This was my first real attempt at portraiture. I also recently found a willing model (Anchaya). :) She's a great friend from high school, has professional modeling experience, and it doesn't hurt that she happens to be gorgeous. ;) I wasn't going to shoot a challenge this week, but then I saw that I had a chance to show my love for the nectar of life. :D I live and breath for Guinness, so this contest HAD to be shot. :) I used natural light coming in from a sliding glass door on an overcast day. The glare on the pint glass bothers me a little, but it was the best of the lot and think it might actually work for the shot given her pose. I don't think it will score very highly, but I was glad to finally get some experience with portraiture and actually happen to be very fond of the shot. :D
Statistics
Place: 17 out of 127 Avg (all users): 6.2654 Avg (commenters): 8.4000 Avg (participants): 6.0784 Avg (non-participants): 6.3023 Views since voting: 2205 Views during voting: 639 Votes: 309 Comments: 23 Favorites: 2 (view)
Congatulations on a fine score, and fine portrait!! I've looked through your portfolio and find your success with this shot to be at all "beginners luck". You have a fine eye and some great technical skill. Your interpretation of the challenge is spot on, you have made me thirsty!! Good job.
Within the constraints of the basic editing guidlines you were prohibited from reducing the glare on the glass, correcting her bloodshot left eye, or removing the digital noise spot from the flip near the end of her hair. But now that the hooplah has faded, I would revisit those issues in postproduction.
For me, the distacting element in the photo is in the cropping department. The model is clearly more interested in something out the window, or at least in the same direction as the light source than she is in the beer. I am left feeling "what's going on out there?". Leaving some imagination to the viewer is fine. In this case I'm thinking there is probobly some hunk at the bar.
With such a strong glare from the model into the same direction as the source of the glare on the glass, wouldn't it be nice to give us additional mystery by extending the cropping to include more negative space in the direction of the light source? With such strong visual lines, glare and gaze, I might have tried to extend those dynamics by using a wider crop to enhace where all of the energy of the frame is already headed.
I think this was really well done, congrats on the top 20! Great matching tones, and managing to get the hair lit so well must've been a challenge in natural light! Cheers! (also a fan of Guiness)
Knockout pairing, perfect color pallette. I can hear it now: "You have lovely hair and skin. It reminds me of Guinness." Fine touch with lighting. Every choice on target. Why go on? Perfect. Congratulations.
two beauties. a direct look into the camera, esp a "come hither" look with a knowing smile would make this perfect. so perfect that it should be slogan for Guinness
best of luck
Great lighting and attention to presentation of product. Logo on glass is in a difficult place to be 100% effective but the negative space provide an area for text. Very nice job.
Nice shot, put together in a very classy way, certainly in keeping with the more cultured market of Guiness rather than the halftime/beach party aspect that most beers go for in their ads.
The spaghetti strap suggests that timeless "little black dress" which suggests to me that this is a totally gorgeous woman aesthetically pleasing to the eye as well as having the discriminating palate for the Guiness.
Though by and large I find using beautiful women to sell things is chauvinistic, this is done so tastefully I can forgive it.
The lighting, choice of dress color, her hair, her eyes, the body of the Guinness all work beautifully with her skin tone to really make a terrific ad.
The only thing I could find that I could not totally sign off on is the weird reflection that almost looks like an "N" above and to the left of the "G" in Guinness.
Other than that, it's nigh onto a perfect shot in my book for photo quality and composition.
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