Your advice would be welcomed!

[Starla]

Hello!

I was wondering if any of you would be available to give me some advice on this photo. My heart is to become a photographer, and I really can't afford going to Photography School, so I am learning on my own.

Don't worry about sounding harsh...



Thanks for your time.
Starla

[suemack]

This is just my opinion cos I'm no expert ....

Beautifully composed shot. I love your model's pose and pretty smile, you have a lovely background and great choice of depth of field. I'd like to see your model's face lighter to highlight her more. You can do this when shooting with a reflector (I'm still learning how to use these, not with the greatest of success yet), or you can fix in photoshop with a duplicate layer, change to screen mode, lower the opacity till it looks right, then mask out (or erase) some of the background to put the focus on the model.

Lovely shot!!!

[Wuzzygirl]

Hi Starla. I agree with Sue in that you have a beautiful model and wonderful composition. With the big brim on her hat, a reflector would have lit up her face really nicely.

Did you burn the edges? If you did, they are a little too dark for my taste. Other than that, it's a lovely photo and you did a great job!

[Robyn]

Yup, I agree too, great pose and composition. Reflector (or even a touch of fill flash) would make it perfect! There does seem to be a touch of movement blur, although not sure if that is just my monitor (will have another look at home where I have a better graphics card). If it is, you can fix that using a slightly higher shutter speed.

I agree with the vignetting, I would probably make it smaller and lighter.

[Starla]

Thank you!!

I have a round reflector, but I can't seem to figure out how to hold it and the camera at the same time, lol! And yes, I agree, there is a bit of movement, and I over vinetted. I've undid (is that a word?) some of it, but I wasn't able to figure out how to lighten her face...

I like the picture even less w/o the vinetting though... something is off... but what.

Thanks again for your help!!

Starla

[Wuzzygirl]

Hi Starla. I hope you don't mind that i played a little with your photo. I duplicated the layer and changed the blending mode to screen and then i dropped the opacity to about 80%. I dodged the highlights in the eyes slightly. I flattened the image, then duplicated the layer again and changed the blending mode to multiply. I added a mask to this layer, then made an oval selection in the middle and feathered it 50 pixels and filled the selection with black and flattened. This added the vignette. To increase the contrast a tad, i duplicated the layer again, changed the blend mode to soft light and reduced the opacity to 20%. I know this sounds like a lot but in reality it only took me about 2 minutes.



If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I'm not real good at explaining myself most times *grins*

[Starla]

WooHoo!! Thank you! Though I'd like to say that I understand everything you said..... I don't lol! But I'm learning! What program are you using? CS3, Lightbox, ??? I have CS3, and just downloaded the trial of Lightbox.... so many options! Thanks again for your help, advise, encouragement.... much appreciated!!!

Starla