Skip to main content

Critiques on student work

Lesson 5 from: Posing and Lighting

Bambi Cantrell

Critiques on student work

Lesson 5 from: Posing and Lighting

Bambi Cantrell

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2000+ more >

Lesson Info

5. Critiques on student work

Next Lesson: Q&A

Lesson Info

Critiques on student work

Okay, so now we're going to be doing some critiques and this beautiful image comes from kelly wedding claymation ater set right a nation ater is I say that anyway can't see e o kelly, first of all, let me tell you I love love love this picture. You did a beautiful job and this is what I like about it. I love the relaxed look on the bright space you have lived this image beautifully. I love the highlights and there's the highlights. And then there's shadow areas. And then there's another highlight on this cheek. I love the graceful feel of the veil. There are only two elements in this picture that that kind of bothered me. Number one, this light fixture is just kind of crowding down on the picture, so I would have probably stepped her back to get rid of this all the way. Or I would have backed up this way and brought her forward so that it was still in the photograph, but that it wasn't directly over her head. Because it's such a heavy piece, it is just pulling my eye away from her as a...

subject that's number one the second thing is this that she standing flat footed. See with her arms behind her I don't have a problem with the arms being behind her but it almost feels as though she standing flat footed and so I would like to have seen a bit of ben to the knee one way and the hip brother one way or the other and she would have you would have given your subject much more grace I also would have liked to seen you turn her body just a little bit more this way so that we're not photographing straight into her chest um because a person no matter who they are is going to look heavier and bigger this way straight into the camera this way then they will if they're turned one way this way or the other way so those with a few little technical things I mean I'm pulling here off the back of a dog because it's actually it's a beautiful picture and I think you should be very very proud of it that just to finesse it a little bit and you're going to be home free yes michael um I kind of noticed like a lot of engagement pictures and stuff like that you'll see the flat footed uh kind of stiff style that's really popular um how do you feel about that like I know you always talk about trying to try to get a little bit of a lean and well this is how I feel about it in context there are certain pictures that work when you're flat footed and you're just you know, kind of like that that who is it they got the pitchfork dude in the field with this body I mean there's so many very flat footed that old that old a piece of americana and so there are times when I think it can work to have people stand very still look like that but it really has to fit the style of that individual it has to be kind of a little bit more funky kind of an edgy couple that is, you know, being very contrary I would only do maybe one or two images like that because at the end of the day no matter who your subject is they want to be flattered in their photographs and if we have them standing very static straight up and tall unless it's done intentionally for style in an image or two is going to just make them look, you know, bulky and and not very graceful and such so there's a place for bending the rules and that's I think one of the rules that can be bent but you just have to use a spirit of a sound mind and make sure that it's the couple that you're working with good question michael uh you achieve getting something that's natural and in the moment but also something that's flattering when I wanted to talk to okay, the first thing that you do once you set up the basic concept in the pose, for instance, if you're posing a single person, you probably noticed when I was photographing christina, I said of the basic concept, and then I push it by speaking to her, getting hurt to lean towards me or play a little bit. And so within the context of that of the of the pose is the is when you go for expression and in creating something that's a bit more fun and entertaining at the end of the day, if you have to sacrifice you always sacrifice in in favor of expression expression over perfection any day of the week, absolutely any day of the week, every time I've taken an image that has been in perfect, I'm like being myself to death over it if it had great expression, the client absolutely loved it. However, I cannot tell you how many times that I took a technically perfect photograph and what taught me this was in my early days as a photographer, I was so hung up on perfection, I would bring little pieces of white paper to put them up the sleeve of the groom so he'd have a perfect cuff, I bring clothes, pins and pull his short really, really tight, so he'd have a perfect shirt the problem is is that he had a zero expression on a space because he had a clip you know he had a clothes pin, you know, you know, poking him in the back and he had these stupid pieces of white paper hanging up the sleeves I'm sorry it was so stop looking so the moral of the story is that if you have to air you always err on the side of expression and his expression absolutely at the end of the day rules