Rocker Chick

I thought I'd share my favorite photo to date with everyone, since I'm new here. This was Amanda, I shot her in the studio a few years ago. She was very sweet, and was a budding filmmaker who wanted some edgy pro-shots, and so this is what I gave her:

I really like this.

Just curious, but why do you talk about her in the past tense!?! Did she die?

The B&W high contrast looks good for that edgy feel, but I think the wild hair is a little too crazy.

yeah overall a good effort (glad the guitar is "plugged in") but the hair is crazy and kinda makes her look like she has beard...

A little more face would work for me. And the reflections on her shirt are distracting

What a great "look"! I agree with comments above, however, that a little more of her face showing would help the image.

I do a lot of venue and band shots. When you're shooting a guitarist, that guitar becomes part of the person in the shot. Therefore you have to be careful cutting off the neck of the guitar like we see here.

In a posed shot, I usually have them elevate the neck so it points up into the top right corner of the shot a bit. Then pull back enough to get it all in.

-Charles

THanks for the comments! Yeah this is probably my favorite shot ever that I've personally taken.

I agree that the reflections on her shirt are a bit distracting.

Just to answer some questions...

As for the guitar, this was not a shot about her guitar and she was not in a band - this was a shot about Amanda.

I speak of her in the past tense because she was someone I did a shoot for that I haven't spoken to but once since then.

The wind in the hair was from a fan, and we were going for a very edgy look here (hence the edgy lighting too) - the idea was to infer that the sound from the guitar was blowing her hair up. Also, I focused more on her eye than her face here - ther were other shots with her face and everything in them from that shoot.

Thanks guys

I understand that, but when she's holding the guitar it becomes part of HER! Cutting it off is no different than cutting off a hand or a foot. Head over to the "Performing Arts" section here and check out some of those shots. Notice the difference between the ones with the neck included in the shot.

-Charles

sorry but I have to agree with charlesml3 on this one... I like the photo however but it just would have been better with the gutiar

focus and charles - thanks for the opinnions. I disagree... this was not about "performing arts' or whatever, it was one shot in a series of shots for Amanda. I highly disagree that it's worse than cutting off a foot, lol - that would KILL a photo. putting the whole guitar here, IMHO, would have changed the dynamic angle of this shot, and made it less about Amanda and more about her guitar. This crop also puts her left hand in focus for the viewer and looks really cool.

But, that's an opinion thing, we can agree to disagree on it.

Thanks for the kudos

Well, I'm not going to argue with you about it. Talk to some other pro photographers and they'll tell you the same thing. It's the same as a photo of a child holding a toy and cutting part of that off.

By the way, it's a bit of an unwritten rule here on POTN: If you ask for C&C, don't get upset and argue about it when you get it. That's a good way to never get any more feedback.

-Charles

^^^ Argue away he's been banned. I find this is neither about Amanda since the face has been covered by that weird hair, no catch lights in the eyes (sorry had too) and it's not about the guitar since it's been cut it off. This picture is really not about anything other than what not to do with your lighting, your model and your composition.

Ha! ha! I didn't even see that. Geez, I wonder what he did to get banned?

One needs to have a bit of thick skin to post photos here and ask for C&C. You can't take it personally when someone points out a deficiency in a shot that you may really love.

-Charles

charlesml3 wrote in post #11624882
I do a lot of venue and band shots. When you're shooting a guitarist, that guitar becomes part of the person in the shot. Therefore you have to be careful cutting off the neck of the guitar like we see here.

In a posed shot, I usually have them elevate the neck so it points up into the top right corner of the shot a bit. Then pull back enough to get it all in.

-Charles

I agree with this here.