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Photo Critiques Images 142 through 167

Alright, chin is working, shoulder is connected, all of that works for me. Absolutely loving the hair blowing. The flower in the hair works. Everything about this is beautiful except for that hand that's coming across the front. If that hand had been pulled back, I would've loved the shot. Watch the pressure you're putting on elbows, as soon as we push our elbows back, we li-gi-van the top of the arm. If that comes forward, and the back arm swings down, we get lots more shape. Everything else about this works for me. So just watching those arms, always fluttering those arms, and pulling those elbows back, but not so far back that they're squishing arms. Alright. You know what, this is a really classic pose, and it's a very hard pose to make me believe, but I believe the pose, I just don't like the fact that it's out in front of a gate. Had this been done just shot straight into the light, or into a white knit curtain, straight into the light, I would've absolutely loved it. It's really...

hard to get hands relaxed like that. Remember, this is the bottom of the colletage. I call it touching the bottom of the bra. It's very common in my posing manual, and in my 28 days. But it's not something that many people use, so when I see it, I know that they've studied my work, or that they've got my posing cards. Because this is a really strong place to put the hand placement. It's not the hand on the belly, it's at the bottom of the breast line, so big props for that. Hands in this image are outstanding, I just don't like where you've shot into that gateway. You could've shot straight into the green and you would've done better. Also just watch that your highlights aren't too high. This is very high key and blown out, we just needed to bring your recovery down, bring your exposure down just a little wee bit. Alright, chin, shoulder, hands. Alright, so, interestingly enough, we've got such a strong direction of light, we've got a big shadow coming up through here. So we need a stronger reflector and a fledder light, I can only see one catch light to the side. With my reflectors, I put in a catch light on this side, because it's coming in nice and close. There is no connection between the chin and shoulder, but fundamentally it's quite a good portrait because it really connects the subject to the eyes. Just watch that back hand going straight up like that, it's confusing as to where the arms starts and where it finishes. But good touching to the throat as opposed to the side of the face. I like the earrings. A little bit more connection through the chin and shoulder would've made it really beautiful, really really beautiful. Alright, this woman here is too close to that brick wall. And I'd like to see a little bit more light pumped in here. I can see that back hand up, I'm neither here no there on the back hand. The styling for this is really good. She's obviously curvy, and she's got it going on. I would've tried to shoot this a little bit more horizontally if I could. I see what you're doing here, but be aware that the brick and the diagonal like that's really distracting. If you'd shot this woman on a plain background I think I would've liked it a lot more. Just watch that you're not making too much focus on your background 'cause it's really drawing away from her. You know, when that hand leads off and is cropped off like that, that doesn't bother me too much, but this shot potentially looks a lot better when it's back in a horizontal frame. So, just be careful that it sits where it's meant to, and just watch your brick doesn't go on the diagonal, which means you need to tip your camera a little bit to the right, so your not so pulled away. Her eyes have a really strong focus, which is important. I would love to see this before and after, I would've loved to have seen it as a before and after. I love this shot, there's so much about this shot that is absolutely beautiful. And I definitely love this pose, the look away, it's very model-y. I would've loved to have seen a connected image. This bothers me the most, if you had control of this image, I would've liked you to straighten out this little bit of fabric a little bit more, so it wasn't so much up into her face. This one doesn't bother me at all, but I'd just like to see this one a little bit tighter. Also, just watching your post processing, when you go through, up your recovery to take your highlights back, so you take a little bit of burn off. You can actually jump in your darkness and contrasts a little bit more, and your blacks will go blacker, which means her eyes will pop through there. I love shooting through netting. It does look bridal though, instead of beauty. So another thing you might wanna try is putting the netting over the lens, as opposed to putting it over the client. But you know, this image works, it's not perfect, but it's cute. Would my client buy it, I think they might. I would love to see it in context of an entire folio and see what else you did with her, 'cause she's a very beautiful girl. But in terms of the pose you used, I like it, just maybe that fold in the fabric is a little bit too dominant. We've been talking about it all day, really really important, we've got a chin, shoulder, and a crossed arm. Okay, so this arm's