'Studio' Portraits with......you know who!

You have to remember as well that it's all art at the end of the day so it's your personal opinion that matters. People, especially regulars on here or TP, will pick apart things that no one else would because they're seeing a thousand photos a day and have been probably been pulled on similar things in their own photos.

Old cliche but rules are meant to be broken - especially since everyone here knows you regularly take fantastic photos that do comply to the standard rules of togging.
 
Yeah good point.

My problem is that I am extremely impressionable, so if someone says something is wrong, I'll usually agree with them if they say it with enough authority :p
 
I think a lot of the comments about blending in are those used to seeing just plain black/white backgrounds. I REALLY like the styling on these, and the off-white background makes it a lot better, even if the skin tone kind of blends in, but it's about the makeup in this type of shot. Awesome work as usual, stunning as always (Helen too).
 
I've got no issue with the background at all. The shots are well setup and wonderfully lighted (as usual in your case).
I think the shots of Helen in a more natural setting suit her better, that said, these are brilliant shots.
 
Personally I like the background. Like the creative edge to some of the shots. There a bit more pop to 1,3,5 and 6. Possibly because of the eyes. Cool shots.
 
ScarySquirrel said:
Thanks dude. Any reason why you don't like 1 and 2?
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I'm not sure why on number one I just can't put my finger on it but with number two her mouth is ever so slightly open and you can see Helen's teeth which I find distratacting.

I'm not saying Helen has bad teeth :p

I just think it would have worked better with her mouth closed or smile with teeth not just a slight glimpse.

hope that makes sense.
 
I'm going to go with what some others have said - there isn't enough separation between her skin tones and the background for my tastes. Gorgeous model, and I love the poses though ( except number 5 which I find a bit un-natural ).

You said that you warmed up the background in post-processing. Any chance of re-editing one to show a more neutral or cooler background ?
 
Zaf said:
I'm not sure why on number one I just can't put my finger on it but with number two her mouth is ever so slightly open and you can see Helen's teeth which I find distratacting.

I'm not saying Helen has bad teeth :p

I just think it would have worked better with her mouth closed or smile with teeth not just a slight glimpse.

hope that makes sense.
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Makes perfect sense. I'll have a look through and see if I have a similar image with her mouth completely closed :)

xaldub said:
I'm going to go with what some others have said - there isn't enough separation between her skin tones and the background for my tastes. Gorgeous model, and I love the poses though ( except number 5 which I find a bit un-natural ).

You said that you warmed up the background in post-processing. Any chance of re-editing one to show a more neutral or cooler background ?
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This one has an unedited background, I only applied the warm tone to her. Personally I don't think it works as well.



As above, I'm planning on finishing off this series tonight by doing a few more and maybe adding a bit more separation on a few of them, then I will probably approach them all again with a different style. It's all a very good learning experience with my processing :)

Here's another from the series which I hadn't posted here yet.

 
syke said:
^ that one with the mouth closed would be an amazing, amazing shot. Still good though!
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I have a feeling that was actually one of the shots where I caught her at the end of a jump, hence her hair being up every so slightly to the right. In which case I won't have one with the mouth closed.
 
ScarySquirrel said:
I have a feeling that was actually one of the shots where I caught her at the end of a jump, hence her hair being up every so slightly to the right. In which case I won't have one with the mouth closed.
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Aye, still a great shot anyway, like I said! Really liking the processing on your last couple of sets of Helen.
 
syke said:
Aye, still a great shot anyway, like I said! Really liking the processing on your last couple of sets of Helen.
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Thanks :)

I'm experimenting a lot more, and I'm using Lightroom pretty much only for cataloging now, I'm editing completely in Photoshop and I've learnt a hell of a lot more about it as well.
 
Really nice work! I particularly like 2 and 4. 6 looks strange to me, regarding the angle of her head in comparison to her body. I'm not sure if that's just me or what. :confused:
 
She's a munter mate. Would move on. ;) :D

Fantastic photos, cracking detail and good composition, but for me the background is too much like her skin tone and as such, there is little contrast between her and the background.
 
Razor-BladE said:
Really nice work! I particularly like 2 and 4. 6 looks strange to me, regarding the angle of her head in comparison to her body. I'm not sure if that's just me or what. :confused:
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A few people have commented on that. I agree it might come across a bit weird, but hopefully her face draws most of the attention.
 
Great shots mate.

I actually think they look better on the TP forums because of the forum colour diffs. The Blue background on this forum does mess with pictures occasionally.

Well done you should be well chuffed.
 
pabloB said:
Great shots mate.

I actually think they look better on the TP forums because of the forum colour diffs. The Blue background on this forum does mess with pictures occasionally.

Well done you should be well chuffed.
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Thank you, and good point about the forums. I think the darkness of OcUK actually makes images lose some contrast, or something, which makes them look different. I guess in the same way that some photos look great on black, whilst others look great on white.

Anyway, here are a few more which I have processed this evening, making sure I kept a little more separation between subject and background. I perhaps could have created MORE separation in the first one, between her face and the background in particular.






I had a bit of fun with this one, changing the colour of her hair a bit to suit! The hair being slightly elevated was done by me snapping as she came down from a large jump! For me, this one really fits the 'brief', by brief I mean what I set out to achieve, and that was an editorial style shot :)

 
MuGeN said:
am I the only one that thinks the background is perfect?
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No I think they look fine too, contrast seems spot on.

As for the shots, wow just wow. Amazing how many moods you've captured and Helen just looks so comfortable in front of the camera.

As someone else said, the only ones I'm not sure that don't really work are 1 & 2 as the lighting seems a little harsh on the cheekbones and don't give much depth so look a little flat.
 
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