Girl on the Beach

[GB1]

From a recent model shoot. Timed to catch the surfer walking by. Comments?

G

[Skyman]

Her pose doesn't look comfortable. The way she is holding her arms feels awkward and the contrast between the bent front leg and the stretching far leg looks too contrived. Her head angle, eye angle and expression all seem to be contradicting each other so it is hard to get a mood from the model.

The graffitti on the rock needs cloning out and the sky is blown out to the point of being distracting.

I do like the composition though (especially the surfer in the flare of the sun on the water)

tough call, more light on her so you could bring back the highlights in the sky would darken the rest of the scene which might either kill the effect, make it look un natural or turn it into more of a silhouette shot.

If the model were more natural / comfortable I guess I wouldn't be distracted by the highlights as much. I think making her wait so the surfer was in the right spot might not have helped (although it doe improve the composition)

[AgingEyes]

That blown out sky is very bad here man. Sorry. I'm assuming that you didn't do it intentionally.

I would have set the camera exposure setting based on the background and use the flash-light to get the model in the foreground properly exposed. I have a feeling that's what you did but the background looks to me is over-exposed. Perhaps you want to show some details of the surfer??

I'm no expert in posing but I think her pose could be better (especially her belly)

[Greg McCary]

I agree . Way to many brown out highlights.

[Greg McCary]

It looks to me like an easy sky replacement. There are hundreds or how to videos on youtube that teach outdoor flash photography. I think you should watch a couple. AE is right. Expose the camera for the background, under expose it a little and the set the flash for the subject. Control ambient light with shutter speed and flash lighting with aperture.

[Ridgetop]

Besides some of the other comments, her bikini top is almost same color of the sky which is creating an illusion of her chest being invisible or something. The twisted neck is adding kind of a funny look to her face. ..almost as if it is separate from her body.

I do like what you tried to do here though.

[GB1]

Thanks for the feedback. Like most group model shoots, you don't always get the chance to analyze things as well as you'd like since the model's trying to make everyone happy by moving around a lot (and making eye contact here and there). Snafu on my camera setting that I really should have immediately figured out and corrected...

Skyman, she's 16 and still learning poses. Looking at her shots from that day, none look super comfortable to me, alas, she seemed like she was having a blast (maybe there's little connection between how you feel and how you look. Hm). I wasn't sure on the graffiti, decided to leave it in and see what people said - sometimes it can spice things up a bit.

AE,Greg - Yep, I know all about balancing fore and background lighting, and did shoot flash here (as you can see from the EXIF data). Unfortunately things didn't pan out like I wanted, as I had the camera set on A which restricts the shutter to no faster than 1/320. That with the f6.3 aperture (to blur the background) doomed the background .. should have put it on Manual which would have allowed me to expose the background independently. Brain freeze. Unfortunately, don't think the background is recoverable for combination of two exposures expt. Anyway, this is what happened to this set of shots on that pose.

Ridgetop, didn't notice the bikini top issue (it was a clam shell design), and do agree that her head looks awkward here. Maybe this other shot here is better - same background over-exposure, but it does make it seem somewhat like a dream ...

Gb

[iyuphoto]

GB,

I really like the overall colour tone of both pictures. The second one I liked better though. The pose seems more natural and having her hair covering her face just makes the picture more mysterious. I also like how her hair in the second picture is draping along her back. Too bad the wind here is causing some of her hair to go astray. But I guess when you're outside, the elements are difficult to control.

What is she holding in her hands as prop-- Christmas lights?! It's not distracting but I just don't understand it. :-p


Respectfully,

iyuphoto

[GB1]

Thanks iyuphoto. That thing she's holding is sea weed. Yep, and it's all over the beaches here. You don't like the wind blowing her hair? I think it adds a nice casualness about the shot, plus energy, but some may feel it looks untidy.. I think it depends on the type of shot the model and photographer are doing.

Welcome to the site btw. Post some shots.
G

[iyuphoto]

Ah yes, seaweed! Of course! I feel like such an idiot thinking it was Christmas lights. :-p

I do love how the wind is blowing the hair across the model's face. It makes the picture more mysterious and sexy. I'm good with that. It's those strands of hair at the back of the model's head that I was referring to in my earlier post.