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Hey Guys!

Up for C&C is my work, These are just some quick edits I've thrown together, so C&C would be awesome =D

Thanks for all the support from my previous post from all of you =D

I can't see any images!?

ahh great... i'm going to fix this now LOL

no images either mate....something wrong with the uploaded images, I checked your links and they click through alright but no images, and when i downloaded i get a jpg that cannot be previewed

Geoff wrote:I can't see any images!?

TADA!! =D

aim54x wrote:no images either mate....something wrong with the uploaded images, I checked your links and they click through alright but no images, and when i downloaded i get a jpg that cannot be previewed

I reuploaded them. Hopefully i get some nice comments too! haha if so, means i'm doing something right =D i personally like em =D

images are visible....

#1 - there are large blown highlights on the hair/arm/face that is quite distracting, if you are shooting RAW you may be able to reign this in a bit. Otherwise this image is works well to draw attention to the face.

#2 - This is my favourite of the bunch, even with the model centered. I know this is a hair products shoot, but it almost gets hard to distinguish if this is a fashion photo. Do you have any closer crops?

#3 - Looks great, attention goes straight to that hair which has great detail where there is sufficient light. What detracts are the deep shadows on the LHS and the blown highlight on her shoulder.

#4 - once again, this image does not scream hair, watch for those highlights. The overall lighting is very attractive though, the diffused shadow adds nicely to the image. Her legs also look a bit patchy, this is not your fault but you may want to smooth them out a bit as not to have them as a distracting element.

I am no people photographer, so take my comments as those from the uneducated. I am sure others will give you some better feedback.

thanks Cam!

working on a few images now.. so when I'm ready for some more fine tuning i'll post them up, but i'd like to hear more C&C from people =D woo!!! ahh.. feels so good to be doing this.. can't imagine how great it feels =D

looking good for a first try

as for critique ill start off by saying this sort of photography is about the hair, so the hair and capturing it at it's most flattering must be the primary subject in most of these im looking more at the model and sort of skipping the hair

the first image is good portrait but the hair has a bit of overexposure, hairdressers would often like to see detail
i think you can fix this in post

you can next time always use a more constraind light that falls onto the hair only so the rest of the image is dark
but it really depends if your going for that sort of look

for the sort of hairdo on the first the pose is the best

as for the other shots with longer hair, it would of been good to catch some movement
by asking the model to flick her hair modeling is also about rollplaying and capturing a certain emotion, in all these images the model conveys a feeling of 'whatever' which is in trend now but i think you can step it up a little and give it some sassyness on your next try
set the mood make her feel comfortable then slowly work with her always complimenting her and saying lets make it better rather than 'no dont do that' general rule is if the girl feels like a million dollars she will shine, but its your job to get her to feel like that

as for your last full length shot the dirt on the paper takes away from yoru shot but your probably in the process of photoshopping that out

also when a model leans towards you it distorts proportions also she moves out of your lighting sweetspot so its best to keep her vertically straight facing you

anyway to tell you the truth you did as well as i did on my first shoot so place your head up high and welcome to my world

if you want to learn more you should assist me on my next shoot

wendellt wrote:looking good for a first try

as for critique ill start off by saying this sort of photography is about the hair, so the hair and capturing it at it's most flattering must be the primary subject in most of these im looking more at the model and sort of skipping the hair

the first image is good portrait but the hair has a bit of overexposure, hairdressers would often like to see detail
i think you can fix this in post

you can next time always use a more constraind light that falls onto the hair only so the rest of the image is dark
but it really depends if your going for that sort of look

for the sort of hairdo on the first the pose is the best

as for the other shots with longer hair, it would of been good to catch some movement
by asking the model to flick her hair modeling is also about rollplaying and capturing a certain emotion, in all these images the model conveys a feeling of 'whatever' which is in trend now but i think you can step it up a little and give it some sassyness on your next try
set the mood make her feel comfortable then slowly work with her always complimenting her and saying lets make it better rather than 'no dont do that' general rule is if the girl feels like a million dollars she will shine, but its your job to get her to feel like that

as for your last full length shot the dirt on the paper takes away from yoru shot but your probably in the process of photoshopping that out

also when a model leans towards you it distorts proportions also she moves out of your lighting sweetspot so its best to keep her vertically straight facing you

anyway to tell you the truth you did as well as i did on my first shoot so place your head up high and welcome to my world

if you want to learn more you should assist me on my next shoot

Thanks for the tips Wendellt!

