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 07/27/2005 05:05:38 PM · #1
Over the 4th of July weekend I had my first two paid photoshoots with some friends.

I would love to get some feedback on:
A) The overall quality of the shoots
B) Individual images (either the ones I posted or any that you like)

Now, I realize I have a LOT of images up from both shoots, but mainly because since they're based around the costumes, I try to give them as many pictures as possible so that they can use their favorites.

**Please note that the site I uploaded them to originally let me upload them at 640pixels on the largest side, but then recently automatically resized them down to 600px. I am very upset, as this has reduced the quality of some of the images, so please, don't pay attention to JPEG artifacts, as they most likely weren't there originally.**

I picked out a few of my favorites and/or ones that are a good overal representation of the shoot.

Shoot 1: Courtney/LadyAmaryllis as Padmé Amidala from Star Wars: Episode II
For this shoot she wanted pictures that showed off the colors in the dress and also how it flowed in the wind. She likes the pictures, but was unhappy with the dress and wants to do another shoot when she remakes it. Some of the pictures are softened because I was trying to help some wrinkles not show, and it added a nice effect.


The rest of the shoot is here.

Shoot 2: Victoria/Oracle as Duo Maxwell from Gundam Wing
She just wanted some good shots of the costume and we also tried to get some nice in-character photos. She was really happy with the results. I posted both the color and black and white versions because the costume and setting worked so well with that, but I also really loved the color, so I put both up to let her decide which she wanted.


The rest of the shoot is here.
 07/27/2005 05:11:24 PM · #2
I'm just going to comment on the first shoot (just cause I'm lazy :-). Her clothing presents so many awesome opportunities. She's beautiful and your shots are nice, but I think you could've got much more dynamic shots by creating more fluid movement from her dress and hair. You can see in your last shot how much more interesting it is just by catching a breeze. I picture her running or spinning - throwing the hem into the wind.....would be spectacular. It's handy to have someone standing nearby to throw around her dress while you snap away..sometimes I lay on the ground and shoot directly up for those shots so the material fills the frame in unpredictable ways.

Maybe that's not your style, tho.


Message edited by author 2005-07-27 17:13:14.
 07/27/2005 05:20:19 PM · #3
This one is my favourite, although I'm not sure about cropping her left hand.

This is also very good.

The model seems to be looking down/away from the camera a lot, which I'm not too keen on. Although technically very good I don't think they connect well with the viewer.

This is really excellent.
 07/27/2005 05:40:03 PM · #4
You've got yourself some nice shots there!

The first set though is too overexposed... to the point that the colours are really washed out. I hope you don't mind, but I just played a bit with the levels of this wonderful pic you have there, just to make the colours more vivid :)



Message edited by author 2005-07-27 17:55:40.
 07/27/2005 05:54:08 PM · #5
While there is an obvious artistic intent in both the shoots, there are some unforgiving issues that take away from them as well.

the skin tones seem to vary a lot in shoot 1 which makes me wonder if you are shooting in AWB. some shots also feel as if the skin was fairly overexpose and often of a pinkish hue. some aspects of the architecture could also be cloned out to better express your original idea (fire hoses for example).

detail, detail, detail. less is more.... I've often stated that taking the time to truly establish the shot is far more advantageous than taking many shots in hopes of the "good one".

all an all, I have to commend you on a very apealing artistic vision.

Message edited by author 2005-07-27 17:54:35.
 07/27/2005 06:03:57 PM · #6
Perhaps you can blur the backgrounds (gradient? i don't know) a bit in photoshop, because as of now the focus draws my attention to the background almost as much as it does to your subjects.

Nice job, though :)
 07/27/2005 08:00:41 PM · #7
Originally posted by GoldBerry:
I'm just going to comment on the first shoot (just cause I'm lazy :-). Her clothing presents so many awesome opportunities. She's beautiful and your shots are nice, but I think you could've got much more dynamic shots by creating more fluid movement from her dress and hair. You can see in your last shot how much more interesting it is just by catching a breeze. I picture her running or spinning - throwing the hem into the wind.....would be spectacular. It's handy to have someone standing nearby to throw around her dress while you snap away..sometimes I lay on the ground and shoot directly up for those shots so the material fills the frame in unpredictable ways.

