Better female portraits.

[geneticspecies]

I've been testing my Speedlight on my girlfriend again. I know the background it kind of distracting, but I can't do much about that at the moment. I think the quality of the images when bouncing the flash off the wall/celing is excellent though. I think my girlfriend is more relaxed in front of the camera now too... so overall the most recent pictures are better than my previous attempts. Here are two:

http://www.v12digital.com/Photos/LorraineSitting.jpg

http://www.v12digital.com/Photos/belt.jpg

[cmM]

Not bad. The first shot is very good, techically (your gf's expression is a lil scary :-P;))

[geneticspecies]

lol, why's her expression scary?

[cmM]

her eyes are halfway closed and she looks like she's about to attack you :D

[jgbeam]

The background on the first shot works very well, IMO. I like this shot a lot. On the second one, tha background is very distracting (is that the Pope back there?) and ruins the shot, again, IMO.

Jim

[geneticspecies]

http://www.v12digital.com/Photos/lorraine0055.jpg

[DocFrankenstein]

Cluttered background

[charlesu]

Love the 1st one!

[drisley]

Me too . Love #1.

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

1st one is great! Good job!

[eljustino]

The lighting is great, especially if you're just using a flashgun.

[Nightcrawler]

First one turned out great

[PhotosGuy]

I've been testing my Speedlight on my girlfriend again. :D:D Yeah. I used that line a few times 40 years ago!

I like the first one.

[Dante King]

Ditto first shot!

Very funny PhotosGuy!

[tim]

Not too bad at all. It's a bit flat for my liking - i'd like to see some shadows somewhere in the picture. I've no idea how to do that with a single flash, maybe by rotating it - worth a go anyway. I haven't tried myself.

[Wazza]

First definately the best. :)

Heh, Tim, I'll be looking forward to your demonstration of shadows. I'm not into people shots myself, as I don't have the flash gun or strobes of any kind. I'll have to learn from someone like you.

[tim]

Heh, Tim, I'll be looking forward to your demonstration of shadows. I'm not into people shots myself, as I don't have the flash gun or strobes of any kind. I'll have to learn from someone like you.

Nah i'm not the person to learn from, I know what I like but i'm not at the stage yet where I can do it. If pressed i'd say use natural light where possible, or multiple light sources if not, taking advantage of any light that's around already.

People are hard to do well.

[peter/c]

Love the first shot, nice pose.
Peter.

[jO3]

Cool! I'm a fan of using the sofa as a location for shooting! And that sofa is beautiful!

I really only have two little nitpicks that I can say about the first pic... I think a dark (maroon or black) pillow on the couch on the left side of the frame would have been a perfect offset to match her wardrobe, and second, her arm looks a bit surreal to me... Not sure whether it's because of the contrast of colors between everything else in the picture, or because her skin looks so FLAWLESS!

Excellent shot!

As for the second two, the background is a bit cluttered, but since you just wanted to demonstrate your ability of bouncing light with your flash, they're good captures! My only advice, however, is to try to avoid black outfits when shooting a subject, because there really aren't any definitive points for the eye to reference to when looking at the picture...

I'd love to see what kind of pictures you could get in a room with white walls! Ooh, and try this: Try shooting a picture of your gf through the bathroom mirror while bouncing the flash off the ceiling...