Photo Reviews - part I

from ckale1




So... why the brick wall? How many brick wall shots have you seen? me - probably one million. I dunno, but they just don't freaking work like that. Brick walls are some VERY busy backgrounds and they make my eyes hurt. Then you have those pink shoes. They take away fro, the pretty face and this is a pic about those shoes. They are just some damn bright that I can't stop looking at them! :)They way the model is sitting and the angle of the shot make me feel that the gal is gonna slide down from the frame. There's no tilt but the lines of the brick wall, the vanishing point perspective make this shot compositionally faulty. What was so terrible above that you have to crop it from the top like that? anyway... make sure to learn what the model will be wearing before the shoot. Tell them not to bring things that dont reflect light, seen through stuff, unless they are not wearing a bra (what's the point of wearing a bra with a see-through shirt? seriously - women - get real - it looks bad)

The old gas tation shot is better, due some good color cross processing (Nik Soft plugin?) that matches very well with the location. Just lovely colors and the harsh shadows are very well controlled here. So the colors and the light are good. The models expression is... well, it is what it is...
but why did you shoot at an angle again? You have that red window frame tilting the shot, the girl is blocking the pump, which looks awesome and if you have only placed your model at a straight angle in front of the window and the pump it would have been a great compo (pump -> girl -> window). The mistake here is placing your model to close to the objects of interest. Had she stepped forward, at the angle mentioned, there still would have been enough room to show (with shallow DOF) that all those awesome elements are present in the pic AND to make this shot about the girl.





From Nexus






When I saw the red pic, I was like "Oh, this is not too bad!" and then I saw the rest of them and realized that the first pic is a lucky shot.
So about the red pic - I like this. Not to the point of me screaming that I fell in love with everything, but this is not bad. I can see that time was taken to prepare and to lay the key elements into paces. This shot has been done and redone by thousands but it always works.
What I like here is the jaw line, the facial expression, and the post work. Not too much, not too little, just enough. Reds are very effective.

What I don't like - the lack of catchlights in her eyes. Gotta have them. Didn't turn out during the shoot? Draw them in. I don't know - just make them happen. Otherwise the model looks dead. I am not into dead models so this is not for me :)
I wish that the crop was a bit wider. The shoulder is cut off and that is one sexy part of a female body. How dare you! :)
Overall - this is a very decent beauty shot. This concept would have worked better with a paler model. I'd shoot a dark skinned model on a creme sheet with creme colored roses. Can't go wrong with that :)

The BW shot is pretty much a disaster. The low angle of the shot makes the model show a double chin. That alone should make this shot end up up in the trash bin IN CAMERA. The window is blown out to the point of attracting all of the attention.
The pose was supposed to be gracious and it ended up being "oh, I don't want my clothes to get dirty". The horizon is tilted and if you just could simplify the compo a little more by taking more of a closeup - this could've worked. Next time look at the key elements, the shapes of the location that you are dealing with and work with them.


from IVO




everyone likes a great looking butt. This is what these pics are all about and of. However the goodness ends here.

-The chin is merging with the shoulder and the model lost her neck.
-THe light on her face is strong and it needed to be turned further behind the model to create a nice rim instead of blowing her face out.
-Wrinkly fabric is looking amateurish here and I would've asked my model to lay on the floor and we could experiment with her wrapped in that fabric.
- the poses are just pornographic. Though we all watch porn (yes, Mrs Smoth, don't even deny this! :) but these are just too tasteless. Wrinkles on her back, odd faces and that butt (lovely butt) in the viewer's face aren't doing this model justice