Maybe that's not your style, tho.

*nods* I definately know what you mean about more dynamic shots. There was a combination of things that kept that from happening (I was a bit nervous, she is very self-conscious and nervous during shoots, and I didn't have an assistant with me this time - which helps with so many things), that I will try and work on for next time. Thanks for the suggestions! I'm still new at this and learning as I go, so every little bit helps!

Originally posted by PaulMdx:
This one is my favourite, although I'm not sure about cropping her left hand.

This is also very good.

The model seems to be looking down/away from the camera a lot, which I'm not too keen on. Although technically very good I don't think they connect well with the viewer.

This is really excellent.

The first one...yeah, the cropping on that bothered me too, but it presented the dress well and her expression was pretty good, so I elected to post it.

I noticed that they were looking off a lot too, and I'm not sure why...since I love capturing people's eyes. For Courtney I think I did it a lot because a) that's how she posed and b) it seemed to fit better with the costume. For Victoria I tried to get a lot more of her looking at me, because I realized early on in the shoot that I was taking a bunch of her being distanced, and that did not fit the character she was dressed as at all.

I think it has to do with the fact that once I have them start to look at me, I am not sure what to do with the rest of their bodies. I mean, after the original full body and headshot, where do I go from there? That's what always pops into my head. And if they don't have another pose prepared (which sometimes they do), I'm at a loss.

Thanks!

Originally posted by harrisxan:
You've got yourself some nice shots there!

The first set though is too overexposed... to the point that the colours are really washed out. I hope you don't mind, but I just played a bit with the levels of this wonderful pic you have there, just to make the colours more vivid :)

Thank you!

*nods* I noticed that when editing, but I was faced with either lowering the levels like you did, and getting the darker skin tone (she is really as pale as I have it) and loosing detail in the hair, or go with what it actually looked like that day. It was a very bright morning and I prefer, in general, brighter photos, so I kept it that way. Perhaps I will lower the levels some later though, because it does seem a bit bright...

Originally posted by Gil P:
While there is an obvious artistic intent in both the shoots, there are some unforgiving issues that take away from them as well.

the skin tones seem to vary a lot in shoot 1 which makes me wonder if you are shooting in AWB. some shots also feel as if the skin was fairly overexpose and often of a pinkish hue. some aspects of the architecture could also be cloned out to better express your original idea (fire hoses for example).

detail, detail, detail. less is more.... I've often stated that taking the time to truly establish the shot is far more advantageous than taking many shots in hopes of the "good one".

all an all, I have to commend you on a very apealing artistic vision.

The skin tone in Shoot 1 was an issue I had problems with. What is AWB? Auto White Balance? If that's it, then yes. Then during editing I was trying to boost the saturation for the dress, and then ran into over-saturated cheeks, so it was a bit of a problem...

I dislike cloning things from my images, and try to avoid them when shooting to begin with, but I'm still working on training myself to look for them. Sometimes I remember, and sometimes I'm looking at 500 other things and don't realize it's there. I know what you mean when you say take the time to set-up. That too I need to work on, because I always have problems envisioning what I want until I have the person there, and then I feel like I need to keep shooting (and not stand there and just stare around me as I try to figure something out), so they don't get uncomfortable. But, that's one reason I shoot a lot though, because as I am shooting other things, I come-up with ideas for even better shots.

Thanks. ^_^

Originally posted by brianlh:
Perhaps you can blur the backgrounds (gradient? i don't know) a bit in photoshop, because as of now the focus draws my attention to the background almost as much as it does to your subjects.

Nice job, though :)

Yeah...that's on reason I'm itching to get a DSLR, I just don't have as much DOF control with my camera as I would like...But then again, I don't have money for a DSLR either...

However, since I can't do it very easily in-camera, I tried to make the backgrounds work with the shots (hence why I was on that concrete balcony for most of both shoots, because it was such a plain background with not many distracting elements). And if I tried to blur the backgrounds in PS...well, that would take quite awhile. ^^;;

Thank you. ^_^
 07/27/2005 08:07:33 PM · #8
I like the images from the first shoot better than the second and I have to agree with harrisxan's observations (and I love the darker, more vivid colors). I also echo GoldBerry's comments about making better use of the fluidity of the beautiful dress. Still, all in all, nice creative work.
 07/27/2005 08:18:14 PM · #9
Originally posted by AmiYuy:
Yeah...that's on reason I'm itching to get a DSLR, I just don't have as much DOF control with my camera as I would like...But then again, I don't have money for a DSLR either...

