Outdoor Senior Gal

This shot of Shannon was taken in a woods that faces east. East facing areas work best in the afternoon when the sun is in the western sky. We seated Shannon on an old bar stool that I cut the legs off just below the first set of horizontal cross bars. That way it doesn't sink into the ground. She is turned about 45 degrees away from the camera. I had her sit tall, them I had her lean away from the camera, so most of her weight is on her right buttock. This will lower her right shoulder, then I had her lean slightly forward from the waist. I then had her turn her head toward the light which was skimming across her body, and finally I had her tip her head to the high shoulder (the feminine shoulder.) The camera was on a tripod up high, then I tipped the camera down, so Shannon had to raise her eyes a little which gives her that sweet innocent "school girl look." There was some sunlight streaking across her blouse, so I had an assistant hold a gobo up to stop them.

Benji

Its a nice picture, seems to be a bit of a strange cutoff point at the bottom though. And an interesting horizontal spark in her eyes, not sure if I like that or not, but its interesting. The background could be a bit more blurry though.

I love your lighting Benji... it's really beautiful. Thank you for including your technical information as well.

But your scanned prints just don't do your pictures justice! It pains me! Cause I bet the real things are beautiful!

Are you scanning luster finish prints? That might explain the softness.

Excellent photo, Benji (as always)... as PictureCow noted, the lighting is perfect.

Yes, all my proofs are proofed on "E" surface paper which as semi matte. I'm not sure if my lab will proof on "F" surface or not, I'll have to check.

Benji

Great portraits!
what is a gobo?
Thanks Diane

Image quality is unacceptable. Using a flatbed to scan photographs is not a good idea, you loose sharpness, resolution, and detail. Flatbeds are good for documentation. Not highly artistic prints! If you want to be professional in todays world, you will want to use a dedicated film printer NOT a flatbed! Furthermore, if you cannot get the image quality , you may want to do some editing in software to make up for what you lost.

What a great portraite gone wrong To me the first thing I look at when viewing a Photo is does the subject stand out in this case no, as your model blends in to much with the background, The angel your shot is perfect with just the right amount of tilt.
My conclusion 2 minutes in PS would have made a good portraite into a perfect one.

Benji, No doubt about it--you're one of the best! Thanks for including the stellar lesson.
Cheers

nice pic, wish there was a little more saturation and maybe a tad brighter. hard to say without seeing a good representation. odd crop on the bottom, i think i would of gone a little lower. i like her look and smile. i am sure she is happy with it.

again benji beautiful shot... i too find the crop off first thing i did when i looked at the pic was try to scrooll down.. lol.. non the less great lighting, great pose, beautiful smile. quality looks bad, but thats because of the scan.. so no worries there :)