this cane family there was a question in chat from photo mojo does that include a photo being tax sharp? What if it's a little bit blurry but the expressions amazing? Would you use it? Yes, I would and I would call that creative blur yeah, I there is actually times when when blur can be your friend and there are times when I don't want an image tech sharp as we were probably a few pictures that I took today those were all done on purpose so seriously though there are a few times when you can when you actually blur can be your friend. In other words, for instance, sometimes when couples are out on the dance floor, I'll take my camera off the manual focusing in manual manual settings and I'll put it on b for bulb in the b for ball mode and then I will I will pre focus on a on a location or a spot where the people are dancing and then I'll keep my shutter open and as long as you keep it open is going to keep the movement going and it's going cause this beautiful blur to happen as people are dancing but it's really interesting and it's very creative so there's a time for border you just have to you know if people are looking in the camera you expect their eyes to be sharp that's probably the one time when I would not I would throw out an image that was blurry is if the people if their eyes are not sharp and they're looking in the camera it's over ok next picture oh love it this is a very very nice image and there's many things I like about this photograph I love the facts notice where the light is coming from and the way that they've positioned the the model in relation to that light source all the movement is working the lightest coming it's a very it's a pretty light source there are a couple of things about it that are bothering me if you squint what's the first thing you see I see her chest first because it's brighter than our faces you see the problem is is that the light source is a bit too low in the eyes and I can tell because see where the shadow is falling on the notion of a shadow is falling almost up and so because of that there's a the lights a little bit lower right here and I'm seeing a little bit too much a little bit too hot right here but that's just that's again something very, very silly it's not it's not really it's not a flaw automatics is a very, very nice image. The one element that is holding this picture back is what? What is it? There's? No expression. You see, this is exactly what I'm talking about if she had a great laughing expression on her face because she's twirling her hair back if it had that energy of all laughing and and she's twisting her hair back then it would be believable but because there's nothing going on on that face there zero happening there it just looks like somebody went swish with her hair. Nothing going on. So this is a good example of it's close but it's not close enough because it lacks expression. And in fact, if they had a great expression, I wouldn't have even noticed where the light was there anything that would be it would be so insignificant we wouldn't care it's like it's a great picture, but with expression it would be like that it would be an opera singer, it would absolutely an opera singer what if they try to consider this as a profession style photography? Not like a family style would use to put expression on it or you just well, I think especially in fashion is expression important if you look at images now runway in runway, they don't have expression, the models don't they run, they walked down the runway. Deadpan is just straight, no expression on their face. But this isn't runway. This is more like editorial for what we would see, maybe in a fashion magazine. And so I would just feel like I want to see because of the way that there's movement in the hair because everything about this picture is saying there's fun and kicky and cute. But then there's no expression, it's different. It doesn't fall short and that's why, thank you. Good question. Um, let's, have the next image. Ok, um, there are things I like about this picture and there are things that are falling short for me. Um, first of all, I love the pictures of children. I think that that you know anyone who can photograph children successfully. You know, it takes a great deal of skill. I think it takes more skill to photograph children any day of the week than it does any wedding. Because there's so many more elements that go into it you can maybe sometimes reason with well maybe you can't reason with brides but but there's just more to going to photographing kids in my opinion there are with working with an adult on dso this child looks very relaxed and so that however this child is looking up with his eyes and with his eyebrows not his face and so I want to see I want to see where he's looking up to I feel like there's two things that are happening number one the light is a bit low and because of that I see the catch like way down here. The other thing is that you want the person to look up with their face and then be looking up in gazing. This child was looking up way too high and so we see a lot of the white of the eyes and so I would want to see you change that the other element that I'd like to see you as the photographer going and finesse a little bit your light is very soft you can tell it's got a nice little soft edged to the light it's not bad, but I want to see a little bit this is when you really could use a secondary light source