Paid Job (Studio) CC Welcome

Second time they hire me.

What do you think?

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The only input i have is concerning the 2nd to last photo, the blonde with the headphones and eyebrow piercing. She has a stray hair on her left eyelid, and a few stray hairs on her forehead and cheek. There is also a weird shadow on her nose (her left side) from the eyelashes that make it look like she's got a bulge there. Also, maybe some skin touchup needed on her as well.

I love #4!

They are all very nice. In #1 it looks like the lips and teeth may be over sharpened a bit. In #2 I'd darken and widen her right eyebrow to match her left. And I'd tone down the dark shadow at the corner of her left eye.

I'd say that they should hire you again. Nice work.

No. 1
Looks like the shutter curtain clipped the sensor?
I think it could do with some cropping, I personally would also get my doge tool, select it to lighten highlights, and get rid of the vignetting where the background hasn't blown out.
IMO you either blow out all the background pure white or you don't have any of it blown out.
Nice exposure on subject.

No. 2
Over exposed subject, vignetting, weird nose shadow from incorrect soft box position & and lack of fill. If you would have raised the softbox up a little you would have had loop lighting, instead you'v got sort of split lighting, but you have illuminated too much of the right side of her face with the main flash.

No. 4
I really like this one, although the background might be creating a little too much wrap as she's almost blending in with the background because she was too close to it. If you struggle for space, a solid grey background looks really nice, especially with a sympathetic background light, this will avoid wrap issues.

No. 3
Not bad, but has weird nose shadow, and suffer from some of the previously mentioned issues.

All in all though, not bad, but plenty to be improved upon...

rhys216 wrote in post #11965635
No. 1
Looks like the shutter curtain clipped the sensor?
I think it could do with some cropping, I personally would also get my doge tool, select it to lighten highlights, and get rid of the vignetting where the background hasn't blown out.
IMO you either blow out all the background pure white or you don't have any of it blown out.
Nice exposure on subject.

No. 2
Over exposed subject, vignetting, weird nose shadow from incorrect soft box position & and lack of fill. If you would have raised the softbox up a little you would have had loop lighting, instead you'v got sort of split lighting, but you have illuminated too much of the right side of her face with the main flash.

No. 4
I really like this one, although the background might be creating a little too much wrap as she's almost blending in with the background because she was too close to it. If you struggle for space, a solid grey background looks really nice, especially with a sympathetic background light, this will avoid wrap issues.

No. 3
Not bad, but has weird nose shadow, and suffer from some of the previously mentioned issues.

All in all though, not bad, but plenty to be improved upon...

Thanks bud! I needed that, got way to cocky. Would you recommend any sort of guide on how to use studio equipment? I am not really a studio photographer, I am definetely not a studio photographer. I only had two flashes to use, one with a softbox and one to blow out the background. Shot in a tiny, tiny studio. I think I could have given better light if I would have had another softbox on my right side. I had to use my 430 to fill out the right side of the pic.

And no it wasn't the shutter, albeit I thought so at first. It was simply my body cutting of the light from the right side or something. I have tested the 5d afterwards and all those pics look fine.

No probs, I suffered (sometimes still do) from the condition known as 'cocky' (it can be good for confidence, which is good for your pictures as the subject will have confidence in you, but if you don't keep a reign on it, it can also get you out of your depth and in trouble.

As the studio was tiny, you shouldn't have been trying to blow out the background, in your situation I would have gone with maybe Rembrandt or loop lighting, and used a reflector for fill. I would have then used the second flash on the background on a low power for a nice smooth gradient and some background separation.
If the background is a little messy you can shoot wide open to knock it out of focus which will blur it and smooth it out.

With regards to the black banding, some flashes/strobes have longer flash durations which means if your shooting at your max-sync speed you may get black banding, also sometimes the same flash will have varying flash durations from shot to shot, so you can have 9 images perfectly exposed across the whole sensor, you might get 2 or 3 shots with banding.

Your images don't have any exif info, but at a guess I'd say you were shooting at 1/200, so to avoid banding you should be shooting at 1/160 (maybe 1/125 to be safe) of a second.

I found the below DVD was helpful in learning different lighting techniques, and positions, and will provide a good foundation.
http://www.kelbytraini​ng.com …er/course\184/l​esson\2608

Image 1. She looks like a cut and paste because her hair has no defined edges. The hand and flowers are closer to the camera than what the subject is which is a no no. The rule about props is they should not dominate, or call attention to themselves and usually should be on the opposite side of the camera. IMHO they don't enhance it they detract from it. Lastly the main light was too low.

Benji