working, we've created a diamond. You've got this chin working towards the shoulder, and then she's holding across like this. So not a pose typically that we'd use for glamor, because it's a little bit too hand over the belly. It just doesn't really work. She could've been a million different ways. As hands down, she could've used the side to side, you could've used that flare of the skirt, you could've set her down, you could've leaned her against the wall, but I just feel like that hand across is a little bit too predictive. You've got good connection, the eyes are outstanding, it's nice and sharp and everything works, just play a little bit more with the body language of arms around the body. I'm noticing this a lot, I'm seeing a lot of images today that just have too many misplaced hands and arms, but it seems like everybody is getting body which is much better. Okay, good little smile, she's got good connection, I love this hand, you've created a good triangle. And then you've tucked that leg right up in there so it looks really tiny, like a little skinny leg, so it's just not extended. If you wanted to be in Cover Girl, that knee just has to come out. That elbow, sorry, that heel, just needs to come out so that there's another triangle under her leg. If she'd had a double triangle, and just turned that front hand down, you would've really nailed that. Also watch the arm as straight up and down, if it's pulled back and the hands on the thigh, and pulled back to here, then we get more boob and less back, instead of more back and less boob. Which is really really important. Otherwise, everything else works in there, it's cute, if you're gonna bring the knees up, just make sure you're shooting nice and low. When you're shooting lean bodies, shoot low, so shoot lower than their eye-line. Their bodies can take it, and they look more fashion, than more down-shooting portrait. This girls got a lean body, if you dropped down, her leg would've thickened up a bit more so she doesn't look so tucked in. And she would've looked a lot more space around her, and looked a lot more fashion than it does. Okay, you're outside, it's too high key, I don't know whether this is my computer or not, but you could've dropped this right back, 'cause it's really blown out to me. But other than that, hair, makeup, and styling, you've done it perfectly, you've created a chin, a shoulder, the hands are relaxed. Okay, you've got hourglass, her chin is working the shoulder so it's got body language. There's asymmetry in this image, 'cause she's going down on the diagonal. You've got good focus, good expression, it's a good solid composition, Photoshop looks okay, except for the blowout. So this is where you're falling down here, you've lost your skin-tone, it's been pushed too far. I don't know whether it's your computer or my computer, but fundamentally, everything you've got right is solid. Well done. Alright, this is a really great example. I love this image because it really shows you've lollipoped here. Okay, so you've got a lean body and her head looks too big. So when you've got a small body like this, you need to bring her arm forward. She needs to be thickened up, all of the rules for curves goes out the window for this body type. This is the only time you bring her body forward, the only time you bring her hand to the outside of her body, and the only time you turn her body flat to the camera. Because when you look at this image, you've executed everything beautifully, her little smile is cute, her expression is good, her hair and makeup is one of the best I've seen today. But her head is projected forward, and her chin is projected forward, which is a good thing, but because she's so lean and you've shot it high, like I can see you're almost above her eye line. Nobody this thin should be photographed on the eye line. She could be photographed on her boob line. So Jen, come in here and I'll explain to you what that is. If Jen is there, and I'm shooting on her eye line, which is here, this is shot here, I can tell, because she's looking up slightly. And what happened is, when the chin pushes forward, and the body's pushed back just like that, it looks too lean in the camera. But if I was gonna shoot someone of Jen's body size, I would shoot it down here, and push your chin forward and down to me. So I've got perfect chin definition, and that would be my eye line there. Okay, so that's right on her boob line. Now, I talk about eye lines all the time in 28 days, every time you see a shoot, I'm like, "look where my eye line is, look where my eye line is." Classic example of lollipoping, don't do it. Thank you. Nobody wants a lollipop head. Again, classic, elbows back which gives me definition in the hourglass. This is what it's all about. It's a nice close crop, we're at a number three, I'll put the one to five on my blog tomorrow, so that you've got the one, two, three, four, five, and then you can see the difference in the compositions. It's good asymmetry, great connection, little smile. I would've liked to have been better hair, it looks a bit scraggly, and it looks a bit undone. But other than that, just watch your colors. Your background is aqua or turquoise, and your top is red, and your jacket is purple blue, so you've got aqua, purple, red, and blue, and it's really taking me away from her face. Beauty