Heather in Reflection

[tbird]

One of my very first portrait attempts. Natural light from a doorway to the right frames her face. Image is a mirror reflection. Taken on tripod with Canon 20D with a 24-70mm f/2.8 L lens at ISO 100 @70mm and shutter at 1/25 sec. Comments from someone who knows what they are doing are welcome! This is an area I want to improve in......I usually do landscapes! But with the 20D this seems like a natural extension.

[tim]

I like it, but whatever's heavily blurred out near her face is quite distracting. One thing that often works well with reflections is to get the thing (person) in reflection and without - ie two images of them. Otherwise it's just a person inverted about the vertical axis (I forget non-engineer talk sometimes).

[psk4363]

The lighting is very good, the pose equally so, but (and correct me if I'm wrong) the vignette effect you've added (Photoshop?) doesn't work at all. You have all you need for a lovely portrait right before you without the need to complicate matters.

Looking at the background (the reflection) the warmth of the lighting and the colours on the wall don't sit too well with the clothing that Heather is wearing - there's to much of a conflict/clash going on for it all to harmonise. She should wear more natural, warmer, colours. As for Heather herself she has a Mona Lisa enigmatic smile and great eyes and clearly there is potential there in her for some really wonderful images. Just be careful of the distracting two areas - the bright patch on her neck (to our right as we look at her) and the slightly burned out hair to the upper right.

Just MHO but I hope it helps.

Barry

[Dimitry]

I like this photo! Cool

[Mills]

It is interesting yet distracting. It seems to me that my attention is drawn away from your beautiful subject by the surroundings and I think it would be better the other way around.

[Dimitry]

See what I think this photo creates is the perception that the subject is almost unreal, a dream what have you. Kind of that "mirror mirror on the wall.." thing going on.

[tbird]

A second shot....available light plus bounce flash. Any better?

[psk4363]

Much better!

Barry

[charlesu]

She is a beautiful model but I am distracted by what looks like selective sharpening and softening. For example, in the second shot her eyes and to a lesser extent her teeth really pop as sharp. The rest is very soft. This looks incongruous and detracts from her beauty and the otherwise well executed portrait.

[D4VE]

Yes that looks very odd to me. I dont like that effect.

[Richard51]

Personally, I like the fist one best. But then, I'm an amatuer.
Richard