Exceptional work!!! I think you have the business "profile handled". You just need clients!
Mark
Dahveed wrote:
Please critique my first home studio portraits taken this Christmas with an actual human being and not a mannequin head. These high-key portraits of my niece were shot with a Canon 80D, EF50mm f/1.4 USM lens, and 2 Flashpoint speedlites: one key and one fill triggered by a Flashpoint R2 Pro. The speedlites were attached to a Godox 32x32 inch softbox diffuser and a 30-inch silver umbrella. I also used a 32-inch round reflector, to fill the shadow under her neck, in the shot where you can see 3 catchlights in her eyes. A JTL 160 strobe blasted the white seamless paper background. PortraitPro Studio 18 helped smooth her skin tones as I'm not yet up to speed on related Photoshop techniques.
Be as brutally honest as you care to be. As a retiree, I'd love to channel this hobby into a small business.
Please critique my first home studio portraits tak... (
show quote)
overly retouched; too much skin smoothing to my eye.
Dahveed wrote:
Please critique my first home studio portraits taken this Christmas with an actual human being and not a mannequin head. These high-key portraits of my niece were shot with a Canon 80D, EF50mm f/1.4 USM lens, and 2 Flashpoint speedlites: one key and one fill triggered by a Flashpoint R2 Pro. The speedlites were attached to a Godox 32x32 inch softbox diffuser and a 30-inch silver umbrella. I also used a 32-inch round reflector, to fill the shadow under her neck, in the shot where you can see 3 catchlights in her eyes. A JTL 160 strobe blasted the white seamless paper background. PortraitPro Studio 18 helped smooth her skin tones as I'm not yet up to speed on related Photoshop techniques.
Be as brutally honest as you care to be. As a retiree, I'd love to channel this hobby into a small business.
Please critique my first home studio portraits tak... (
show quote)
Any critique that I would have would be minor, and fall under the 'attention to detail' heading : in #1, I would slide the right hand down to the elbow. This would look more natural, and eliminate a distracting highlight. On 2 & 3, I concur with other comments regarding the back of the hands. It's always better to show the hands in profile if possible so that they are less distracting. I also agree about the hole in the hair.(again, a slight distraction). Exposure and focus are right on. And most people would love to have images of themselves as good as these!
Very good, I think your up to it thank you.
Nicely done. When I started professionally 40+ years ago Monte Zucker told me that you never show the back of a woman's hand. It's masculine. If you have the woman comfortably extend her left hand to you palm down and you place your right thumb in her palm, place your right index finger on the back of her wrist and gently push up with your thumb and down with your index finger her hand will be in a perfect position to be placed where you please and will look perfectly graceful and feminine. No charge!!!
Excellent images! Beautiful young woman!
They each look good to me but I'm no portrait expert but can see there's certainly some helpful comments here.
But what did your niece think of them?
Nice Images. Good work.
Don
Excellent work. I do want to comment on points that have already been mentioned. Hands are the most difficult part to photograph. Yes, showing the back side of the hand appears masculine. Done properly, it can also appear feminine. Your placement of her hands in photos 1 and 3 are excellent. In photo #2, looks broken. To hide the hands can make them look amputated. Planet earth has one sun, so one catch light will look pleasing in a portrait. Preferably at the 10 or 2 o'clock position. Looks like your communications skills are excellent. Expressions make the difference between a bad portrait and an excellent one. These are excellent. Great job. :)
The photos are great but I think the background is to bright.
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