image is about simplicity, and really the simplicity should be that we're connecting to her eyes, and connecting to her face. There's such a fine line between making this image work. It's part of 28 days, but in 28 says the mom is sitting at a 45 degree angle to the camera, she's not front on to the camera. So front on to the camera doesn't do many people any favors in a sitting position. Turn her side on and bring the daughter's body around. Because they do have full arms these girls, it's boarder lining on being a little bit of a straight jacket pose. I don't want it to look like the arms are over crowding. But you know, I love the connection, and how beautiful they are together. I like the connection you've got on their faces, and their heads together. I like that the daughters face is forward and it's sitting forward, but it needs to be at a 45 degree angle so you can bring the daughters body in. So she's not just a floating head, and you can push mom's body back. But in terms of what you've connected with them, outstanding. And I don't know whether your choice of image was to give me the beautiful, smiling, fun shot, but those hands are very overcrowding. I know you wouldn't have taken a whole lot of shots like that, but it is something I teach, to do the 45. But I teach at the 45, so turn them around. If mom's on a bar stool like this, Jen come in here. So if mom's on a bar stool, and the daughter's behind, remember the whole point would be that we're here at a 45, that my body is in the frame. Now, we always put the curvier girl on the back, because her body blocks my body, right? And so then I can put my arms around her, or I can connect here, or I can connect here, or we can hold hands here. But we're connected and I'm here, but my body is half behind her's. But if I'm here like this then I'm that floating hear again. And it looks like I've got her in a headlock. So just bringing that round to a 45 would be great. Okay, A, we're not sharp, and B, we're cropped too close. There's more arm in there than there is, we've got no hairline. When you remove the hairline, you take away the hair altogether and you give this sort of idea of baldness. So unfortunately this is a little bit too close. I like the connection I like that she's smiling at you through the eyes, with a little smile on the mouth, but I just want you to pull back a little wee bit more. There's a very classic shot on my blog... Of a girl, very pink tones, beauty shot, blonde hair, pulled back in a bun. And it's very close but it's not this close, you can see the top of her hairline. And never ever ever would I crop out the bottom of the chin. So this one's just a little too close for me. Had you shot this close up but in a horizontal, where I could see the top of her hairline, and the bottom of her chin, and maybe just the ghost of her shoulder, I would've loved it. Because expression is there, but you're gonna have to give me a sharper focus than this. This is not out of focus, it's got movement, which means your shutter speed was too low. Okay, so just watch that, because it's ruined the shot and it's pulled it down. Okay, here we are again, classic Cover Girl shot, we've seen this a few times today. The thumbs are coming in, too far in, and then we're not trimming the waist enough. So remember we wanna bring the waist in from out here, from out here, we wanna bring it in to here. Okay? So there's a certain pinching that you can do, but we don't wanna bring it in to here, where it just thumbs just sit up half way that do nothing. Because that just looks like, look, this is me trying to put my thumbs into my tummy. Okay, so it's not out here, it's here. Okay? And it's not in here like this. It's about the Cover Girl pinching in, kicking the booty out. Getting lots of shape, dropping the shoulder, pushing the chin forward here, but not pushing the boobs out. So just watch those thumbs 'cause they're sticking right up, and they're interfering with that shot, and they're pulling it down. Okay, very very important. I love this shot. Okay, shoulder, chin, connection, expression. You could've pulled back three inches on the bottom and you would've nailed the shot. It's a little bit center head, floating head. Okay, I love the hat, you've kept just enough of it. But if you'd given me just two inches down her arm, you would've been perfectly balanced. Because at the moment it's sitting in just that too middle crop in the head, she's sitting in the half way zone, instead of in the upper third. But beautifully executed, this is the shot everybody buys. It's their beautiful daughter, grandma buys this, dad buys this, absolutely perfect, well done. Just give me a little bit more on the bottom crop. The double hand again, watch those double handers. She's making a butterfly. Okay, remember, hands are so expressive and they'll take over, they'll jazz hands, they'll do whatever they wanna do. You've got a good expression in there, you've got a beautiful smile. Had her hands been straight down, and you would've just shown me that bare shoulder, I would've loved the shot. Watch your contrast, you've shot her in the shade, you've got your highlights on the background, they've jumped up. They're making you look like you're not a professional, a professional doesn't shoot flat light to the face and high contrast light at the back. Okay, so