[Jones]

I definitely did a speed edit, which includes some ‘destructive’ skin blurring, but unless you’re retouching for a magazine, you don’t have the luxury to do that to every single portrait. For what it’s worth, CC, I didn’t see any edit errors on your version so that probably means nobody else will, either. Unless you were talking about my version, in which case I fully accept it! :p my edit was probably 5mins or so.

[Jones]

Here’s my take on the girl.

 

I am, by no means whatsoever, a photoshop master, but as portraits are my focus I get lots and lots of teens with really (sorry) bad skin as we all had at that time of our lives.

I tried a technique that I regularly use on females. Not as good as I would have liked, but as ebi said, you can’t go dodging and burning when you’ve got lots of images like that. Awesome for a magazine cover you HAVE to get right, not so awesome when you have that, 50 other photos, and 3 other sessions to work through, and you’re constantly shooting more.

 

Anyway, let me know what you think. I suspect that CC and I may perhaps be using a similar (or the same, even. lol) technique.Maybe it’s just opposite around here, but I have actually had seniors upset feeling that I over-retouched their face (when, in fact, I didn’t actually do any photoshopping to their face in that particular example!)

I find leaving some of the ‘imperfections’ there makes your photo more alive.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63706846@N08/10339248425/sizes/o/in/photostream/

[Jones]

I got to meet, hang out with, and shoot (!!) with Joe McNally on two separate occasions — what an absolute pleasure. I find him a huge inspiration.

Calvin Hollywood is my inspiration for retouching. Love his style, and the effects he gets.

Lindsay Adler makes me swooooon over her lighting and stylistic ideas.

I also got to meet Frank Doorhof! That was just plain fun.

I admire Scott Kelby, of course, for his success and his willingness to share with others. I’ve also met him numerous times — great guy.

[Jones]

I agree — let’s see ebi’s flickr! 🙂

[Jones]

It’s not something you can (really) control too much, without having other equipment, but the bokeh in that shot looks very ‘nervous’ to me (that’s a way to describe it, sure…) to the extent that it’s distracting as it’s the first thing I look at. The cut off flower pot bothers me, but just a tiny bit. Would have been curious to how an even lower angle would look, shooting up at the fence. That would help block some of that bokeh too.

[Jones]

I got a 7. The third one is where I messed up and lost 4 points. Oddly enough, they were all right next to each other where I goofed, so I must have a weakness there. Neat test.

[Jones]

The sharpening is evident, but I am nonetheless curious at what she may do.

 

Please don’t take my comment as a “do not shoot or post this” sort of thing. I am just saying that you want to put business on business, and personal on personal. Or even business on personal, but not personal on business. 😉 Point being, really good photography on your personal page still looks like really good photography, but maybe not so exciting photography on your business one, and that’s what folks are going to remember, regardless of how many good photos you had on there as well.

[Jones]

Seems you’ve got lots of nice environment/landscape sort of shots and then you get a nice cohesive flow; all of a sudden, some average shots of kids are thrown in. It’s cool if you shoot portraits, but there aren’t enough of them on your page to make it look like it’s something you focus on, so either nix them entirely or do it more often.

 

Personally, IMHO portraits are not your strong point. The worst thing that you can do (I won’t say NEVER, because that doesn’t apply in photography) but you ALMOST never shoot a kid from a top angle. That’s where we all see them from! Interest would be to get down on their level, interact, and shoot them there.

 

There is a way to make your photos look pretty much as sharp as they will on google or anywhere else (just not at full size like the other sites let you view). I never post any verticals on facebook (unless it’s a set of two verticals together, which is basically a horizontal) because it just isn’t as effective. Amanda Holloway Photography on facebook has this technique down. I’m still trying to experiment with how she does it. I’ve gotten very close, but it’s not quite there. check out some of her images for examples of actual facebook sharpness.

[Jones]

FWIW, I’ve used AlienBees before and since I work a lot and see so many wedding dresses, they *do* have a VERY slight color temp variance, but it’s not really a huge problem except for super critical things, and even then, non-super-critical clients won’t notice.

 

I have a set of Photogenic Monolights, and have to say I am VERY proud of them. They are from my former photography teacher, pristine condition and they have been popping for at least 30 years as far as I know. She chose them specifically for the lack of color shift. However, they are not budget friendly lights like the Bees.

[Jones]

I think I’ve got it, guys! http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/1603/k0e3.jpg

[Jones]

Just wanted to toss this out there, as for the “marketability” of saying that you are a natural light photographer, I fully believe it has relevance in headshot work. I’ve been asked about headshots and as I begin to do them more, many agents require a natural light (I suppose more appropriately “outdoor” not “studio”) photo.

 

Unless you’re Peter Hurley.

[Jones]

The AF adjustment could vary from lens to lens. It is adjustable yourself to a point (minor front or back) but anything major would need to be sent in. Problem is a lens on your body may behave completely differently from a different body, so the manufacturer might not be able to “fix” it.

[Jones]

Just a note as a Nikon shooter that they do have AF adjustment. It’s called Autofocus Fine Tune. I think some models may not have the feature. There are articles specifically for Nikon (and some specifically from Nikon I believe) on how to use it.

[Jones]

Tell her it’s because you own a DSLR. 😉

 

..not really.

[Jones]

Thank you very much — worked really hard for the opportunity to get that job. Children models (especially this particular one!) have even less time than adult ones. I appreciate the kind comments.

[Author]

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