studio protrait

[hellinvader]

I recently brought a pair of Alien Bee's B400, and this is the 1st set of pix taken with these strobes. Any comments or critiques are always welcome
Set up:
2 B400 placed @ 45/45 with 48" softbox & 48" umberla
a DIY 8 blubs light as fill, in front of the subject with DIY softbox
a SB800 with 48" umberla for background light
and my SB30's battary was dead...so no hair light...

[Peter_AUS]

Don't crop so close, think about the placement of the subject.

White Balance the photo.

DOF, what setting did you use on your camera.

Work with one light first and accomplish lighting with that first then add other elements and learn each one as you improve.

Focus on the eyes.

Asian faces are better when not capture full on, turn the head, walk around with the camera and look for the most flattering angle. Not that these aren't flattering.

Stray hairs in the face, it is hard with Asian Hair as it is usally (in my experience) thicker than general caucasian hair.

Overall as first images these aren't too far from real good images.

Saturation and contrast, have a look at those in the software you are using for post processing.

Camera and settings are always a good idea to post with the images as well.

Hope that helps in some way.

Example

[hellinvader]

Don't crop so close, think about the placement of the subject.

White Balance the photo.

DOF, what setting did you use on your camera.

Work with one light first and accomplish lighting with that first then add other elements and learn each one as you improve.

Focus on the eyes.

Asian faces are better when not capture full on, turn the head, walk around with the camera and look for the most flattering angle. Not that these aren't flattering.

Stray hairs in the face, it is hard with Asian Hair as it is usally (in my experience) thicker than general caucasian hair.

Overall as first images these aren't too far from real good images.

Saturation and contrast, have a look at those in the software you are using for post processing.

Camera and settings are always a good idea to post with the images as well.

Hope that helps in some way.

Example

thx for your comments,
i shot these pix with M mode @ ISO200 f/5.6 1/125 with either 28-85 nikkor or 80-210 nikkor on D100 and connected the camera to lab-top using Nikon Capture 4
the pix were actually sharper and color were better b4 resizing
i just resized it in PS CS2 and didnt do color correction nor sharpening.
and possibly the color show differently on different monitor, the original's color is almost same as your fix, just a bit not as saturated.