a second light in the background never we talked about highlights, shadows and highlights well, this would be a good example of when we want to have some sort of white in the background to separate his head from the background as it is. His head just kind of faded away into darkness. And so it is. It becomes a bit too one dimensional. So, yes, michael, um, about the light in the background, like at a wedding. Can you use, like, uh, just a simple high powered battery? Uh, flashlight to get that, you know, light in the background. So that helps toe carve out the back. You can use anything as a life source. Not enough power we have on my table lamp around here. Anywhere. Is there a lamp around here? We can show this tomorrow. That's ok. Instead of, like, a like actual studio. Hot light. Exactly. You use anything, remember, light is light. Any thing at all could be your life source. The one element that you have to think about is that the color temperature of that light will go if it's like, if you're working with tungsten light, it can go a bit warm. For instance, the hall like that's. Right over here. I would want to use I'm going to look for existing elements. As my background like that would be my background like, but remember it's going to go it's going to go warm it's going to very warm light source? I have a video like that I bring with me to my weddings and that's a really cool way if you need to give a little bit of highlight to your background that you can use to just pop in the background just a little bit to give it a little bit more dimensionality for me. As a general, I try to minimize the amount of gear that I have to drag around, so I personally prefer to look for natural highlights in a background, which means I want overhead light fixtures. I'm looking for those as a background. I'll turn table lamps on I will, I'm looking for wall washes, you know those light pictures that earned the cans in the ceiling that wash the wall or on art pieces? Member sometimes they have fine art pieces that are illuminated that would make a terrific highlight in the background to give you a bit of dimensionality, and then you can light it from the front. Good question. Oh, yes on that so when you have two light sources that air completely different colors and you've got let's, say a tungsten lamp on in the background and you've got a window light on your subject do you just deal with that in post processing are well, there are times when I have dealt with it in post processing and because you're going depending on the time of the day that you're photographing if you're using window light but the light is getting very blue in the late afternoon, so I would neither either need to color correct for that I really like warm light in the background. I just like that. However, I always in my mind I'm thinking the worst case scenario that particular scenario would be my black and white scene. You know, if there's a huge difference between the blue light coming through the windows and the warm light in the background, that may be one of those times when I might want to import and add a little bit of flash bill so that I can catch the light that's on that's on the subject to be warm like it is in the background. Ok, good question, really? The questions um okay, let's, go forward. Um the light on this photograph is very hard. However, um I like I think hard light can be a very good thing and there are sometimes you can tell that the lights or see how tiny light sources on this subject space you can tell that it's a small light source why how you can tell because of the shadow under the nose and also the pinpoint light source in the eyes you see a lot of small light source used when in working with models so for that I'm not going to fault them too much for the unloved expression on the subject's face I do want to see a bit more a little bit more of what's going on e I feel like there's a little bit too much contrast on the subject and this is why here this started to look a bit muddy in here and sometimes when you work with just a little small light source and it looks like a little bit like they've added even contrast to this picture it gets a little bit muddy looking in here and I don't think that's very attractive for a young woman's face so if you want real high contrast in the eyes you have this real high contrast we want the skin to go white then I would over expose a bit either in camera or in post and then increase the contrast until you got rid of some of this muddle muddiness right here because it's just a little bit it's starting to make her look a little bit dirty right here or I'd go in and soften the skin using a bit of gaza blurring motions um ok uh give any of you have any questions that came through or do I meet another image I believe we have more images ok ok um let's look at this picture I there are number of things that I find really nice about this I think this subject the maker has done a really nice job of creating a various sweet portrait of this young woman I love the show you could tell that the subject is kind of leaning to one side that's good because we don't want to subject standing straight and tall but I want you to shut your eyes for a moment and now squint what is the first thing you see her hand? You see her hand is almost as bright as her faces and because this is where you see the back of the hand and you want to avoid that if you can I