Portrait of a young lady

[bigsarg7]

Hi all, its been a while since i've been able to post any pics, but i've been frequently returning to keep up to date with how everyone else is going and all the magnificent images that have been posted regularly. I am impressed with the talent thats being devaloped and shared on here!

I recently was asked to photograph a plus size young lady, who in my opinion has a lot of natural beauty. I have tried to capture it as much as I could, she was very awkward to shoot due to her size but from all my shots i am quite pleased with this image, i love the clarity, yet the softness of the image. The young lady herself loves the image which is always a good thing. Please I would love to get some CC on this image so that I can improve for the next time I need to shoot a larger sized person. I found the arms terribly hard, and in all honesty this was the best angle for the arms. Client happy and photographer happy means a good shoot IMO. But please any advice is welcomed! Thanks for looking!

bigsarg7

[Wink]

She is a pretty lady.
One thing you might want to try is grabbing the adjustments brush, lower the clarity and brush over her arms a bit. That will help smooth out her skin. You could also use the spot healing brush and remove the freckles/moles she has.

[digitor]

Long sleeves can be a good idea for the larger lady, helps the arms blend in a bit - a colour which doesn't stand out from the background too much is good. Also, using short lighting slims the face. Not having the body square on to the camera would help in slimming as well. You can find plenty of posing tips around the net, that's where I shamelessly stole these ones from! Most of the guides seem to have very similar ideas, so I've made a few notes here and there and try them out when I get the opportunity.

I also noticed the eyes - she's looking so far to one side that there is virtually no white on one side of the eyes - I guess that's a subjective thing, but I think it looks better if the eyes are balanced a bit better. I hope I'm not wearing out my welcome by now, but some lighting to separate the dark hair from the dark background would help too.

Hope this helps!

Cheers

[bigsarg7]

Thanks for the comments thus far, I totally agree about the hair, I'll note that one down for next time, there was a downlight above her but it wasn't a bright one obviously. I hadn't really noticed the moles etc, i had noticed a blemish on the arms so yeah I might go touch them up for my keepsakes!

hope I'm not wearing out my welcome by now,

--- No not at all, this is why I post for cc, to learn from. So thanks for all the tips!!

[Matt. K]

I'd suggest a softer, light coloured dress with long sleeves and some large ear rings to add interest to her face. Also a large. modern wrist watch would also add an element of interest. Your image is very skillfully done and has great strength of character. It is an excellent portrait. Be aware that with careful lighting and posing it is possible to make your subject look slimmer however this is not always the aim of the photographer. I like the fact that you have not used PhotoShop to glamourise the image.

[bigsarg7]

thanks matt, I tried to keep it simple, it was actually for her, but I did it as a free shot so that I could use it for my assignment for my Photography Course (Creative Institute), Other wise i prefer not to use black and black but found it quite slimming for this young lady. I was wanting to keep it very simple so the only work i did on it was pretty much just the change to black and white, I really enjoyed it and found it a very good lesson on metering and getting right. But thanks for your comments, I will take note on all of them, the watch idea and earings would work out great I think. Next time!!