Very first photo shoot

I'm more used to candid photography. As well as photographing inanimate objects. That said...
A friend of mine recently lost a decent amount of weight. So she contacted me and asked me to take a few "better than snapshot quality" photos of her for an modeling agency. She didnt want anything too fancy. I explained I would love the experience, but promised nothing spectacular. Here are the first couple.

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To be honest, the only thing that really makes these better than snapshots to me is the shallow DOF, and the composition of the first image (rule of thirds).

The lighting on the subject is pretty flat. To create interesting images, you must also create interesting shadows. (Paraphrased from Sly Arena)

The posing of the first image seems a little odd to me as well - she is slightly facing the camera left, which is the side that you framed to be missing, and all the dead space is behind her. If you left her in the same position, I would have preferred that she was facing the other direction (camera right) instead, where it would have given her a sense of somewhere to go...

I wanted honesty. I have no experience with this at all. Thank you for your input. Time to study and practice.

I would suggest that you take the time to learn how to "pose" your subjects to show their good points...you haven't done that with this photo. There's more to photography than focus and exposure.

I googled this for suggestions... http://www.google.com …07eb252&biw=256​0&bih=1268

Thank you

You shouldn't remove the photos you posted, makes for a useless thread

I didnt remove the photos. They are still showing up for me. I will check my flickr settings..

Flo wrote in post #14606061
You shouldn't remove the photos you posted, makes for a useless thread

+1... I've mentioned this very thing in other threads.

Just because they aren't PERFECT! or GREAT! images, doesn't mean that other people can't learn from them as well, but removing the pictures it makes all of the input provided useless to others

EDIT: I saw them this morning (obviously, when I posted), but I can't see them now either... The link works when I click on them, but they aren't showing as embedded images in the thread.

They should be working

They are now.

Why put her in a bikini? It makes no sense to me, it does not flatter her at all. She is quite pale, so get her into a bright solid color to either accentuate her eyes or the Bg. Her hair needs to be brushed out , does she need her glasses for photos?
Think about the setting you have her in, it has to compliment her. All the things you have her in now do nothing to add interest to her. She is a pretty gal, and kudos to her for the weight loss. Now get her back and flatter her!
Check out some of the poses etc in the People/Family forum here, there are alot of great ideas and concepts.

I agree with you on the swim suit. She was asked to provide photos of her in a 2 piece.
As far as location.
We went to the beach (she couldnt get there until the sun was below the tree line) Once she arived, there were a lot of people near the water, so she decided to do the shoot up near the tree line.
My idea had been to get her out on the rocks. for a more interesting background.
She also requested that I not edit anything in terms of skin tone/curves/moles etc.
She wants the agency to see all her "flaws" <---- not my wording.

Thank you all for your input

When you are the photographer of people, you should have the input to decide where and when you shoot her to the best of your abilities. You need to make her feel comfortable with you and your decisions.Even if the agency wanted a two piece bathing suit, this style was all wrong for her, as was the color.
I was not suggesting you change anything that is natural on her, just to put her in setting that would bring out all those"flaws" beautifully.

Thank you Flo. I will do my research, and check out the poses in the forum. This was a last minute shoot. She usually has her sister take her pics but she was not going to be available. She has since asked if I could do some more for her. So I guess I will be using her as my photography guinea pig. <--- She is ok with this.

I dont know what is going on with my flickr account. If the photos are not showing. I did not remove them. It says i deleted them on my flickr page. However, I didnt.