probably would have cropped this hand out possibly um it looks a little bit overexposed the skin tones on the face are look a little bit like there's no detail on the highlights on the face but it could be very well be this monitor I would like to just see a little bit so I want to see a little bit more cropping on that um let's see what else andi I'd like to see a softer light used on this subject this is ah small light source and the shadows a little bit hard on her and she has such a soft face and the expression is so soft that I'm feeling like it's competing with the hard light it see that that's where there's no harmony you know when you when you're creating images you want think this alight is the entire part of this is that does the lighting match the attire just the entire match the subject is it does it all work in harmony or do they fight with one another and presence with our little gal christine she had kind of a funky hard core almost like we could have easily taken her outside today if it had been a bright sunny day and photographed her using very strong light she could easily handle that because of the kind of clothing she was wearing it all fits within that fame does that make sense and so with this picture she has such a very soft sweet expression on her face I would like to have seen the lighting b a bit softer on her now do you need to have a big big soft box to get soft light how can you achieve that? What are some other ways with naturally well with any kind of light source bouncing off a wall panel yes you could bounce it off the wall now how is bouncing it off the wall going to give you a how is that going to soften that light because it creates the when the flash or naturally hits the wall it creates a larger light source the whole wall is now reflecting a lot. You are absolutely right. So for instance, if I were photographing your face you right here and now then I would want I would want to bounce the light off a wall, maybe opposite, maybe behind me or I'd probably move you out here and then bounce it off that wall right there and that's going to take a little tiny flash even on your camera, your little five eighty e x flash that has a head this big, which is a small light source if you're a minute that wall right there guess what you've just made that light source the size of that wall for my wedding receptions for wedding dancing parties and stuff like that almost almost all the time I bounce it off the wall almost all the time and it's so cute because during the reception somebody invariably comes up to me goes on like, this is like groups that caught me, you know, because my flash turned around and it's not turned around straight behind me. So friends, if I was photographing michael right here, I would turn my flash here or right there to that part of the white wall and it is the most beautiful soft light I wouldn't want to exactly like forty five, but I wanted about right in this area right here because it's going to really give me this big, big big light source it's very, very pretty and it's just so cute because people always come up to me at wedding receptions and go you know, you flash has turned around, you know, but that back behind you it's just hilarious. So try that it's a really, really pretty pretty technique forgiving taking a tiny light source which is on those little bitty flashes and turning it into a very, very large light source. It's also really pretty. For instance, if you were a wedding cake, if you were the wedding if you were the one, cases it's a stretch, any work with me ok, you can see if you were the wedding cake on my couple was cutting this cake right here I turn it right the flash right to that wall and then bounced this way so that it would skim across that cake this way and it's going to give you again forty five degrees it's going give you the detail on that cake and it's going to create some beautiful dimensionality and it's a big light source. On top of that terri tol full power, I usually use a t t l just simple tl and I'll views on higher eyes, so during wedding reception said that I can so I could not e I could use my batteries in an efficient way around eight hundred eyes so is generally what my eyes so is during a wedding reception if I don't have white walls to work with then I'm going to use the gary fong a light sphere that thing looks like a poll plunge her father's intelligence mike sorry here and mike wouldn't chat room just asked about the dairy farms and I like it I like it very much want to have one of those and I use it all the time and I called under but sorry gerri but what do you what do you call it? A toilet plunger listen looks just like a toilet plunger it is a great view but it's a really nice I like it because it really get it softens the light of very nice and when I don't have white walls to work with it's a nice way to wrap the light around your subject's face but I really like my favorite light though is to bounce it off a wall I don't bounce off the ceilings ever why would I not do that that's exactly right because it's going to give me a shadow under the eyes it's very unflattering and it's unnatural looking it's not very pretty at all but can you bounce that kind of behind you in the sailing and at the back wall it will depend on how high is I think you probably could do that I just personally prefer it about here not behind me because I don't want it to go I don't