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Quote: Ade do you pay for a profile on there ? i have a profile on MM and Purestorm but it's just a free account, and both limit you to 8-10 shots i think. Just wondered if it was worth shelling out a few quid for a silver account or whatever they call it
Just the free account.
I've not had loads contact me, about 10-15, of which about 6 have come off.
they usually get in touch because of my "style" - just different to most togs on MM who do those well lit generics in studios with white backgrounds.
Maybe they're into fields and shadows and brooding skies lol
Well, as promised, here is a shot from my first attempt at off camera flash.
Lighting used was two speedlights 580 in front and above model and 430 on the other side of the pool to add a bit of fill. Both fired through umbrellas. I have to thank Sam for being a great model for the afternoon, she is a cyclist and her real day job is a fireman. But she wanted some shots as she's been entered into a charity figure competiton later in the year. I took about 100 shots in different poses and we got 28 that we both liked. So I'll post some more soon when I've processed them.
All I've done to this is crop it slightly and remove some mucky marks from the floor. No sharpening or whitening of eyes, she just has a great face.
So, comments & critique will be welcome, I would really be interested in what you think. I was going for a sunny relaxed feel & hope that's what we acheived.
Large version is in my portfolio.
morning
from what I think you was trying to achieve I think your biggest problem is background separation, her hair is blending into the wall, and the colours/tone are too similar, though it works better on the second shot,
introducing a rim light would of helped with this, look at Ade's images on the first page of this thread to see what i mean
the lighting and the pose is good, you may try dodging the highlights down a bit on the leg,
did you try shooting with the pool as the background?
Thanks Steve, I didn't think of a rim light, but I did do a shot outside with the sun behind lighting her hair and a fill in for the face.
I forgot that the wall was this colour, I thought it was darker, but there we go. I will have a go with the highlights though.
Didn't use the pool as a background this time, I was trying to work it out, as it's very small I was trying to work out how to do it. But Sam is going to come down again for another go, so we are going more into the pool next time. This below is one where we went partially into the pool. The lights were over the other side of the pool. I also went for a smaller apeture to take out the bricks a little.
I like this one,
next time try her coming out of the pool, so the pool is the background
do you have pool ladders she can be climbing out of the pool on? having her arms raised will emphasize her athletic frame and the pose should look less posed
Yes we have got 2 chrome pool ladders, but where they are, the backgrounds might be slightly tricky, ie a door one end & the pool cover stands the other, but with a mess about with angles I could try something. She's a star to offer to keep coming, as she lives in Nottinghamshire & I'm in Northamptonshire. Thanks for the suggestion. I might be able to persuade a few of my other cycling friends to be guinea pigs for me as well 
wow - quite a body she's got there
I'm not really sure how hard it'd be to move place lights when you've got a pool there... we had somehting like this on Thursday - a girl on a fountain and water where I wanted to place a light!
Anyway - you'd predict this, but I'd be putting lights at a more dramatic angle for these - not too much different, but maybe get them at 7 oclock and 2 oclock. The middle one is about right - just a rim light off to the right at about 2 or 4 oclock and it'd lift her a lot.
nice work though
Thanks Ade, she does work out alot, what with the gym, kickboxing, being a very competative cyclist and a fireman ! Not alot of room round the pool, just the walkway you can see all the way round. But next time, we could try a bigger space to get the lights round more. I've just got the 2, but hoping I can do most things with those rather than adding a third.
I'm a big fan of cross lighting - as in having the 2 lights looking straight at each other then putting the model in the middle. Adds a lot of drama, but also can create a lot of shadow - which we discussed earlier. It's very marmite... though when you get it very wrong you can get huge shadows on the nose... I know, I've got loads of them!
ok - I'll bump the thread along again with a shot that I posted to get some reaction from the masses, and it did get some reaction from a couple of HDR/Architecture chaps.
So the premise...
Newish model
First ever meet
Breif - we're going to a park, wear something summery
Goal - get to know her, get some nice shots, hopefully build a relationship where she's happy to do TFCD work (for now) and maybe workshop work later.
So for this shot, I'd taken us to a place with lots of flowers - I know if you shoot in this direction, the sun goes through the flowers and lights them up - I've done landscapes here many times.
Decide to get the trees and her full body in for a dramatic effect - Canon 5D and 17-40 used. my position - led down on my back shooting up!
lighting - I'd just broken 2 triggers so down to the last one, this was a 580EX2 up high to the left - no modifiers on (the wind kept blowing the brolly over!)
So I get her eclipsing the sun for most of the shots, but for fun I move a bit and get the sun to just poke around her.
The result
Well - you get long legs and distinctive feet with the low angle and wide lens.
She looks loads taller than her 5'6"
Arm has disappeared in the sun
Flowers look pretty cool
Oppressive looking trees (by design) in the background....
So it's pretty quirky - she's used one of these as her profile shot in Model Mayem now, so the model really likes them (though one where the sun isn't poking through!), so what would you have done in this situation?
Thanks for the explaination Ade, don't know how I'd have worked out the shot, but the exposure here is excellent, with the model separated from the background and lit, the flowers glowing & the trees in silhouette. I'm not sure about the feet looking bigger than the head due to the wide angle, but it does work and I've seen a few like it, also the angle of her head and the shadow gives a slight double chin. I do quite like the position of the sun, it looks like she's holding it.
I've not done anything over the weekend as I've had 2 big races and am still sorting shots and have had a pile of prints delivered this morning that I have to mount and post.
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