watch your background, put your hands down. Beautiful connection, little smile, cropped very tight to the top of the eye brows, give me one more inch in the forehead and I would've believed that. So lifting up just a little higher. This is a cute shot, this works for me. I mean, you know, at the end of the day, she's cute, I love her glasses. It's not great hairstyling but that's alright, not everyone has great hair. I like how that hands touching, the back of the hand is very dominant on the left hand that goes across to her shoulder. You can fix that by bringing it around the arm a little bit more. So Jen, come in here, we'll show you this. It's really really important. If you put this hand here, and just touch your arm, and then this hand comes up like you're mirroring her pose, the idea really is that you push through a little bit more with this arm, so that it hugs the outside of the shoulder a little bit more. Then you're not getting two things, you're not getting the back of the hand, and you're not getting, you're pushing the elbow in, which gives you more waist and more taper anyway. So just remember we're always hugging. So when this hand's down, and it's like this, we hug the upper body, we don't hug the belly unless we're pregnant. We hug the upper body, we hug the arms, but we're always hugging ourselves. If our hands are here then we're seeing a lot of the back of the hand. We're always trying to bring those elbows across and really hug that line, and make it really beautiful, make them kick the booty back, which brings the elbows forward a little bit more, so that they're not projected forward. Really big difference. Thank you. Beautiful shot, gorgeous, absolutely love it. Amazing connection, he looks cute, he's strong. I love the shadow on his face, the highlight might be a bit bright, but again you could've fixed that on your computer. I love how low you've shot this. It's an absolutely perfect asymmetrical crop for a boy. Love his suit, winning, outstanding. I love this image. Glamour is so much more than 24 year olds. You know, this is absolutely beautiful, and I love it. I love how she's working her shoulder, but it looks like it's meant to happen. She's divine, what a beautiful shot. Congratulations to the author of this image. It could be entered in an award. She is absolutely beautiful. I hope you got one that's pulled back a little bit more, I feel like because of her age this crop is very fashion, if you'd pulled back a few more inches, you would've put it in the traditional. I love how she has that ring on her finger. And truly an exquisite woman, and one that I would be very proud to have in my folio. Just, it makes my heart warm. You have no idea. Wow. Okay, the claw! That dreaded claw. But so close. This image to me embodies so much. She has the perfect relaxed mouth. I love this movement, you've just kicked back in the hip. I love that her hand's just coming forward. The background is very strong but it seems to work, but then she's just got that little pinch here. And if she'd just softened to ballet hands, if she'd just run her hand down the colletage, down her breast line to here, or just shaped that breast line it would be perfect. But beautifully executed expression, beautifully executed shoulder. Back line, hand, and hip line, well done. Only the hand is pulling that down. Good lean back, beautiful shoulder, working the chin. You've really used her hair well, the hands could've been a little better, but I love how she turned away on the wall. So many people are turning away free-styling, but you've turned her away on the wall. This is a beautiful image. 10 out of 10. I just, I absolutely love, you've totally nailed this girl's face, her expression, cute little smile. You know, there is a big shadow on her right hand side, but you really are focused on that right eye. And just watch these, these little armpit lines, they really should go, nobody ever likes them, everybody complains about them. But beautifully executed image. Good connection, good lookback, and good body shaping with the hips pushing forward, leaning back, which is such a refreshing change. Well done. Again you guys are nailing the shot, which is great. The elbows and shoulders are lined up, you've got the hand around the neck not the face. You know, it's good hair and makeup, strong colored top. I mean, this is a good portrait, this is a good contemporary glamor portrait, it's what people come into my studio for, so it's great. On this is good one, this is a good one 'cause it's a good mistake. Okay, because their arms going nowhere and her expression's going nowhere. Okay, so I wanna do two things to this image. I either wanna just change her straight away to holding her elbows so that her shoulder comes forward, or I want to just drop this hand down. So too often we've got our hands up on our hips here and we've got a big elbow dominating towards the camera, when we could just be touching with the bottom of the back of our hand, sliding down the bum, which drops the hand in a back position that's still in a diamond, but it's not out here like this. And secondly, she could've been turned away from the camera more, so that she's looking back. But what I don't believe is the way she's looking at you. I just feel like she's caught in the headlights. So she's looking back, she's got a big wide