want a flat light my subject I wanted about right here you see the benefit to that yeah definitely like if you have if you have the shot right there and you had this wall and this is all you had would you like um go tungsten on your white balance and bounce it off that to get a better color on him with the flesh? No, I'm going to use for my wedding receptions and such I pretty much leave my camera on auto white balance just keep people on dh you know, that's one of the great things about working with good color labs like pwd don't have to worry about it I just send it in london before that I mean, auto white balance gets me in the ballpark it's going to get me I'm not going to be a little anal anne about, you know, bringing that little card along with me and take pictures and stuff like that, you know, with that little colored car there's all the pick the color tones on it, I just want to keep it simple and that gets me in the ballpark I say let the other people whose job it is to get my work pretty. I mean, I know how to get it in the ballpark. I just don't need to make you know I'm not making I'm not doing tabletop work. I'm not photographing dresses for catalog. If I were doing that, then yes, absolutely. I'm going to use one of those great cards or one of those things so I could get the color absolutely, but right, I get it in the ballpark it on real quick are all they're doing when you send it off to the lab is usually like this white balance color correction exposure black levels is that really all you know, whatever you want to know that you have tourette's little you can have them do all your retouch, right? But what do you have them? I have them get get it already with the exception of doing the retouching because I'm very, very I like driving that bus. I like getting I like doing that part myself. I'm very, very fussy and I'm so quick it what I know how to do. I'm very fast when it comes to retouching, I know exactly what I need to do and and I can usually retouch an image in about thirty seconds, so it doesn't take me too long to do that, okay, let's, go to the next image okay, first thing I want you to dio when you look at this picture, I want you to squint hey, what do you see this guy that's always see you see, I first of all, I love the editorial nature. This picture, I think it's very cozy, and I think the maker has done a really good job of making this couple very, very cozy with one another. The problem is, is that because of the angle that they shot this picture at that bright spot in the sky, the sky is the brightest part of the picture, and because of that it is good composure I completely away from the subject this is when you might a ladder would have been a very beneficial tool to have with you when you're doing engaging pictures. The other thing that I would like to see is is that the it looks a little awkward because she's the bride's almost having to look back over her shoulder just him, and so it doesn't suit thing, it doesn't feel believable to me, it seems a bit staged, whereas if he had his leg on the other side of her and then curled around her so that he was sitting mohr to the side like this, so in other words, she's here and then he's he's coming around her this way, then it would be much more believable, and I could feel the energy flowing between them. Do you see where the energy would be flowing this way? Whereas because now because her she's really having to look over her shoulder almost kiss him? It feels awkward, and it doesn't make me feel comfortable doesn't make me feel, but it's believable on that that pose when you have two guys to people looking at each other and the really close, I noticed, like, you tend to kind of do this because you're so close to each other and you're going to forecast or whatever. Is there something that you do to make sure? I mean, I kind of know, like, you know, stick your neck out because helps flatter you whatever, but I just noticed that you do a lot of this, especially when you're close to each other. Well, the key in doing images like that is you almost want them if you want a little bit of separation between people and then have them lean towards one another to kiss. If you tell a young woman with your chest, I want you to lean towards him, you know, t give a kiss. Then that feels because there's a little bit of room for them to move towards one another that's more believable the other thing is that you don't want their heads straight up and down up and down start straight up like this you would want her head tilted one way like that see how it makes it easier if the head is tilted towards the camera it feels better when you have that then there's room for her to lean in if there's a kiss he can leave his head this way hers this way but if you have two people like this, it just feels a bit awkward to have them trying to kiss straight up and down thie other thing is I find that it's not a good time to have people looking each other in the eye when they're that close because you can't so you want to find maybe a point you know? Maybe they're not actually it just looks like they're looking at one another but they're not she may be looking at his opposite ear so in other words, if I were looking if I were standing really close to you I might be actually looking at your ear on this side but it looks like I'm looking at your face from the camera from the position that you're standing so there's