promo shots c&c please

sineadw

Hi all. I was asked to do some shots for a singer/songwriter a while back. She's asked as a favour to keep most of them private, but she'll be using the following. Not all my favourites, but hey she paid for them

I'm looking for general feedback as I've been asked since for similar. I'm not entirely happy with them. The lens is a little soft I think and I had to do some quite heavy sharpening. I also did some retouching to skin tone and evenness. Are either very noticeable to your eye? Also, I haven't quite got to grips with the DoF, which is obvious in a few. I'm still struggling with sacrificing ISO for stops.

I'd also like some feedback on composition, black and white conversion and anything else that jumps out. I won't post them all here but the rest are at http://pix.ie/sineadw/album/324152

Thanks in advance...

(this first one's b&w film...)

Dragan

The 3rd shot is the best for me. Good composition, nice colours, pretty sharp and does a nice job of portraying the old whimsical nature of your average musician. I would maybe crop out a lot of the tree under her hands but thats just me.

The second one i REALLY like but it is slightly soft i think.

hussey

3rd for me also, good composition, and has a natural feel to it.

4th didn't really do anything for me - as a musician shot. As it seems like a standard portrait shot.

2nd is a bit more mysterious and a nice contrast B&W. which can give a 'gritty' feel. the focus does seem to be on the hair/eye rather than the eye/nose area.

ttcomet

1) The grate on the wall behind her is distracting and I think it draws the eye away from her. Maybe clone out what ever is on the ground on the bottom right of the picture. Her pose is spot on though the smile really lights up her face.

2) The background starts to go really weird right at her eye line, it goes from a matt black to a sort of odd grey/black. The pic is also a little soft. And her neck chin looks oddly lit. Maybe try a reflector just under her neck to fill in the shadow. I think this would have been the best picture if the lens was not so soft. Just out of interest what was the lens?

3) I think this one is very good. But I can see right up her nose and I am not sure if that is good in a publicity shot. I also think there is a slight green cast to her skin especially on her neck in this photo.

4) I like this one the most. But again her neck/chin is very dark and could do with been lighter. Did you fire the flash straight at her? Was it diffused at all? It looks very unflattering on her upper lip and teeth. Depending on how far you want to take the pp maybe smooth out the skin on her lip and whiten her teeth up a bit.

All the pictures are very well posed you really seem to have a great knack of getting them spot on.

sasar

#2 I wish the focus was on the eye
#3 is nice

CabanSail

1/ Like the feel of this shot. It does seem a bit flat. Maybe a better Mono Conversion would improve it. The noise suits the image (was it added?)

2/ Pity about the shallow DOF. Could have been really good.

3/ Cropping some of the tree below the hand is a good idea. Well framed. Is there another shot where she engages with the camera?

4/ Nice portrait shot. Being picky here ... Seems to be a bit overexposed on her right cheek (I am not looking on a calibrated monitor) The shine from the flash on her nose & left cheek could be reduced a bit.

sineadw

ttcomet wrote: »

1)

2) The background starts to go really weird right at her eye line, it goes from a matt black to a sort of odd grey/black.

Really? I can't see it on this screen. This particular one has been a real pain for me - looking *completely* different on each monitor I've looked on (about 6 now..). This is my favourite of the bunch too. Damn miss on the focus :mad: There's a better one in the private ones. I REALLY need a good monitor though. The lens was a sigma 24-70 2.8 ex and the flash was camera mounted, so yeah - straight on (well - bounced off the ceiling..). I had an omnibounce and was underexposing with the flash (is that the term you use for flash?) so I was hoping it wouldn't be too harsh. Damn..

Ditto on the tree one too - I have one of her looking at the camera but she prefers this one. She was painfully camera shy. I tried cropping the tree out and it did look better, but I wanted to keep the normal ratio. Not sure if its important in the grand scheme of things, but she wants to print some stuff so normal ratio seemed better..

@ cabansail. The first one is B&W film and is pretty much as taken. It was 100 iso so the grain was quite a pleasant surprise

Thanks all for the feedback - I'll be keeping it all in mind next time. Its a very *very* steep learning curve huh? Defo wider DoF next time, and use the reflector more.. I think I might switch back to the 50 1.4 too till I get to grips with the other one..

Borderfox

3rd and 4th look great, they look well together too. It all about experimenting too and finding your feet, to be honest if I was doing the same job I would stick to primes and use natural light and a reflector but thats just me..:)

RCNPhotos

1st and 3rd for me, and like someone said I'd crop out some of the tree under her hand. 2nd the expression doesn't do it for me, not very flattering looking. And I like the 4th but again as someone said doesn't scream musician. But good over all, definitely.