I'd love to assist you on your next shoot, any experience would be awesome! I think I've finally proven to myself that I can do it, rather than just dreaming, so its really exciting for me to do anything in industry! =D and thanks for the welcome to your world, its quite clean here, one thing though.. when do i ask for toilet breaks?

I will post some new images taht are fixed up a bit more in a few days =) whenever i get the chance, seems like the C&C area in forum really do help moreso than just going to some people.


Cheers for the feedback guys!

Lookign good photomarcs, your title is fashion and hair, I reckon you need to separate the two, as Wendell has mentioned if its a hair shoot you really need to be drawn to the hair, whereas if its a fashion shoot, the hair merely compliments the model and outfit..

the first image is probably the one that draws me most to teh hair, as cam mentioned there are a few blown highlights, but nothing that could not be recovered imo.

#2 feels like a fashion image, the use of the glamour glow (or wahtever it is) here is nice..

#3 I like the pose on this one, even if you are looking down on her, Wendell mentioned the distortion thing, however here I don't think its a real issue, however I would consider either being a fraction wider or cropping a bit, it feels a bit like 'no mans land'

as for the other shots with longer hair, it would of been good to catch some movement

agreed, but I would have not thought of that

Great shots photomarcs, and I also enjoyed reading wendell's comments.

I can't add anything much, except to say that I find the blown highlights in the first shot very distracting,
and I reckon they seriously detract from what would otherwise be a good shot.

That said, I am impressed with your work.

Marcus,

What a great first effort.

Do you know how to use your histogram to check your exposure? What sort of lighting setup were you using?

I think that the major issue you've faced here is in balancing the lighting; you have hot spots in some areas, but very deep and possibly unrecoverable dark areas in others, and often within the same image.

What I would like to see you do is work towards balancing your light sources a little more, so that you don't, for instance, as in the third image, lose all of the detail in the hair because there's too little light there, but at the same time, you've blown the highlights in what is a very nicely textured white dress.

And in the second image, similarly there's very little detail in the black dress.

These are all very easy issues to address, and with a little more experience and practice, you'll soon be shooting like a pro.

Image #2 is a standout. Brilliant!

gstark wrote:Marcus,

What a great first effort.

Do you know how to use your histogram to check your exposure? What sort of lighting setup were you using?

I think that the major issue you've faced here is in balancing the lighting; you have hot spots in some areas, but very deep and possibly unrecoverable dark areas in others, and often within the same image.

What I would like to see you do is work towards balancing your light sources a little more, so that you don't, for instance, as in the third image, lose all of the detail in the hair because there's too little light there, but at the same time, you've blown the highlights in what is a very nicely textured white dress.

And in the second image, similarly there's very little detail in the black dress.

These are all very easy issues to address, and with a little more experience and practice, you'll soon be shooting like a pro.

Hi Gstark! Wow, i wouldn't have thought you'd post here for some reason.. haha but i'm very much glad that you have put your opinion in as that is somewhat complimentary that the admin has said so.

Balancing light was VERY difficult, having the stylist constantly but in and say oh try this and this and dont do this, dont do that.. was quite overwhelming, but i reacted very quickly to try to correct the lighting as much as possible, as these are edits, is it possible for me to upload some images for people to grab to edit and display what they would do?

Matt. K wrote:Image #2 is a standout. Brilliant!

Thank you so much Matt, seriously.. it's a real confidence boost for me to have done this shoot, dreaming of shooting this stuff is different from actually doing it i've realised, and for the first time i feel as if i'm getting somewhere =) your comment makes me believe that at least 1 in 4 of my images thus far are worth the effort. Lets hope that ratio goes towards moreso my favor =D

Greg B wrote:Great shots photomarcs, and I also enjoyed reading wendell's comments.

I can't add anything much, except to say that I find the blown highlights in the first shot very distracting,
and I reckon they seriously detract from what would otherwise be a good shot.