just a different positioning just remember to till the top of the head one way or the other and it'll it'll warm up that picture a lot, you know, just in general when people are looking away from you andi you're trying to do a profile of someone have them till the top of the head of it see how it looks so static to be sitting straight up like this whereas if I tilt my head this direction when you're looking at me it's softened my face it just softens the entire look even for guys guys can absolutely tilt their head too but more women than men you want to be careful as this and then do not tilt their head to the down shoulder it just looks very feminine when doing that lad had asked question about shadows on the neck I do what do you what your comments on that? Well, first of all, if you have someone lean and then tilt their head, you eliminate their shadows, you get those shadows on the neck see look what's going on here see why am I getting those shadows right here? Because I'm standing sitting straight up and down and then tilting my head? You see, it doesn't work that way, so you have to have that person lean in and then till that see how well we don't have that that that qingqing going on here because I'm leading with my entire shoulder this way and then tilting ahead so it just makes it a much softer look, so just remember that if you've got there are a couple things you want to do, you want to be careful of when people are looking down, you don't want him looking down tucking their chin when they looked down because this is going to create an unflattering angle here, so if I'm gonna have someone looking down, I want them leaning forward and then we're looking down, you see by leaning forward slightly and then looking down like you're peering into a pool, then you can look down and it looks softer and it looks more believable. It's amazing how much knowledge have it's only just a side the coldness of the oldest woman photographer in the country. So I hope I learned a few things after twenty five years, ok, who shot this picture? Ok, I really like first of all, I love the way you let her it's very pretty see how it's interesting that that background, what kind of blue and I like that you want to be really careful and it could be again this monitor you want to be really careful about your exposures and I have to say I was having a little bit more difficulty too when you expose digital media, you must expose for the highlights don't expose for the shadows you exposed with highlights that you'd want to blow them out because there's no detail in them then you can't use them, but I think it's a very, very pretty look on her face, one of the things that would benefit and look really cool with this image if we use the second like today was the day when we were going to use a single light source, but if we wanted to add a second light source and we might just pop in a little bit of reflector over on the right hand side to just give a little bit of snap, I love the fact that you've had her lean forward to the left a little bit it's very I like that really soft, graceful look about her and I especially like that little light trap right there that's really nice for me, I think that's important to see that you want to be careful when you're cropping your images, try not to crop off the arms, drop off either crop it tight or crop it at the f b hand. You know at the end of the hand, especially if you're going to be judged in photographic competition, they really have a problem with that they will have have a coronary over editorial pictures, you could get away with it and you know I have to tell you, I've dropped off many arms I've never had a client in my whole life say ukrop my arm off only photographers do that but overall I think he did a nice job congratulations very pretty yes, I noticed in the other a couple picture of the foot was chopped off is that okay? Do you think are your opinion on that? Yes you want if you especially you're seeing part of the foot you want to see the whole foot? I didn't notice that to be honest with you so yes you'd want you would want to either crop it close or leave the foot in and give a bit of breathing room and in fact the one thing about that other picture that was bothering me a little bit was the fact that the legs were like right into the camera they were straight in front of me and it kept pulling my eye away between that the bright spot of above and then the legs being in front was a little bit of a distraction. Okay let's go forward ok that's really really pretty that's really nice who shot that nice job, sweetie thank you. See how pretty that light is on her face. I'm really liking that very, very much the cool thing about this kind of an environmental picture there are so many things you could do look, I mean the wall kind of goes away doesn't it's not it it's not becomes unimportant I like the soft light on her face I love the light in her eyes I like the hand across the back of his head now I'm going to tell you again this is one of those areas that in real and photographic competition they tend not to like to see those they call that those the hot dogs but I'm sorry, I think it's believable if you love somebody, your hands are all over in their head I mean, I just think that it it creates a feeling of intimacy so I personally I advocate that I love that I love seeing hands in the hair and especially because of what it