Hi. I'm new here.

I am new in these parts, so I wanted to say hi and post a photo to see what you guys think. I do a lot of portraits and I LOVE black and white. This is a promo shot I did for a local band.[IMG]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7450/9...35d9f7d055.jpg[/IMG]

I too am a fan of b and w. Love the sharpness of this shot.

It is difficult for me to get the stark blacks and whites. Might suggest a hair light to help separate the subject from the background a bit.

I agree! However I was in the music studio and only had an external flash with a home made soft box over it. It was a small space so I really had no room for lighting. Work with what you got right? :-)

Overall a nice shot. I think that character is well portrayed here. The face is a bit blown out, for instance it is difficult to define the nose. (However, I like the blouse being blown out). Also, I think the microphone is just a little too close, though, that might be decision made on purpose To me, it just accentuates a forced pose as opposed to natural. From what you have written, the space may have defined what could or couldn't be done.

Yes there was EXTREMELY limited space, about 3 feet to be exact lol. And it is for a 20's jazz band so I was going for that kind of old hollywood type of of look which was a lot of times very high key but I do see what you are saying.

Welcome Yellow Bird. I like the shot as I think it makes connection with the camera (and viewer). The eye contact works, and the lips also catch my attention, although I think they look a bit too perfect :)

Technically, I wonder why you don't have this in portrait format? Though it's not fatal, I don't immediately see why you cut off the to of the hat and have so little space at the bottom (almost clipping the mic), only to show the black area to the left? The post processing (skin smoothing in particular) is also a tad too intense for my personal tastes, though I understand that peoples' opinions vary regarding this.

The fade of the hair into the black background gives it very retro feeling somehow. Maybe this is because the trend is to separately light the hair in such a situation, or use software to pull it out a bit in post.

Anyway - welcome again, and keep posting.

g

Very nice shot! I also thought the mic was too close and would like to see it a little bit farther away from her face. Other than that everything works well.

I actually have another one as well, the one I posted was just my favorite. Irving Penn who was a famous french vouge photographer (for those that may not have known) used to photograph people in corners to make them feel uncomfortable because he thought you got better emotion that way, I tend to crop things in a way that makes people uneasy(?) because then they spend more time looking at it. It sounds stupid when I try to explain it lol. I do things the traditional way for clients then a little bit different for myself, but a lot of times my clients like my way better so I just continue to do so. And annoyingly enough I didn't really do anything to her lips or skin, she is just hispanic with amazing lips and skin... like I said, so annoying! This is the other one that I have that is more traditional, and this is about as much room as I had to shoot her in,

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yellowbird13/9625858086/" title="43 by Yellow Bird Photography, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5485/9625858086_58dd0568eb.jpg" width="397" height="500" alt="43"></a>