Much thanks to Gizelle for helping me set up my "studio" and for her persistent patience.
I shot this in my bedroom. Gizelle is seated in a papa-san chair, with a dark red sheet hung up behind her, a light shining through it. There are two catch-lights in front, one diffused through a white sheet, the other farther back with a naked bulb.
I did a fair bit of photoshopping here, mostly because the original image was too dark, and so I had to play with levels and then deal with the grain (slight neat-image). I also blurred the background a bit, since it was even more obviously a sheet beforehand. Cloned out small eccentricities like a wrinkle here or there and a distracting fold in the back cloth. Finally, brightened up the eyes. Really, though, she did most of the work for me - not much to "fix".
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Place: 44 out of 92 Avg (all users): 5.6383 Avg (commenters): 6.4615 Avg (participants): 5.3077 Avg (non-participants): 5.7647 Views since voting: 1303 Views during voting: 371 Votes: 235 Comments: 28 Favorites: 0
The message A beautiful painting-style portrait of a woman who seems intelligent and mysterious as well as attractive.
Creative choices The red background really brings out the model's skin color. The simple top is wrinkled just right to give a classic "draped" look, although the outline of her bra showing through add a modern touch. The digital noise is effective here, adding to the painted look.
Technical aspects Focus is fine. Exposure was dark, but adequately saved with Photoshop. The color around the edge of her hair seems off, but is otherwise great.
Very warm tones. Background and her skin tones compliment each other nicely. The lighting is a touch dark for MY taste, but still very well done. You have a nice sense of depth and you captured the folds in her blouse nicely!
TC
Good pose and expression and I find the soft effect and colors of this image to be quite artisitc. Atomosphere is good but I wish the skin tones looked more natural.
Such a beautiful model. The contrasts between the blouse and the dark surroundings creates a bit of a distraction to me. Maybe more light for the BG or a more muted color for her blouse? Her face is shadowed heavily on its right side. I think that with a lighting adjustment, this could be a beautiful portrait. :o)
Lighting: While you have a nice catchlight in her eyes, a small backlight aimed at the back of her head would have provided some very needed separation between her dark hair and the dark background. The lack of detail, color shift and banding (hair mainly) in the dark areas suggests this was underexposed and then lightened during post-processing. The right side of her face needs a fill light to counteract the harsh shadows.
Pose: The pose is nice, very well executed. However, it was likely not the best pose for her choice of clothing. With her leaning back as she is, the shirt falls too heavily on her undergarment providing some very distracting lines to an otherwise excellent draping of the fabric. Finally, on a related note, the tight cropping on the left (removing her arm) is undesirable.
Background: There is not enough detail left in the background to say more than I mentioned above, except that a lighter background would have bounced light back on the model, helping to light her, instead of pulling the light from her.
A shot with a lot of potential lost due to what appears to be low lighting.
Striking model, color, and compostion. A little more light on the left side of the face and neck would help some. The light on her face needs to be just a bit more diffuse also.
Like the model, she goes well with the low-key style of this shot. I'm guessing you intended the focus to be soft- it's not quite as effective as it could be.
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