produces on the face, it just gives a bit of this's realities israel so I personally like that and I don't have a problem with it. Um I just kind of thinking that, um if you were to touch this up um maybe it's I'm burning or dodging whatever you do, um what would you do? Okay, what I would do with this picture I would definitely toned down the hands in the back on the back of his head because it's closer to the light source so it's a bit it's a bit hot for me, the second thing I'm going and soften her skin tones just a little bit um and then the last thing that I would do is just add a little bit of softest maybe converts the black and white. And the reason I would probably do some black and white converting here is that I think it would toned down even more so that brick and the brick would go away. I think that if this image was in black and white, we wouldn't even notice that it was brick back there. It would just kind of become so muted do you ever, like separate the background to make that black and white no heavens are really not know and the reason this is that it's so seriously off this horse cheesy I mean it's one of those things that this is where you have to be really careful with photo shop because photo shot can be our friend and photoshopped could be our enemy. And I cannot tell you how many times I have judged in competition and seeing pictures that the photograph itself was actually a really good print that they completely screwed up by mucking it up and photo shop and getting cute. Yeah, right thing you want to think about is that, you know, a five years from now or a year from now some of that stuff gets really super cheesy. I got married in nineteen seventy five, you know, it was really popular in seventies double exposure the bride in the room the gripe bride and the groom in the world in the wine glass I wanted that picture so bad it was funny it did I don't want that that one and I wanted that picture of the bride and groom gazing down on the ceremony like two angels I so didn't want that but I mean think about is that not like off the charts cheese aram a it is it's it's a cheese fest and yet isn't some of this stuff we're seeing today really close to that double exposure of the seventies and so I mean for me personally I just like to err on the side the side of clean and simple there are times when I go really across the I go, you know, quite hard core wacky and I'll show you some examples of that tomorrow, but it's in keeping with the context of that particular individual, but I would just say less is better and air on the side of beautiful photography so that things don't become a distraction. And the problem is that sometimes those photoshopped tricks are such a distraction that they pull them the viewer away from the mystique of photography and they make us think about photoshopped tricks and when that happens it really degrades your imagery um yes, terry, if you didn't convert to black and might for me and maybe I'm too persnickety but I'm looking at the readiness of his ear and his skin would you turn that down to absolutely yeah you'd want tone that beer down just a little bit but I really like so much what's going on with her face I think it's quite pretty she she's talking with her cheek and I think that's very very pretty I shot this at an aperture of four and a half so would you and I know I just don't have a fast long lens so would you mask put a gaussian blair and mask them out so you get the break a little bit more blurred if you don't have the right I would probably move them away from the brick farther I would move them farther away if you're using a lens it's f four just remember the farther you have your subject from the background the softer the backgrounds going to go it's going to be a little bit blurrier so it probably would have done that I don't know I'm real real I'm role careful about not using gaza board too much on the back when it gets a little bit too fuzzy of the seventies kind of look you know that kind of that smoking filters that used to drop into our house of bloods a long time ago so I'm kind of I'm personally just my own personal opinion I would probably not do that but that's just my own taste what I wouldn't do let's see one more image lloyd great image that's also someone who's this zero thank you those pictures this that's more ok, ok, so let's let me have you critiqued this uh exposure is a little bit off I think it's totally lost in details so I probably can't say that yeah, you know what though you might be able to do something that this would might be a new image. Yes, it is completely over exposed but I'll tell you what I like about what you did and what I noticed about you number one quality that I really like that you have exposure is the easiest thing in the universe fix ok? Anybody can fix that learn enough stuff from a bus stop, learn how to compose and exposed properly and you're home free because you've got good timing. Timing is important to learn good timing the difference between good timing and bad timing is the difference between, you know, capturing a couple or somebody like this the expression on the faces, their exposure is not there but you've got the expression which means that you understand timing, you know when to press the shutter and that's an important element that's a really important thing to learn to do so I would say concentrate that learning learning to get your