Trisha

[tyrsman]

Hello.
I'm new to photography, and did my first shoot with portable studio lighting. I would love to hear your thoughts.

[RSStory]

The first thing I notice is how soft the image is. it appears that you have too much light spilling on the background. The richer yellow on the image left is much nicer then the right side. The pose isnt really all that interesting and the prop is more of a distraction then it is a useful element of the shot. I think you need to experiment a little with controlling your light a little better. Good try for your first time. Keep shooting and it will get better.

Scott

[koriley]

I agree with RSStory, as a general rule, when shooting people you should try to get your focus point on her eyes. It looks like here the focus is on her left (image right) boob. Now I like boobs as much as then next guy, but for photos the eyes should be the sharpest focus, when possible.

And for the lighting, you might want to try something larger in front of your main light, a soft box helps, but I have found that a large sheet of ripstop works even better, it will help separate model from back ground while keeping a smoother color in the back ground.

Hope I helped a little...

[tyrsman]

Thanks for the tips guys. Some stuff that you pointed out I did from suggestions of other photographers, and next time I'll try to incorporate some of your tips and see how they go. As far as there being to much lighting, next time I'll lower the intensity on my strobe and see if that works better. I did use a fill light on the other side but I think the main strobe was too overpowering. I also lightened the pic a bit and added a bit more yellow in post. I'm going to check the original shot again and compare the lighting. As far as the trophy in the picture, the shoot was done to promote the model who is a fitness competitor, so we did a couple of shots with the trophy in it. Thanks for taking the time to critique, I need all the help I can get since I'm just working by trial and error.

[r_fredrick_smith]

When using props, try to integrate the prop into the photo. In other words it must add to the photo not detract. If this is a trophy she's won, then design a pose that is more real to life. Is she proudly showing the trophy? If so, then have her give it more prominence. Also the leaning pose doesn't work very well as she looks off balance. For fitness competitors, work on a shot with more shadows to define the muscle tone.



cheers,
rfs