My Friend Flo

Hi guys,

Last week a friend of mine asked me to take some portrait shots of her. As I needed to practice (and still do) I accepted.

Here is one shot from the session. Any critique or comment is welcome.
Thanks fr watching and sharing.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/dominique_a/13​168139905/

why did you chop the top of her head ? other than that nice

Super job on the lighting and pose. Personally, I find the white too stark/bright for women this age. I would do more neutral. I think she might be a bit underexposed also. To see the effect of gray (and exposure boost)...

Nice edit Spike. I agree that a darker background, as well as the exposure bump, is more flattering for her.

When you aren't working with a makeup artist you may want to consider some skin smoothing and shine reduction This quick example is a tad overcooked.

I like the shot, her expression is nice and I agree the darker background works well. One tip for future shoots, it's good to have a bit powdered make-up on hand, there is a bit of shine on her forehead and under her eyes.

Did you use a silver modifier for your flash/strobe?

Did you take any sideways so that you didn't cut off the top of her head? It's called "Portrait framing". ; )

ohh very nice edit George.

A tweak on the WB and I think it adds to a better skin tone..she is still to blue.

First, thank you all very much for your comments and critiques. What you're telling me is priceless as I realize things that I didn't think of during the shoot or the edit.

At that moment I thought I was a little bit out of space (I shot in my living room!.
But I like it like that finally.

Thank you for your comment and for your edit: it's just great! You're right the backgroung is too bright now you showed it to me. May I ask how you did that?

Thanks for your feedack.

You're right. We noticed it but she got sunburnt the day before the shoot and every time my girlfriend tried to make her up, our friend was shinning very quickly... I tried to correct that in post processing but did not want to go too far with this.

Sure. Thank you for your comment.

No. the setup was:
- 1 flash bounced to umbrella (inside is silver)
- 1 flash to the backgroup (my wall is not clear)
- 1 golden reflector slightly behind her (to fill in the sahdows on her neck)

Sorry I don't understand what you mean (take a sideway?). But I think I answered this question sooner in this post.

Thanks for the tip!


Really, thank you everyone for your feedbacks. I really like the edit you made (even if I'm not a big fan of AZGoerge's the skin retouching).
I really appreciate your words and I'll try to take your advice into account for my future shots.