Female portraiture (test shoot)

Dan.Hodson

Dan.Hodson

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Daniel Hodson
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I'm currently working towards finishing my degree and for my final project I am looking towards band/solo musician promotion. I've been building a network of people in a hope to build a diverse and interesting portfolio at the end of it.

Yesterday I met up with a young singer/songwriter called Meg O'donnell. Prior to meeting to shoot we had met up and discussed ideas.

Below are some images from the test shoot, feedback is welcomed.
One point I will raise is that of her facial expressions, she herself admitted she had trouble posing her face so that's something I need to tackle when we next shoot.

1.

Meg O'donnell - Singer/Songwriter by daniel.hodson., on Flickr

2.

Meg O'donnell - Singer/Songwriter by daniel.hodson., on Flickr

3.

Meg O'donnell - Singer/Songwriter by daniel.hodson., on Flickr

4.

Meg O'donnell - Singer/Songwriter by daniel.hodson., on Flickr
 
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she looks very cross and freaked out.
 
She looks uncomfortable in 2 & 3, it's her feet and hands. If you can give her something to hold perhaps next time, and not to have her feet facing inwards :nono:

There are loads of posing guides on the web, and I think if you do a search on here you may come up with some too.

#1 however I really like, although perhaps a bit of fill flash to brighten her face. She is a very pretty girl, so you should find it easy :)
 
I think the colours&tones are great and suit the music promotion/sing-songwriter brief nicely.

Does she play a instrument that you could get her holding/standing with/playing to help her feel more comfortable?
 
she is a great subject... lovely eyes... maybe crop in tight and capture those.

also, maybe try her standing with her back against a tree (if you like this setting you've been in) - she can then use the tree to put her hands around / against.

or have her sat on the floor against a tree - cross legged / knees together etc.. with you lay down in front of her getting a low perspective.

hope this helps.. in fact i don't know where those ideas came from because i'd be useless at directing a model in reality :bonk:
 
I appreciate the feedback folks, as I mentioned it was a test shoot and the 'official' shoot is yet to be scheduled. We have however arranged a 'show and tell' session so I can report back any thing that needs to considered on the final shoot.

Can anyone think of a way to work on her facial expression? There is feedback suggesting 'she looks very cross and freaked out.' that seems a little extreme, however I do agree she has a strange expression.
 
1 and 4 work for me and I agree with the comments about her looking uncomfortable. I do like her expression it could be in line with her style of music (I assume). I would start with 1 as a starting point and work from there. As someone else mentioned, focus on her eyes and don't be scared to get a tighter crop.
 
Nice lighting and colours, but her expression looks really strained.

I wonder if she's done many photoshoots before or not, maybe she just didn't manage to relax ?
 
eos1 said:
Nice lighting and colours, but her expression looks really strained.

I wonder if she's done many photoshoots before or not, maybe she just didn't manage to relax ?
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She hasn't done many shoots no, but she admitted she didn't like her 'smile.' She kept on mentioning how she was enjoying herself so I don't think it was a case of her feeling uncomfortable as the conversation flowed extremely naturally. I will bring the points mentioned to her attention and then she can go away and have a think about them.
 
Does noone else think they look at tad underexposed?

I liek how you are shooting into the sun on some of them but its also a little distracting. i agree with the others that 3 and 4 the pose is awkward, particularly 4.

I think my favorite is 2, could just do with controlling that flair a little bit and getting a bit more detail into her face. (y)
 
If she plays guitar, I think an acoustic would give her something to hold onto, and perhaps make her poses a bit more natural.
Its always hard trying to find something to do with your hands when you are uncomfortable in front of a camera.
 
Do you have any shots where she is not looking directly at the camera?
Just thinking that may help with the facial expression.
 
I like the contre jour lighting and the processing is fantastic. The compositions look good too but I'm not so sure on the poses. She obviously has a natural tendancy to kink her leg in but I'm not sure it looks good in a photo. Perhaps get her to think about that if you shoot again. Love the lens flare in #2, not so mad on it #4 and in #3 it looks horrible - sorry. Like the pose in number 4 - that seems to suit her well.

Overall a good effort with a couple of minor posing things, the troubled expression and the flare.
 
Dan.Hodson said:
She hasn't done many shoots no, but she admitted she didn't like her 'smile.' She kept on mentioning how she was enjoying herself so I don't think it was a case of her feeling uncomfortable as the conversation flowed extremely naturally. I will bring the points mentioned to her attention and then she can go away and have a think about them.
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The smile (or lack of) isn't the problem. The grumpy look that everyone is talking about is caused by her naturally thick eyebrows and equally natural frown lines heading up from the end of them. If you can get her to either relax her forehead a bit, or try something expressive with her eyebrows, you might well get a better result.

Having said that I think that the way that these have been shot and the artist herself have combined to produce a great set of potential album covers. They bring to mind some covers from the mid 70's along the lines of The (New) Seekers, Fairport Convention et al.

I don't think that she needs to be smiling (it often trashes a photo if it's forced) and I think that the sun flare is absolutely spot on for the style of picture that you're aiming for!
 
Again guys, thank you so much for the positive comments. I will take all of this on board and express to her how we can make the images better, she loves the contre jour lighting style and this is what we planned to do prior to shooting, she showed me a few examples which I feel we emulated with much success.

As for slight under exposure, I will attempt a fire through an umbrella with my speedlight next time so as to gain a little more detail in her face.

Once again, thank you.
 
I love 1 & 2, love the processing and think that either would look fine on a CD.
 
I love 1,3 and 4 - the processing and sunflares etc all look great. Her moody look I like and it suits her but I would agree with DemiLion - her brows are down (if you know what I mean). If she relaxes then they will lift everything without having to do a smile or anything more than she has done already. I also think they are slightly under exposed as already mentioned. Great work though for your test shoot..
 
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DemiLion said:
The smile (or lack of) isn't the problem. The grumpy look that everyone is talking about is caused by her naturally thick eyebrows and equally natural frown lines heading up from the end of them. If you can get her to either relax her forehead a bit, or try something expressive with her eyebrows, you might well get a better result.

Having said that I think that the way that these have been shot and the artist herself have combined to produce a great set of potential album covers. They bring to mind some covers from the mid 70's along the lines of The (New) Seekers, Fairport Convention et al.

I don't think that she needs to be smiling (it often trashes a photo if it's forced) and I think that the sun flare is absolutely spot on for the style of picture that you're aiming for!
Click to expand...

Spot on!

I'd also agree with some of the other comments about some of the contortion poses not looking too great.

Overall I think you as a photographer are on the right track with these, love the processing and even the flare, although sometimes its in the wrong place.

Definitely worth a reshoot, I think you have great potential here.
 
Fantastic shots, No.2 is my favoriate.

Some critique from my limited knowledge, would be worth seeing if you can shop the bag out in the bottow right of the photo, although not an issue if you're intending to re-shoot.
 
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