That said, I am impressed with your work.

I think we all enjoy Wendell's comments haha but i have to say besides Wendell, Cameron has really helped me in showing me things that I personally wouldnt have noticed, ie. highlights in the third image, i tend to be opposite and notice shadows first.

but thank you very much for your input, I really do appreciate the few seconds/minutes you've taken to critique my images for me to only get better =D THE BEST IS YET TO COME! =D



I've also noticed that my screen is TOTALLY different to the colors i see on other screens, i notice that on my screen it looks better in the sense that i know what i've controlled.. i guess this means i should calibrate my screen somehow? i noticed on iMacs the colors come out VERY saturated and the highlights in the first image are completely blown out, yet compared to on my screen, it looks moreso "recovered."
what should i do? get it professionally calibrated? or try a quick fix on the screen?

photomarcs wrote:I've also noticed that my screen is TOTALLY different to the colors i see on other screens, i notice that on my screen it looks better in the sense that i know what i've controlled.. i guess this means i should calibrate my screen somehow? i noticed on iMacs the colors come out VERY saturated and the highlights in the first image are completely blown out, yet compared to on my screen, it looks moreso "recovered."
what should i do? get it professionally calibrated? or try a quick fix on the screen?

Marcus, I am not sure how to calibrate your laptop screen, but I guess if you posed the question someone will have an answer. Probably a Spyder setup of some sort, but I wonder if you have enough control over your screen setting on a laptop. I keep meaning to calibrate my screens as well...maybe we can go splits on a spyder setup if it will work for us.

aim54x wrote:

photomarcs wrote:I've also noticed that my screen is TOTALLY different to the colors i see on other screens, i notice that on my screen it looks better in the sense that i know what i've controlled.. i guess this means i should calibrate my screen somehow? i noticed on iMacs the colors come out VERY saturated and the highlights in the first image are completely blown out, yet compared to on my screen, it looks moreso "recovered."
what should i do? get it professionally calibrated? or try a quick fix on the screen?

Marcus, I am not sure how to calibrate your laptop screen, but I guess if you posed the question someone will have an answer. Probably a Spyder setup of some sort, but I wonder if you have enough control over your screen setting on a laptop. I keep meaning to calibrate my screens as well...maybe we can go splits on a spyder setup if it will work for us.

I think we should go splits on one.. maybe Jod would want one too.. or even Kelvin.. find out who else wants in on one LOL i really want to get my colors right.. I've started to concentrate moreso on colors now, so i guess on my screen they look great to me.. then i look at others and go =S

photomarcs wrote:Balancing light was VERY difficult, having the stylist constantly but in and say oh try this and this and dont do this, dont do that.. was quite overwhelming, but i reacted very quickly to try to correct the lighting as much as possible, as these are edits, is it possible for me to upload some images for people to grab to edit and display what they would do?

Having the stylist help you by suggesting different shots is probably not a good idea in the longer term. Consider why they're the stylist, but you're the photographer. At this early stage, fine, and it's a part of the learning experience.

In saying that, you need to learn the difference between them telling you what they, as the stylist, want to see in the shots, as distinct from them offering you photographic tips and advice. Does that make sense?

What were you using as your light sources here? There are many ways to adjust the balance, and your histogram will be your best friend here. And remember that the image in your LCD is not to be used as a guide of correct exposure or colour. That's a tough one to come to grips with.

Posting the images for others to play with? Upload the files to your webspace, and provide a download link from which they can access the files.

usually

if your using strobes and speedlights to balance the colour 5600Kelin is the sweetspot
but yours look processed

the colour balance is also affected if light is reflected off other items in the studio
so usually i scrim off the set with black boards or a black curtain on either side so light doesnt bounce back and affect the main subject

Marc and Cameron, You are welcome to borrow my spyder3express if you are in the area.... Or just bring your laptop for a ride. We can also venture out to check out some sunsets n sunrises.

surenj wrote:Marc and Cameron, You are welcome to borrow my spyder3express if you are in the area.... Or just bring your laptop for a ride. We can also venture out to check out some sunsets n sunrises.

Very interesting offer there Surenj, will you be able to pick us up from a station and put us up overnight???