However, since I can't do it very easily in-camera, I tried to make the backgrounds work with the shots (hence why I was on that concrete balcony for most of both shoots, because it was such a plain background with not many distracting elements). And if I tried to blur the backgrounds in PS...well, that would take quite awhile. ^^;;


I almost commented on the DOF control in-camera until I noticed that you indeed did not have a dSLR. Doing it in PS could be a pain, but it may pay off (maybe you can try it on one? blur and then add a gradient to the mask) - but you certainly did do well to get them to work considering what you had to work with.
 07/27/2005 10:16:56 PM · #10
NEVER use auto WB, it's so much easier to find the WB that is the closest to your shooting situation because when you get into post, they all are very close to one and other.

Cloning stuff out is an intricate part of glamour photo.

There is nothing wrong in taking the time to set up the shot. On some commercial stuff I do for the L'Oreal group, it can take several hours just to get 1 shot ready, doing it right on the first try, takes just as long as getting right on the 300th shot.

Keep on shooting, your much much much better than I was when I had as much experience as you did.

and don't worry about not having an SLR, your camera offers full control on aperture...so you can get control on your DOF

Message edited by author 2005-07-27 22:18:15.
 07/28/2005 05:46:53 AM · #11
Originally posted by Gil P:
NEVER use auto WB, it's so much easier to find the WB that is the closest to your shooting situation because when you get into post, they all are very close to one and other.

Cloning stuff out is an intricate part of glamour photo.

There is nothing wrong in taking the time to set up the shot. On some commercial stuff I do for the L'Oreal group, it can take several hours just to get 1 shot ready, doing it right on the first try, takes just as long as getting right on the 300th shot.

Keep on shooting, your much much much better than I was when I had as much experience as you did.

and don't worry about not having an SLR, your camera offers full control on aperture...so you can get control on your DOF

Hm...I've never tried adjusting the WB other than when I first started because it was always making the pictures too blue or too whatever, so I stopped messing with it. I'll keep that in mind. Definately would make it easier to process...

*shrugs* I guess...I just don't like the idea of removing things...I'm a perfectionist, but one that likes to get things done right to begin with. Granted, I have started removing dark circles from beneath eyes (the healing tool is love), so I guess that's a step in that direction, I just like the thought of taking a beautiful picture to begin with. I want to learn how to do it without needing to clone, and just being able to take things out in post won't make me work harder to learn to look for that when taking the photo and to avoid it.

*nods* I realize that I probably should slow down and take a bit more time...I am working on it, I've gotten a lot better with stopping and setting-up first before taking than I was. I think my 35mm B&W class helped with that, didn't have 400+ shots available to "waste."

Thank you. *blushes*

Oh, and yeah, I do have aperture control...*sighs* I just haven't messed with the manual settings much on it yet, it's so different than the 35mm SLR I used for class...I can't "feel" what I'm doing, and the numbers don't make as much sense to me as they probably should. But, practice is what makes me learn. Heh, I should start just using it in manual mode to see what I can do. ^_^ I just miss being able to focus with my own hand and set everything there too...

Just for reference...
One cosplay photogapher that I really LOVE the work of is Kyle Johnsen(example gallery). He's one who's really inspired me to pursue cosplay photography, and has given me a lot of ideas through looking at his work. I find it interesting to look through his Private Photoshoots gallery and see how he's improved over the past year since he's offered them. I can only hope that I can have the same results...

Message edited by author 2005-07-28 05:47:27.
 07/28/2005 09:07:10 AM · #12
Originally posted by AmiYuy:
Hm...I've never tried adjusting the WB other than when I first started because it was always making the pictures too blue or too whatever, so I stopped messing with it. I'll keep that in mind. Definately would make it easier to process...


Yes... if you set the WB and get it wrong, you can at least set up an action in PS to correct the WB and then run the same action across all of your images. It's a lot easier than having to manually adjust the WB on every image you take (which is what you end up with Auto WB).

Keep up the good work, I like what you're doing.
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