Senior Portraits with Justin. C&C Please!

This was my first senior shoot. We had a really good time shooting these. I think I was as nervous as she was but it ended up being a lot of fun. Let me know what you think, and be honest... You wont hurt my feelings! Honest, constructive criticism is the ONLY way I can ever get better at this!

Thanks!

1.)

i think you have to spend more time thinking about finding the right lighting situation.
i like the crop and composition in #2 but you took a bunch in harsh sunlight. the shadows are very hard. you should always look for "open shade" and use a reflector to give the face a slight ratio. the studio shots arnt bad.

i think they could be better but they are not that bad. fairly well done.

Just simply amazingly done.

I definitely appreciate the comment's recieved so far. Thanks for taking the time to look! Constructive comments are still more than welcome!

Thanks Again
-Derek

I think for a first time shoot you did a good job the, take what I have to say with a grain of salt since I am no uber professional.

I like #1 except for the angle of the image. It seems a little unflattering for your senior, I think a higher angle would make her appear a bit more slim; not that she is larger it just isn't that flattering to me.

#2 is great, the only thing that is distracting is the weed or whatever it is going through her face.

#3 has tremendous possiblities, I love the concept. Maybe just a little fill on the subject.

#4 looks great and might only be improved with a reflect to the right side (her left)

#5 might need a little fill, and photoshop out the transformer in the BG.

I hope this is helpful. Again, I too am still learning and I might be way off with my advice. Feel free to tear my recent post apart, lol.
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=601027

Thank you for taking the time to discuss each image. I appreciate it!

It's these things that will help me grow, and let me know whether I'm on the right path or if I need to cut back to the drawing board! I'm still a little unsure... lol

- Derek

1) Crop tighter - chest up. The focus is on her face and the bulging belly needn't be in the picture. The nose shadow extends a bit too far as well.

2) Don't make the straw cross her face, move the cam to the right a bit. Awesome split lighting.

3) Textbook example of when to use the pop-up flash. Maybe move the camera up a bit to get less flare - you'll still get a cool sunset look with the rimlight, but you'll be able to see your subject.

4) I like, but shirts should be ironed.

5) Note the two poles growing out of her head and the square shoulders. Pose her against green bush in that outfit.

6) The right eye is too shadowed. Why did you use two backgrounds?

7) Same shadow problem. Move her head a bit more to the camera so that the nose doesn't break into the corner of the eye.

Thank you doc, a lot of really great advice in your post, and a lot of things that I didn't notice right away.

I don't know about horsey picture.

James Salenger wrote in post #6735285
I don't know about horsey picture.

you don't know about it?

Well I appreciate you taking the time to look nonetheless.

Just as a follow-up, I delivered the proof-book for these yesterday afternoon, and by today I had booked 2 more sessions as result of people seeing the book. That made me feel kind of good.

But please... if anyone else has any comments, I'm all ears!

Thanks again,

- Derek