Natalia - vertical or horizontal?

[jetrim]

Shot one of the contestants for this year's Miss Florida, yesterday afternoon. Once the formal shots were out of the way we played around with some other stuff...

Absolutely loved this big floppy hat she brought along, but wondering how much of it to show in this one. The vertical is uncropped out of the camera.

[Greg McCary]

Horizontal. I don't like how here arm is in the first one. But still an excellent shot. I really have no issue with either just my taste.

[jetrim]

Thanks Greg, but I replaced the originals after fixing a specular that was driving me nuts on the top lip so the one you referred to as "the first" is now the second

[arne saknussen]

The horizontal for me too. It has more focused appeal I think. The second shot is nice, but the arm and the point on the hat pulls the focus down.

[OldClicker]

I would like to vote for both, but if pressed, will go for the vertical. I think the hair wrapped around the arm is different/nice. My nit-picks (for both) would be the hat cut off on the right side and the highlight is to large/bright. Caveat – Layman’s view; I am not a portrait photographer. – Terry

[gahspidy]

Tough call, I too like both. I think I am leaning towards the vertical because I like the neg space, the vertical arm and the hair wrapping around it as Terry mentioned as well.
Both are really good. I am noticing some kind of blemish on the top lip. could use to be smoothed out. wondering if thats where the specular was you were mentioning.

[draymorton]

Vertical, for the reasons Gary mentioned.

[jetrim]

I am noticing some kind of blemish on the top lip. could use to be smoothed out. wondering if thats where the specular was you were mentioning.

The specular was a BRIGHT white line at the top edge of the upper lip where it dives downward in the center. The ultra glossy lipstick picked up the softbox where the top lip starts to roll back into the skin. I just cloned over it at 50% opacity to knock it back a bit - still visible but not as pronounced. I think I see what you're talking about but it's not as pronounced in the high res version - may be a casualty of resize/compression.

Thanks for the input everyone else has given. I could probably add the missing hat edge from another shot, but I think it's not as critical in the horizontal as it is the vertical.

[jetrim]

and the highlight is to large/bright.

It's a really friggin' big softbox - 4'x6' and was placed about 5' away so it makes a really big catchlight!

[hminx]

Prefer the vertical crop and I agree with Terry that the bright catch lights almost over power the eyes

[jetrim]

here's the landscape crop with lips fixed (actually bumped the saturation too) and catchlight reduced - will do the same with the portrait oriented. Thanks for all the feedback on this one!

[armando_m]

Really like the last edit

the red lips look great,

this are like teasers, leave me wanting to see more

[GB1]

wow, this shot gets me dizzy! The one eye makes a strong fashion statement, IMHO ... I prefer the close up one of her as the other, with arm clipped off, looks a little odd to me. Very sharp, very creative.

G

[LeeIs]

wow. I love them both equally but if someone put a gun to my head and made me choose.... I would go with the vertical, only because I love the negative space and love the point of the hat.

both are super great!!