exposure is correct and then once you've got that, you should be able to be able to snap, snap, snap and get great images. I'll tell you the best technician I have ever known in my entire life is a photographer by the name of gerry g honest if you have never heard him speak before, he'll be speaking. It skipped summer school this summer in july thirty first to august third he is absolutely by far the very best photographic technician I've ever known he shoots and j peg and you've got to be right on the money when you shoot j picks and his timing is absolutely unsurpassed really, really good, really good guy to learn from learning howto expose properly, so I would say in your where you are concerned really concentrate on getting the exposure down first and then you can shoot your guts out and use your timing to your advantage because I think there's a lot a lot of really fun things going on. I love the experience on her face a little bit too much light on that back chair, but still I think it's an interesting picture and I probably would just increase the contrast a whole bunch of this and and make that work for me the blown out highlights said that it's more editorial, this is what I'm talking about editorial pictures the general rules of of perfection are more lenient for editorial in other words, if you've got a really great expression, people start cutting you slack because it's not perfect because the expression is there so and I'm not telling you to be sloppy photographers, but I'm saying if you have to make a mistake, err on the side of expression and learned to get your exposures right and then you don't have to compromise ever okay in her hand, I think I just I just got lucky with that it was yes side that's exactly what you want to do the hands at the hands up like this you want to do the fighting and that was just her yeah, I don't director, so yeah, well, we're going to cut you slack tomorrow we're expecting perfection way I think we have time for one more image what you would do with the stand actually, because the stand was in the picture and that's where the hand wass I wouldn't worry about the stand being in the picture. I just doesn't, said its editorial. I just went even I wouldn't even to me it's not based on perfection, that picture is not the normal rules of perfection wouldn't apply obviously I would not want that to be there, so I want that same kind of expression you know in my perfect world or in a world that will shoot tomorrow I want him to pay attention to those elements so he doesn't so he did so he doesn't have those things in his background okay let's look at this picture for a little bit I like your whose image is this okay um okay I think was the same exposure just cause I just snapped it twice oh I see ok ok I like the proposed I think it's nice you gotta hit pushed one way or the other I like your composition very much I think that you've got to see how the energy is kind of flowing in that direction um what do you think of the composition where I cut her off oh, I don't have a problem with cutting her face off at all but that's where the things I do all the time with the ugly girls just the look on your face is priceless no I'm just getting you know every once in a while cutting off like portions of the face are fine only once in a while though I'm not giving you because if you do it let me once in an entire session maybe do it because I promise you you're gonna have some mother go oh you could his head off and he's like hello yeah I know I meant to do that because then it pulls because sometimes when you have like a view of the entire head and we expect it to be more perfect so I think that there's a lot of room for improvement in this. I'd like to see less she's standing straight into the your camera against the turn, her body a bit more to one side. And I think you'll have a better image. But other than that, it's. Not a bad attempt.

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

I'm very grateful to have the opportunity to lean from this course. This is such a fantastic value. Thank you, Bambi, for your time and talent. Thanks to Creative Live for making this resource available to us. I'm very, very thankful.

a Creativelive Student
 

I discovered CreativeLIVE this weekend. I am so glad that I did. This workshop was fabulous! I watched as much of the live broadcasts as I could. Then I kept my computer on throught the night so I could watch the rebroadcasts. I was compelled by all that I learned to purchase the course. Bambi is an incredible, down to earth, informative and funny woman. Her insights will have already helped me shape my future as a professional photographer. Thanks for a fine, influential weekend.

user-dae64a
 

WOW BAMBI!!! Thanks so much for your generosity and love in the abundant information you gave us during this posing and lighting course. I have had dozens of aha moments throughout the course and your practical tips have changed my photography forever. I see the direction of light and know exactly where to place myself and my subject confidently and swiftly. I still have a ton of practicing to do but this class gave me a great start . I plan on re-watching the classes and give myself some mini exercises to practice what you taught....Oh...and i wish I can remarry my husband of 15 and a half years so you can be my wedding photographer :)

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES