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We finally got our act together and tried some portraits of Alicia.

What I found was that you need:

1. A decent amount of space to set up a "studio".
2. Good backdrops.
3. An understanding of how lighting works.
4. A decent understanding of what poses work.
5. Photographic skills.

Unfortunately, my stock of these was quite low.

However, I would really appreciate C&C on these (posted with Alicia's approval ). In particular - what kind of lighting works, what to think of in terms of flattering poses, etc.







Choice of clothing was a bit limited - I personally think they were a bit too dark.

Cheers

P

I really like these..

No1 is my pic. It could be better if she was wearing the same as 3.

Good job though.

Cheers
MATT

Patrick Patrick Patrick!?!?
Criticism? Hmm...that's not easy.
I think you've achieved a truely great outcome!
Can you imagine the joy you will get from showing 'junior' these images in years to come?? great emotive stuff!! You've done well son! The only thing I'd 'critique' is that in the first image Alicia doesn't seem too happy about having the photo taken. Obviously it's hard to tell where this photo fell in the actual shoot sequence but the way you've posted them seems like she warmed up to the idea as the images progress. It could be considered a pensive shot, but it looks more like 'I'm over this pregnancy thing'. I'm sure I'm wrong but it's how it appears to me.

Your thoughts on the clothing being too dark...in my opinion, yes and no.

No because they accentuate the beauty of the pregnancy and the skin tones contrast well with the darkness.

Yes, because perhaps some colour would add more (for want of a better word) vibrance to the image.

To me, your lighting setup is spot on.

The perfectionist in me (when looking closely) wants to remove the quite obvious wrinkle in the material in the 2nd shot, but that's nitpicking.

I also think that these would look good in B&W.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Geoff, in the first image (they were posted in the order they were taken), Alicia was a bit uncomfortable, and she is a little over the pregnancy (some days, when bub is sitting heavy)

The backdrop was a bit of a pain and I wasn't happy with the wrinkles.

One thing that I got a lot of satisfaction about was that I was targeting some 'rembrandt' type lighting, which I think I managed to achieve in a couple of shots.

I still have a lot to learn about lighting ratios, placement, etc, but it was a lot of fun.

Thanks again for the encouraging words.

P

Great set of photos. I don't want to parrot what Geoff said but I completely agree. I'd love to see these in a low key B&W treatment.

A great counterpoint would be to do a high key set - white clothes, white background.

I really like the low key of number 1 but the radiant facial expression of number 2. I prefer it when you can't see the distinctive line of the clothes and think that number 3 would look great like this - the emphasis would be totally on the tummy and the body.

(By the way, tell her that she looks great - my last baby was almost 12 lb and I would have never bared my stomach to anyone!)

PAtrick,

Excellent series,

No, the clothign isn't too dark, but you to, with adjustments to the lighting, introduce a bit of separation between the subject and the background. That will address the problem of Alicia blending into the background as has happened in the first of these.

Yes, you do need some distance/space to set up these images properly. I sense that the lights were a bit too close, as I'm seeing some blow-out in Alicia's right hand in the second, and in the bump on the third. I suspect that your light-to-subject distance was a tad limited, and thus you have a lesser range within which to work in order to gain an acceptable exposure. I'd probably dial down the power of the flash a little n order to try to overcome that sort of issue.

Great stuff, and well done to Alicia too por having the courage to permit you to post these personal, but very beautiful and emotive images.

Patrick, Alicia, well done. A lovely series of shots.

My favourite would have to be #2, then #3 - as these, to me anyway, show the radiance of a mother-to-be. And #1 shows the other side of it -yeah, I'm over this whole thing scenario.

Brings back fond memories of (too) many years ago. A wonderful time. Well done.

Cheers, Mick

Thanks everyone - the positive and constructive feedback is very much appreciated.

Marvin wrote:(By the way, tell her that she looks great - my last baby was almost 12 lb and I would have never bared my stomach to anyone!)

12lbs! Wow

rooboy wrote:I'd love to see these in a low key B&W treatment.

A great counterpoint would be to do a high key set - white clothes, white background.

I tried a number of different B&W conversions, particularly in no 3, but the stomach blew out too much (don't tell Alicia I said that! )

I too would have loved to try a high key set however, we don't really have any good white backgrounds.

gstark wrote:
introduce a bit of separation between the subject and the background. That will address the problem of Alicia blending into the background as has happened in the first of these.

I was really aiming for some form of background separation, given the colour of both clothing and background, and was using the Metz for this. However, the batteries in the Metz were dying a slow death (they lose charge over time!), I forewent its use and used one of the brollies to try to provide some hairlight and separation, without a great effect, unfortunately.

gstark wrote:Yes, you do need some distance/space to set up these images properly. I sense that the lights were a bit too close, as I'm seeing some blow-out in Alicia's right hand in the second, and in the bump on the third. I suspect that your light-to-subject distance was a tad limited, and thus you have a lesser range within which to work in order to gain an acceptable exposure. I'd probably dial down the power of the flash a little n order to try to overcome that sort of issue.

I agree totally with what you said, and a key issue was the light-subject-background distance - I was using the 17-35 in all of these!

There is also the major issue of learning (via loads of practice) how to set these things up and reduce the trial and error approach (which doesn't suit my personality one bit!) associated with this.

gstark wrote:Great stuff, and well done to Alicia too por having the courage to permit you to post these personal, but very beautiful and emotive images.

I would honestly expect that her permission is at least partly a result of her interest in photography as well. She doesn't like her own picture taken, so for her to allow me to post these, I was very thankful and it did take a fair bit of courage from her - that's why I am a lucky bloke!

Oscar wrote:My favourite would have to be #2, then #3 - as these, to me anyway, show the radiance of a mother-to-be. And #1 shows the other side of it -yeah, I'm over this whole thing scenario.

I think that describes exactly how she feels - she wouldn't trade it for a thing, but has more recently been asking if I can take over carrying the bub for a while


Thanks again for the feedback.

Patrick