look, her mouth is open, but it's not smiling. So I wanna see either the mouth closed, or I wanna see a big smile, but I wanna see those eyes relax. I also feel like it's very body dominant. So I would've either cropped this higher, and maybe that would've saved so much of the mustard shirt. Crop with higher. And no neck wrinkles, pushing the neck forward, always driving the chin towards the outside of the shoulder, and just watch that the face doesn't get too white, 'cause it's very pasty and it looks like it's been hit with too much highlight more than it's light in color. You know, this works for many reasons, it works in the sense that you've nailed the pose. You've got a very young outfit and a very young pose on an older woman, which works because she's got a rocking body, and clearly this is who she is. That lipstick is very pink, but again, if that was her choice, personal choice, I can't fault that. This leg's got a big highlight on it, which is very distracting. You can drop down your highlights on the body like this. But I'm more, I think she just needs a little bit more retouching to the face. She needs more reflected light to the face. I can see a reflector in there, but I just feel like, you know, around her nose highlights and everything are too hard. And just watch the retouching in the face. I can see smoothing again, when I wanna see softer retouching. I just feel like her face looks a little hard and I'd just like to bring it back in the right places, because of the shadows. Not because of the makeup, but because of the shadows. This is beautiful. Exactly the same. We've been doing this a lot, but one little tip when you've doing elbows back, is watch that the hands, you're not capturing them out there. So, the easiest way to pose elbows back is to put your hand out like this, and then bring your elbows in, and once your elbows come in, then you drop your hands down. Okay, but just be a little bit careful if they're still flailing out like that. Maybe you could lift one out and one in, or maybe you could've just dropped them both down and keep the elbows back. You've really nailed the hourglass, you've got good expression, I like the hair. Just for styling purposes, she's very insipid. She's got no lip color on at all so she's very gray and beige, and cream and beige, the whole image. And her hair's beautiful, but I would've either put a little bit of pink in her cheeks, made her eyes bluer, or put a little bit of pink in her lips. But I tend to look more at her belt than her face. And her face should be the most important part in this image. 'Cause there is a big shadow on her left side which means you need to get that reflector closer. What I mean by, you can get the reflector right up in their grill, and you can be right on the edge of that reflector. You gotta do what you gotta do to bounce that light in. I don't care if somebody has to sit on the floor in front of them and bounce a reflector up from underneath them. I have shot a client with the reflector leaning on their thighs, pushed against my thighs, holding the camera on my own, and then holding a hair dryer, going (buzzing noise) and I'm balancing, and the reflector's going like this, and my client's going (laughs) trying to look like a supermodel. But it works 'cause I gotta do what I gotta do to get that light in there. Okay, this is classic example of you're starting to learn how to do Cover Girl, and you're starting to get movement, but you've just shot this out on a balcony, which is cool if this is about your learning posing, fine. Drop those shoulders down, lift up nice and tall, bring in a reflector, watch those highlights, and shoot a little bit lower so you're not shooting down on people. But all I see here is shoulders up. And you could've shot this on a plain background, why did you shoot it in backyard? You know, this is one of those instances where the leading arm really works. And what I like about the leading arm is it works because you can see through the skirt, so I'm lead straight down to her legs which look quite sexy. It's a beautiful, this is a beautiful shot. I would've retouched it better in the finish myself. I feel like the arm looks a bit thick at the top, but the truth is it's a cute shot. I didn't need that right hand up there at all, she's still talking on the phone a little wee bit. But what I love about it is she's got great connection. That hand is just in the frame, so it's not cropped out, it's beautifully done, it's very soft. If you had given me a little bit more space, pulled back just a little bit more, you would've had room to warpen this arm a little bit, and make that not so strong, because I feel like it's getting quite chunky here. And if you slim that down a bit you would stop looking down that arm line and you would start looking at her face. But other than that it's all good. Chin, shoulder, hands, let's go through it. Our chin is pushing forward. One of the hardest things about lying down shots is that the chin can get tucked down this way, and it's really important that you bring the chin back to the camera. So this is being done really beautifully. So, chin back this way, the shoulder is perfect line, hands are gorgeous, expression, connection, asymmetry in the image, beautifully done. And well shot into the backlight. I mean, well exposed, well shot, love it.