, the background is white or bright and the face is the darkest value in the image and that calls attention to the face.

A medium key portrait is somewhere in between. In your image, the sweater is the brightest value and the face is darker so basically, I (dodged) to lighten the face. The entire image was a bit dark so I increased the brightness. In this quick and dirty edit, the subject's expression, smile and eyes come through nicely. On my screen, the skin tone was a bit magenta/red so I correct the colour. This may show differently on your monitor,

The "portrait" purists say that the perfect high key subject is a person with a fair complexion, blue eyes and blond or light hair whereas a "perfect low key subject is a person with a dark complexion with dark eye and hair.

Your subject would make a prize-winning low or high key image! The way she is dressed in this shot, you did will to go with a gray background.

WGRII

Thank you very much for your critique. You professional opinion is greatly appreciated.

Craigdca Loc: California

Nice photo! I have a tip for managing shine that I used on a casual flash photo with friends. Basically use a soft brush set to about 10% opacity, and pick color from near the area to be fixed. Apply a little at a time to preference.